r/lifehacks • u/mrflamingosaurus • Mar 20 '23
If you get splinters in your fingers, try using your phone's flashlight like this, you will see them much better to remove them
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u/marc6854 Mar 20 '23
My mother used to tell me that if you did not remove a splinter, it would travel to your heart and it would kill you.
I would panic when I got one. I never moved when she would take them out.
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u/_Mobster_Lobster_ Mar 20 '23
My dad got a splinter he couldn’t get out (he was working on it for like 2 weeks) and he said it was dumb to go to a doctor for a splinter. Then he ended up in the ICU for over a week because he had blood poisoning from the splinter. Definitely good to remove them asap!
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u/Tihsdrib Mar 21 '23
I got a small splinter in my finger between my knuckles about 15 years ago and I could never get it out. It’s still there just chillin under my skin. Never had any issues with it, maybe because I used to be a machinist and worked with metal all day for a living?
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u/kiki7865 Mar 21 '23
Same here, except it was maybe 2-3 years ago? My skin just grew over it and I guess it migrated since I don’t really see it anymore
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u/reversejoerogan Mar 21 '23
What is a splinter?
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u/wikipedia_answer_bot Mar 21 '23
A splinter (also known as a sliver) is a fragment of a larger object, or a foreign body that penetrates or is purposely injected into a body. The foreign body must be lodged inside tissue to be considered a splinter.
More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splinter
This comment was left automatically (by a bot). If I don't get this right, don't get mad at me, I'm still learning!
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u/Teejaydee3 Mar 21 '23
I was told that if you didn’t remove it, you would eventually have One of your extremities removed.
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u/Jagsoff Mar 20 '23
I been doing this for years, but only to make my scrot look like batwings. Finally another use!!
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u/2-more-weeks-bot Mar 20 '23
You ever do the mouse on the trampoline?
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u/ElleJay74 Mar 20 '23
Not being a scrot-haver, I MUST know what "mouse on trampoline" is!
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u/2-more-weeks-bot Mar 20 '23
When a scrot-Haver stretches said scrot out to make it flat and bouncy like a trampoline. Then using both hands on the left and right sides of the scrot-o-line bounce the flaccid mouse.
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u/ElleJay74 Mar 20 '23
Kinda wish I was a scrot-haver right now
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u/ElleJay74 Mar 20 '23
Also? My phone no longer attempts to correct "scrot" to anything else, so... yeah
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u/2-more-weeks-bot Mar 20 '23
Yeah mine wanted an “a” in there and I was just following suit so I manually had to correct those tbh. I’m good with agreeing that the “a” is acceptable if you are too?
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u/Hot_Drummer7311 Mar 20 '23
Scrotum.... that was me seeing what "scrot" would autocorrect to. Guess mine wants to be all proper and shit. 🙄
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u/2-more-weeks-bot Mar 20 '23
I feel like we may need to lean on the cell phone industry for some consistency here
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u/Hot_Drummer7311 Mar 20 '23
These are the real issues we must focus on. Scoots Unite!
Damn autocorrect... SCROTS Unite!!!!
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Mar 20 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/GrimReaper006 Mar 20 '23
I did too. But as in a lot of things it just doesn't occur to me to connect dots.
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u/CheekyShaman Mar 20 '23
Me too. I had one of those little Maglite torches- and I was a borderline feral child, so searching for and pulling out splinters was part of my daily routine.
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u/Brief_Description_19 Mar 21 '23
Everyone did but this is the first time I've seen a practical use-case for it.
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u/Scary_Preparation_66 Mar 20 '23
What kind of splinters are you getting that you need to do this? 😳
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u/mrflamingosaurus Mar 20 '23
Small ones that are difficult to spot
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u/twoPillls Mar 20 '23
I used to get them all the time when I worked in a factory cutting wood on a router. I wish I knew about this trick then because I spent a lot of time digging around my hand with a box cutter trying to find them
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u/PokemonHater69 Mar 20 '23
I also got a wood splinter stuck but i managed to remove it.I have a brown streak on my nail now and I think there is still a small part left deep inside. What do you think i should do op?
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u/88Dimensions Mar 21 '23
Im expected to see a splinter, can’t even see the bones in my finger doing this. 10/10 won’t do again
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u/LoGo_86 Mar 20 '23
Once I had a glass splinter in my finger, only time that method didn't worked. It was a ducking painful 3 mm invisible dagger.
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u/The_camperdave Mar 21 '23
If you get splinters in your fingers, try using your phone's flashlight like this...
How am I supposed to hold the phone, the tweezers, and the finger with the splinter all at the same time?
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u/TomsRedditAccount1 Mar 21 '23
Put the phone down on a desk or something with the torch (I refuse to say "flashlight") facing up. Put the splintery finger across the light. Tweeze with the other hand.
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u/the_useful_comment Mar 20 '23
I like turning on the room lighting rather than life in flashlight mode but who am I to say my way is better.
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u/bugaloo2u2 Mar 20 '23
What exactly are you using? Looks like red light. My phone doesn’t have red light.
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u/LovingLibiral1776 Mar 20 '23
This doesn’t really work that well. Basically your finger is turning into a diffuser when you do this. This obfuscates all things in your finger, it’s not an X-ray. For example, this doesn’t show where bone, blood vessels, or any other tissue is located.
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u/Fewdoit Mar 20 '23
You will another flashlight to find the needle or whatever else you use for removing the splinters in this dark 🙂
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u/Jagsoff Mar 20 '23
I been doing this for years, but only to make my scrot look like batwings. Finally another use!!
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u/North_Category_5475 Mar 20 '23
That is brilliant
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u/The_camperdave Mar 21 '23
That is brilliant
Well, the flashlight is. However this technique, if it works, will only work on splinters on your fingertips.
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u/JediNinjaWizard Mar 20 '23
At first, I thought you had a sunrise occurring in your phalanges. I realized it was, in fact, a fingernail.
I am not a smart man.
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u/FuckinNogs Mar 20 '23
This apapp is amazing for splinters and for blind people who don't like bringing glasses to restaurants
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u/512atxguy Mar 20 '23
Make a slight opening with a needle. Put ear wax on the splinter when you go to bed. It typically will be gone in the morning. This works best with small splinters
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u/French_baguette_0 Mar 20 '23
I do this for ingrown hairs. Saves me from digging around the swollen spot looking for the source of pain
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u/New-Difference9684 Mar 21 '23
Hold a light up to the bottom of your chin while in a dark room. It’s way cooler than trying to look at a splinter in a finger.
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u/bowingkonk Mar 21 '23
Works on your balls too. Before anyone asks, I was locating an ingrown hair.
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u/Ok-Seaworthiness7207 Mar 20 '23
So where's the splinter, can't see it.