A more controlled version of "pencil fencing" (qv). At primary school, someone said that if you poked your skin with a sharp pencil, a bit of the lead (ie. graphite) would be left behind under your skin, which (as far as we knew) was a real tattoo. We all tried it, but, speaking personally, any marks that were made just washed off. Easily.

This is not entirely true. I went out with a girl who had been stabbed viciously in that flap of tissue between your thumb and index finger, by a particularly malevolent little shit. She was left with a permanent little lump and a mark that is, to this day, distinguishable as pencil "lead". Curiously her best pal, who was born in a whole different continent has one as well.

NO! It's true. I once jammed an extending pencil into the back of my friend Phillip Gartland's hand (for no real reason that I can remember). He still has the little bit of graphite lodged there.

Pencil tattoos are possible. I have a mark on my hand where somebody at primary school tried to stab me with a pencil, and trying to stop them get me in the chest with it, it went into the palm of my hand. I presume it's a bit of graphite, but it's quite deep and doesn't cause any trouble, so I've left it there, but it's still clearly visible over 15 years later.

When I was at primary school (aged about eight, I think) the class maniac stabbed me with a freshly-sharpened yellow pencil. The lead did, in fact, break off under the skin on my arm. I was terrified that this would result in me dying from lead poisoning.

So far it hasn't, but the yellow mark was clearly visible under the skin for years afterwards. Beats me why I never told my parents about it, since I was so scared.

not a pencil, but blue oil paint. Take pot of paint, mix well with fork. toss fork over head in manner of bride with posse. it just might embed itself in Leo's hand and leave a blob of blue oil paint beneath the skin for ever.

In fact it did work, as i found out by accident. I was trying to poke the guy who sat next to me - he's now a lawyer, so i won't say his name - in the leg with the blunt end to get his attention, and he jammed my (very sharp indeed) pencil back into the top of my thigh. It bled. To this day I have a black mark on my right thigh where the pencil left graphite in the epidermis. The moral of the story is you always have to suffer to get a tattoo. And vicious little sods go on to become lawyers.

I once tripped over whilst carrying a newly sharpened pencil. The pencil stuck in my head just above my right eyebrow, and to this day I still have a blue-green circle there. So pencil tattos are possible, you just need to really stab yourself to acheive one.
Kim

I was in fact stabbed in the face with a monstrously sharp pencil. Six weeks later I had to have many small fragments of graphite removed from my face because they already beginning to make a dark blotch on my face. I carry the scars to prove that pencil tatoos can happen!

Anyone wishing to inflict a pencil tatoo should aim for the back of the neck, as the mark will go unnoticed until too late!

I have got a pencil tattoo, but not obtained deliberately. Rather, 20 years ago, Richard Hindle stabbed me very hard in the leg with a pencil, and then snapped the leg off. In the end it healed over, and now I have a grey dot on my leg.

This really does work - my friend is 23 and still has a HUGE piece of lead (graphite?) in his palm..

Well I have one in my leg. And so does my mum.

I actually have a black mark on the palm of my right hand from accidentally stabbing myself in the hand with a graphite pencil, and snapping the tip off. Not interesting in itself, until I reveal that it happened while I was participating in crap ITV kids gameshow 'Knightmare', and I was forced to sit through a 10 minute filming session trying not to bleed in front of the camera.
(I would like to also point out that beardy dungeon master 'Treguard' is not above making cheap fart jokes to make 14 year old children laugh, to his credit).

Achsly, in infants school, during a particularly rambunctious episode of running round the classroom throwing anything you could lay your hands on, my friend will had the bad fortune to have his forehead speared with a sharpened pencil. It remained there for several seconds punctuating Will's stunned expression and the pencil mark remains to this day. The only natural nickname, Lead Head, sadly fell out of favour during teenage years.

Having thwacked Troy around the back of the head once to often in a rather dull chemistry lession, I was quite surprised when he span round and stabbed me in the knuckle with a specially sharpened pencil. Pertinently, I still bear a small grey mark at the site of the incision.

Funnily enough, I did this when I was seven. Dropped a pencil, whipped my hand down to catch it and ended up with the tip of the pencil embedded in my palm. Was convinced that I was going to die of lead poisoning. (All the kids in the class spent the next week convincing me I was going to die, anyway). It's still in there, and I'm not dead yet.

Just for the record, when I was about eight I managed to stab my self in the hand with one of those insanely sharp pencils that you don't sharpen, you just pull out the blunt lead, and stick it in the end, revealing a fresh new lead. Anyway, I actually did this twice and and now, at 26 you can still see to pencil coloured dots, one on each hand. Thus proving potentially a pencil tattoo is plausable.

A sharpened pencil in my pocket accidentally gave me one of these ten years ago. You know you've done it right if you cry. Still hasn't faded a bit.

Actually, toughs could make "prison tattoos" with pencil lead, vaseline, and a compass. Those bitches can't be lasered off, or so I hear...and I believe it, as I know a 76-year-old with 'em from his own misspent youth.

I was stabbed with a pencil by my mate Mark, bastard poked me right in the palm of my hand with a freshly sharpened HB. Bleeding, I was sent to the school nurse - she told me I had a little splinter of pencil lead stuck in my hand and that it would come out within a week. 20 years later and I still have it. Mark gave me nits too, on several occasions... but I don't still have those.

For best results get yourself stabbed unawares twixt digits(the webby bit)by fat Edmund Lamb, results last 'til you're 33!