Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I had no cause to get a cast as a kid ― but I have to admit I longed for the glamour of it. After all, certain wounds (including the graphite from a pencil getting embedded into your skin, usually after a fight) are childhood rites of passage.But while a broken leg will re-set, for some reason, pencil nubs seem to stay visible in the skin years after the offence occurs. According to Dr Karan Rajan, who regularly shares his professional knowledge on TikTok and in his book, that’s because the injury can become what’s known as a “traumatic tattoo.” A what now?In a recent TikTok, the doctor explained that “If you’ve ever been stabbed by a pencil, chances are you’ve got a permanent pencil tattoo.” These “traumatic tattoos” actually work in a similar way to the real thing, he says. “When you’re ruthlessly attacked by a pencil, microscopic shards of graphite get stuck in the dermis,” or the thick layer of skin right underneath the top part we can touch, Dr