Internet Finds
51 Absolutely Fascinating Photos Of The Human Body That My Brain Actually Cannot Process
1. Did you know it’s possible to be born without fingerprints? It’s called adermatoglyphia.
2. It’s also possible to be born with a naturally forked tongue.
3. Everyone has a frenulum, a bit of tissue underneath their tongue that connects it to the bottom of their mouth. In some people, it may be too short or thick, impeding speech or tongue movement. Fixing it is easy—you just laser it off! Which is not horrifying at all.
4. This isn’t a photo of a body part, but it’s still wildly interesting to me. Did you know that people sometimes swallow tiny cameras so doctors can better understand what’s going on in their digestive tracts?
5. Eye injuries are equally cool and terrifying to me. Fun fact: metals rust extremely quickly in your eye and the rust must be separately extracted even after the metal is gone. This is why you wear safety goggles, kids!
6. Eye injuries can do permanent damage to your eye. Check out this person who had a hanger stuck in their eye 11 years prior.
8. And here’s what your eye might look like while it’s recovering.
9. If you’re like me, you’ve had multiple cysts removed from your head, but if you haven’t…well, prepare to be disturbed by what one of them looks like.
10. This person has screws holding their vertebrae in place due to their extreme scoliosis. Also, they have FORKED RIBS on one side, so that’s fun. Oddly, OP says they don’t experience much back pain!
11. Ever wondered what a plate and screw embedded into your body might look like? Basically, exactly how you’re picturing!
12. Most people have moles, but I bet you’ve never seen one like this. Still, as long as it’s always looked like this, it’s likely benign!
13. Did you know that some moles have no color at all? In fact, the only way you know they’re there might be because the area grows extra hair.
14. If you’ve never had stitches, you may not know that they often need more than one knot. This is likely overkill, but it still looks kind of cool.
15. But some cuts don’t need stitches anymore. You may have heard of doctors using staples — or even glue.
16. Did you know that wearing retainers can actually change the shape of your tongue?
17. After some surgeries and removals, you actually need to have a drain stitched into the procedure location to help drain fluids that build up in the surgery’s aftermath. In layperson’s terms, you have a straw sticking out of you.
18. I’m kind of obsessed with the fact that when you get a burn, your skin color can come back in dots. It just looks so cool.
19. Here’s how much eye color can change naturally over the years! These photos are from ages 2, 6, 17, and 29.
20. These metal bars used to be inside someone’s BODY. Basically, they were put there for three years to fix a sunken breastbone. According to OP, it felt like an extra bone, except it MOVED when they breathed too deeply and would sometimes get STUCK on the muscles inside their body.
21. Fun fact: if you get a bad sunburn that begins to peel and then you sweat, little pockets of sweat may form under that layer of skin. Cool AND gross, right?
22. People receiving radiation therapy often have to wear a mask of their face, and this 100% belongs on r/OddlyTerrifying.
23. In case you’ve ever wondered how much salt is in our sweat, you can see in this example where the moisture evaporated, leaving the salt.
24. For some reason, this is not how I expected a tooth nerve to look.
25. This photo makes me grateful I have never had a root canal.
26. This person still has an outline of their mother’s thumb imprinted on their arm after getting a serious burn from tipping over boiling water as a child. Their mother quickly grabbed their arm to run it under cold water, but the part where her finger was burned itself onto OP’s skin.
27. Did you know that if you sever a nerve in your finger, it could stop being able to prune?
28. Seeing this person with no middle joints in their fingers kind of freaks me out, but I also can’t look away.
30. Here’s what it looks like to have Raynaud’s — when you don’t get enough blood flow to your extremities.
31. Blisters due to extreme heat and extreme cold actually look remarkably similar.
32. Here’s what it looks like on an X-ray to have an extra finger.
33. And here’s what it looks like to be missing a finger. Fun fact: since your thumb is your most important finger, if you’re born without one, doctors will usually form one out of one of your other fingers.
34. You’ve probably heard the falsehood that blood is blue before it’s exposed to oxygen. It’s not — but it is MUCH darker.
35. This is what it looks like to have an extra artery in your ear (the photo on the right is after it was removed).
37. Sometimes, people’s hands will swell after exercise.
38. And *this* can happen to your hand (or any other body part) if you have CRPS disorder, which usually occurs after an injury.
39. It takes some people a long, long time to lose their last baby tooth — this person finally got their last one removed at 24. I actually still have a baby tooth because it has very long roots, and there is no adult tooth beneath it.
40. It’s also possible to have extra teeth.
41. And no, I’m not talking about wisdom teeth. Though this poor soul has SEVEN.
42. Relatedly, this is the kind of bruising you can see after getting your wisdom teeth out. Fun, right?
43. This is how nasty bruises can get from rubber bullets.
44. You’ve probably heard that you should elevate an injury. This will cause fluid to drain “up” — and you may literally be able to see that on the bruise.
45. This is how effective k-tape can be at mitigating bruising.
46. I guess this isn’t technically a body photo, but I still think it’s wild to see how arm hair collects sawdust.
47. This is what severe hives look like.
48. This is what a human head looks like cut in half.
49. This is how sharply a tan can change the color of your skin.
50. Did you know nearby scars can actually change how your nails grow?
51. And finally, in case you were wondering, this is what an octopus bite looks like.
