Looking back, there was a lot of strange stuff going on in school that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense now.

As a recent discussion on Twitter has proved, being stabbed with pencils happened with a lot more regularity than we assumed – and there are people who still have the marks to prove it.

Still have a pencil mark from where I got stabbed in 5th grade. Not how I envisioned my first tattoo.. #imasurvivor pic.twitter.com/u806nbqO4P

— Emily Hogan Thomas (@eahogan) September 30, 2015

It was a surprisingly loaded question from @Los_Writer on Monday got people talking about the time they were stabbed in school and left marked for life.

@Los_Writer wrote: “Hello I’m looking for people who have led [sic] from their pencil stuck inside their bodies”. He was subsequently met with hundreds of replies.

Happened during 3rd grade, walked to the nurse with the whole pencil still in 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/AS1WwOx6bG

— Linhsanity (@linnyxtee) January 8, 2019

Some of the stories were unbelievable. @noampao wrote: “I had a pencil stabbed in my scalp in fourth grade and five years later I was scratching my head and a piece of led [sic] fell out.”

@pastahellraiser meanwhile argued for the legitimacy of his mark: “its in my right knee. my dad also has pencil lead in his right knee it is not genetic.”

(in middle school) i was sitting next to this boy i had a crush on and he stabbed me in my leg with his pencil after i laughed when he fell off his seat pic.twitter.com/4bFuKvW6hx

— 𝖆𝖉𝖗𝖎𝖆𝖓 (@toaste_oven) January 8, 2019

It seems people being attacked by crushes was a startlingly common occurrence. @elhokage wrote that she was “stabbed in the hand by a boy I liked in the third grade”.

Video game-related stabbings also happened, according to @_realkolworld: “Brother stabbed me smh cuz I cooked him in Yu-Gi-Oh”.

https://twitter.com/tuna_helicopter/status/1082758234384097282

Dozens of Twitter users were eager to share photos of their marks. Some were happy just to know they weren’t alone.

@nanatat07 wrote, “Omg my right thumb, I didn’t know this was a common thing”, while revealing her own dark ‘freckle’.

thought I was the only one pic.twitter.com/NaJ2uiTLc0

— madison limpus (@madison_limpus) January 8, 2019

Also shockingly common are accounts of self-leading. @thatxgirlxcass’ story is harrowing: “had a pencil on the floor that got stuck in the carpet at a weird angle and stabbed my toe!! i always figured it would go away by now but no”.

@pebbleys had a similar story: “middle school, stabbed myself w a sharpened pencil by moving my leg too close to my backpack on the floor”.

Hello. I got frustrated while practicing single digit multiplication in 3rd grade and decided to slam my head on the table. However, I hit my pencil that was sticking point up. It’s still here 11 years later. pic.twitter.com/ZrkKAsI8bS

— Samuel Hepola (@HepolaSamuel) January 8, 2019

Lead survivors might be comforted to know that the struggle of self-stabbing continues even for adults.

@Los_Writer head numerous tales of victims accidentally tattooing themselves with pencils as grown-ups.

Stabbed my finger today with a pencil pic.twitter.com/5vHQHmNJzx

— CA$H MONEY® (@cash_clavelle) October 21, 2014

Stay strong, marked ones – you are not alone.