Man’s ear stays green for 20 years. Doctors claim it is scar tissue until a dentist takes an X-ray: ‘I’m honestly kind of relieved and happy’

Imagine spending a significant part of your life wondering why one part of your body looks different from everyone else’s. In a TikTok video, Matt Aitia (mattaitia) revealed that this happened to him.

Aitia said an X-ray his dentist ordered showed that the green pigment on one ear, which had been there for over two decades, wasn’t “built-up scar tissue,” as doctors and dermatologists had previously suggested. The results showed that an earring’s push was left inside the ear, possibly causing an infection that turned the ear green.

Aitia expressed his feelings since the discovery. He said, “I tried to get tattoo removal for the color, and just, I was…always super annoyed when people would ask me, so I’m honestly kind of relieved and happy that now I know what it is and I can just get it removed.” He added, “I think I have to do some sort of plastic surgery or something like that.”

“It takes men way too long to figure things out”

In another video, Aitia revealed that he got his ears pierced at 10 and soon developed an infection, prompting him to take out his earrings. Then, over a series of videos, he documented deciding to have the back of the earring removed, scheduling an appointment, and eventually taking it out.

A video he uploaded to his profile that documented the surgery showed the doctor retrieving the piece of the earring from his ear, which was covered in gunk. In another, he revealed that the doctors told him that the green pigmentation on his ear was to remain and could only be removed through procedures such as laser treatments. In the same video, he also threw away the container containing the earring part into the dustbin.

In the original video Aitia uploaded, he received more than 400 comments. Some of them were curious as to how no one had been able to identify the root cause of his green ear. One person wrote, “Why did I immediately know it was your earring back but not the doctors?!” Another said, “The real question is how the hell did multiple doctors think that was scar tissue?” 

One person, on the other hand, made a general statement about men in situations like this. They said, “It takes men way too [sic] long to figure things out.’

A few people shared similar experiences. One person noted, “I had this happen when I was a kid! I had a huge lump and it was annoying. I went swimming and as my mum was drying me it started bleeding and popped out. Lump gone instantly.” Another said, “Reminded me of the pencil point I had in my arm for about twenty years before it blew up and had to be removed.”

In one of his videos, Aitia revealed that he had once filmed (he is a professional director) near an MRI machine while the earring piece was still inside his body. Fortunately, he had not reached the point where being near the machine with metal would be dangerous. Discovering the metal item saved him from potentially grave consequences.

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