Some things in life are universally regarded as gross—picking one's nose, smelly flatulence, abhorrent body odor from a week-long shower hiatus, etc. However, some people consider such behaviors as completely normal. What is their secret? How can they do things the rest of us are disgusted by with a smile on their face?
We all know a person who can do something that seems gross to the rest of us, without breaking a sweat. Maybe it's eating something horrid, like touching something disgusting, drinking something vile, or enjoying a nasty stench... Here are some stories from gross people, sharing the nasty things they can do happily.
Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!
#1 A Job Of Horrors
I clean up crime scenes and homes belonging to hoarders. Objectively, it is gross and horrific. Subjectively, I find it fascinating and satisfying, and at the end of the day, I know I’ve helped someone get through some of the most stressful times of their lives.
#2 The Ultimate Recycler
I will happily sift through the recycling bin every time one of my dumb roommates throw food into it. One year, in the dead of summer, one of them left a container of raw chicken in the recycling bin, which was kept in the garage. My poor husband literally puked at the smell when we opened the garage. There I went, tilting the bin and crawling in. I can't count the number of times I talked to them about how to recycle. I even made very detailed signs! You rinse the approved materials, let them dry, THEN place them in the bin. I'm not asking them to cure cancer, I'm just asking them for some help in saving the planet.
#3 Old Feet
Pedicures. I worked in a nail salon for about five years, and when I mention that the bulk of what I did was pedicures, everyone I've ever told goes: "Oh, I could never do that." But, to me, my favorite ones were often the grossest. Often, elderly women can't take care of their feet, and so without a trip to the doctor's from time to time, they can get massively neglected.
These women were the most appreciative of my work, and the least scrutinizing (working in the beauty profession has incredibly particular clients). They also usually tipped fairly well, but that was just a bonus. To me, the little old ladies who were just happy to have someone take care of their feet for them made me happier than any $5 tip could.
#4 Touchy, Touchy
I touch my eyeballs. After 20 some years of wearing contacts, I'm very comfortable with it. It makes getting eyelashes off my eyes easy peasy. Also, I recently got Lasik and being comfortable with my eyeballs being touched made the whole process a breeze!
#5 Signature Dish
I happily eat my tuna bean. Its basically just a can of tuna, a can of beans, mayo, relish, and some shredded cheese. Being broke made me get creative real quick. Plus, it's so good. One bowl of that will last me the whole day but the only drawback is that my flatulence smells like death.
#6 Lizzies!
I would catch lizards that are stuck inside my house. I think that's mainly a Florida problem, but a lot of people think they're gross. I have never minded picking them up and bringing them outside.
#7 Bare-Handing Pasta
When I'm home alone, my favorite thing to do is make a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs, plate the meal really nicely, sit down, and then eat the whole thing with my hand. Then, I take a shower and reenter society.
#8 A Butcher Of Men
I am an aspiring medical student and have spent hundreds of hours in cadaver dissection labs through various opportunities. I basically do the work of taking a donor's body (graciously donated for the good of educating future health professionals) and removing the skin, fat, and connective tissue so that the donor can be a useful teaching tool.
I've been called a human butcher by colleges outside of my field but I'm proud of the work I do. Being a good dissector is truly an art and takes a lot of time and patience to do it well. The human body is fascinating as anatomical anomalies happen more often than you would expect, and being able to present the body and its variation in the best way possible is something I strive for.
I also understand that it is definitely not for everyone, as the idea of removing tissue from deceased humans can be quite unsettling.
#9 Overpowering Flavor
Anytime I cook something Asian with fish sauce in it, I usually drink a few drops of it. I just sprinkle the bottle above my mouth after I've put it in the dish. I think it tastes good by itself, however, an old roommate saw me do this and he thought it was repulsive.
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#10 Good For A Few Days
My boyfriend says I'm gross because I don't wash all my clothes after wearing them once. Underwear, sure. You only get one wear out of panties. But t-shirts you can get two or three, hoodies even more than that, and dude, I'll wear my jeans all week long. Why waste water and quarters for a pair of jeans and a hoodie?
#11 Eight Legs Of Disgust
I LOVE eating octopus. I think it's absolutely delicious, and I always make sure I order some when I come back to the Chicago area. But the people I know in Iowa all gag when I tell them this.
#12 Social Grooming Instincts
If I see someone is peeling from a sunburn, it takes every ounce of my being to not beg them to let me do it for them. I love grabbing that little piece of skin and then just pulling it to see how big a piece I can remove before it breaks.
#13 A Hero Covered In Sick
I've helped literally hundreds of very tipsy people through their puke-filled evening. I can't count the number of times people have thrown up right on me. I've carried people to the toilet. I've cleaned puke off of every type of furniture. I've done laundry for people while they waited in the tub. I've caught vomit in my bare hands. I never saw it as a big deal.
#14 Strange Vegetarian
I'm a vegetarian and I've never had a taste for meat. I think it looks disgusting and I don't understand why anyone would have a great time eating it. That said, I love picking up the dead little critters my cats get. I like looking at them. They're usually animals you wouldn't see up close and it's cool to see the iridescence of pigeon feathers, the undercoat of a squirrel's tail, or how incredibly light a chickadee is. One time, a cat eviscerated a tiny field mouse and I could see the grass it had been eating in its tiny stomach. Show me a couple of pounds of ground beef though and it's game over.
#15 Chilled Legumes
I like to eat cold baked beans out of the can. People stare at me like I'm a criminal or something. They're just beans. But cold.
#16 Part Of The Job?
I’m a dog walker. On multiple occasions, I have walked into a client's home and encountered some sort of situation created by the dog. Either watery poop everywhere, trash all over their apartment or vomit on the floor. I always clean it up. I couldn’t leave the dog in a messy situation, it just wouldn’t sit well with me.
I’ve talked to other walkers and they all say that cleaning is not part of their job description. They let their clients know about the mess but don’t clean it up. I could not do that. It almost seems like neglect to me. I clean up the mess, let the client know, and they are always grateful and apologetic. I would happily clean up a dog's mess because it gives me peace of mind knowing the dog isn’t sitting in some disgusting space for the rest of the day.
#17 Lovely Flakes
I love to scratch dandruff out of people's heads. The bigger the flakes, the better. There are YouTube videos of people scratching dandruff that I like to watch too. Of course, it's not easy to find people who will let you scratch it. My grandmother used to always let me scratch hers before she washed her hair and when we were younger, my brother would let me scratch his. But now it's awkward. The best was when I once dated a guy who had a ton of it, but it was really bad so we had to get him to a dermatologist who helped clear it up for the most part. If I see someone with flakes, though, I have to catch myself so I don't start picking flakes from their hair.
#18 Here To Help
I helped a disabled or elderly unwell person clean themselves up after an accident. So many people say stuff like, "I could never do that," but in my head, when you walk through the door into a location where you're responsible for someone else's care, the idea of "I" or "me" goes out the window, and you exist only to improve other people's quality of life. Whether you believe you could do it or not doesn't matter.
#19 Straight Out Of The Jar
I love to drink dill pickle juice. It started out when I was adding it to my caesars, then using it as a chase when doing shots of whiskey. Now, I’ll just get cravings for it and drink it on its own in a small glass. It’s delicious.
#20 Tepid Chef
I eat Chef Boyardee at room temperature and I won't heat it up. It grosses everyone out, but it was just a habit I picked up when I was younger. It really is better at room temperature.
#21 One Man's Trash...
This is going to sound ludicrous, but frequently in my life, I have had to live very frugally, and I am not averse to taking something useful out of the garbage, whether it be a lamp or chair. Whenever people hear about this, they say, "Ew... You dumpster dive?"
#22 Disgusting Sucking
Okay, so I’m a respiratory therapist and have been for 10 years. Part of my job is to suction sputum out of peoples airways. It makes a very satisfying sound that absolutely disgusts most of the nurses that I work with. They’re always asking how I can stand it, but I’d rather do that than stick catheters in people's bladders any day.
#23 Long-Standing Cleanliness
I love picking up trash from nature parks and trails. I also clean ponds and areas where they replant trees.
"You're not being paid to do that, so why do it?"
I was born in the Virgin Islands and since I was young, I have been cleaning beaches, parks and nature scapes.
But picking up trash is disgusting, even more so when not being paid for it—from the perspective of others.
#24 Too Close, Too Squishy
If someone is having issues trying to get their contacts out, I’ll do it for them. I used to work for an optician teaching people how to get them in an out, so it’s normal for me.
Other friends freak out at the thought of going near someone’s eyeball.
#25 Squeeze Or Suck?
Not terribly gross, but I suck toothpaste directly from the tube, rather than spreading it on my toothbrush. I warned every partner I've had well ahead of time. Thus far, there have always been two tubes in the cabinet; the clean one and the gross one.
But honestly, mine is cleaner and isn't crusted with old gross toothpaste. I've also never had to fight to get the last bit out. And I waste less. So SUCK IT.
#20 Chocolatey Cheese
Put some dark chocolate chips in a little cup and microwave it. Get some Colby jack or Monterey jack cheese and cut it up into little cubes. Use the chocolate as a dipping sauce.
I've eaten that since I was a little kid and for some reason, I love it.
#27 Doggy Disgust
I've been in the dog grooming profession for almost 20 years, and the first three years were spent exclusively bathing and drying the dogs. Expressing anal glands isn't exactly the most pleasurable part of my job, but it really doesn't bother me, and I wasn't afraid to do it. Besides, I'm doing something that will prevent a lot of misery for that dog if it's not done. Similarly, I have no issues with resolving a problem that sometimes occurs with older male dogs. Owners either don't notice or refuse to fix it. It takes some aloe vera gel and some gentle pulling, but I'm always willing to help the poor guy restore his comfort. My coworkers don't generally share my willingness to set aside the gross factor and fix it themselves, so I'm the official "savior" where I work.
#28 Scabby Goodness
Twice now, I've picked off a scab and handed it to my best friend to eat. The first one was so big and chewy that it got stuck in her teeth. I was pretty surprised when she did it a second time.
#29 Not Caviar At All
I had to capture, sieve, dry, and identify thousands and thousands of tiny Scolytine beetles for a coffee pest study. My duty station's lab had no running water, so I just did it at my house in my kitchen. If you walked into my kitchen, where I also make my food, it would look like mounds and mounds of beluga caviar. When you work in Entomology for a while, bugs stop being gross to you. Except for centipedes, screw centipedes.
#30 Cold Tofu Is Worse Tofu
I eat cold, plain tofu right out of the carton. Cut a brick into chunks and go to town.
I love the slightly watery, creamy taste... like a light version of fresh mozzarella.
Most people who’ve seen me do this were repulsed.
#31 Wifely Duties
My husband has diabetes and several other skin ailments. He's also a big guy who is not flexible, so in order to make sure he has his limbs, I check his feet, clean his nails, and clip his toenails while also checking to see if he still feels them. Then, there's the fact that he has eczema in his ears which causes them to be very dry and flaky. I go in and also scratch off the dead skin. He particularly likes this one. I am not grossed out by any of this, mind you, considering that my family and I were also used to grooming each other like this all the time. Anything to make sure my hubby doesn't lose a toe!
#32 Too Thick To Blow
I pick my nose daily, but not in a little kid-esque way. I use a tissue and wash my hands after. The only reason I do this is that the mucus in my nose is so thick that if I don't do it every morning when I wake up, I literally cannot breathe. It's been this way for a couple of years now.
#33 Edible Pimple
Okay, this one is kind of gross. A lot of people pick their noses and eat boogers, but mine is probably worse. When I pop my pimples, I eat the stuff that comes out sometimes. It all depends on the texture. I like the satisfaction of squeezing those hard, long ones out and they give an awesome crunch when biting down. Also, the smell of puss is nice for me.
#34 Modern Salt Lick
I know this one is pretty gross and it's even a little embarrassing. My cousins taught me to do it and I've been doing it ever since I was little.
I love the salt and butter on the inside of a popcorn bag. I'll put all the popcorn in a bowl, rip the bag up, and in between bites, I'll have a piece of buttery salty goodness.
It's disgusting, but I NEVER do this in front of other people. I only do it when I make popcorn home alone and get kind of disappointed when I'm sharing a bag with someone because I have to "waste the best part" in my twisted mind.
#35 Vinegar Shots
I love drinking vinegar. I use the bottle cap of a bottle of vinegar like a shot glass. My friends are absolutely disgusted when I do this. If I drink too much, my stomach starts hurting but damn it tastes so good.
#36 Quick And Disgusting
When I was in high school, I went to a bible camp every summer. We had cabin inspections daily, so we would need to clean it before the afternoon service when a counselor would come to inspect. All of the other campers would make a HUGE deal about how disgusting it was to clean the toilets, so it was agreed that whoever cleaned the toilets didn't have to do anything else. Depending on what cabin you were in, you had to clean three to six toilets. Since they were cleaned daily, it took all of five minutes to get all of them, and they were never gross. I volunteered myself for the whole week every summer and just napped while everyone spent the next 40 minutes cleaning.
#37 Replace What Was Lost
I eat dead skin. It started when I was little. I thought that if I eat the skin that fell off my body, my body would use it to replace the lost skin. I just never stopped doing it.
#38 Gross Balancing Act
I like to eat peanut butter, jelly, and pickle sandwiches.
I use sliced dill, no butter pickle.
The acid from the pickle balances out the fat and savoriness of the peanut butter and mellows out the sweetness from the jelly.
But the brine and salty goodness compliment the sweet components.
#39 That Oily Smell
I used to work at our local landfill in the Household Hazardous Waste facility.
We chucked old paint cans into a giant roll-off truck bed for recycling. We poured gallons of cleaners into a large container for proper disposal. We used pick axes to open metal cans of kerosene, gasoline, turpentine, and other flammables then dumped them into a big container to be burned. Old cans of used oil were dumped in a big waste container to be filtered and reused.
But the worst was dumping off used cooking oil... Ugh... That smell is NOT pretty.
All the boxes came in leaking, covered in dirt and spiders, and usually, the oil got all over our county-issued jumpsuits. I don't think I have to describe the smell of working at the landfill for you to imagine it.
But you know what? As gross, smelly, and sweaty as that job was, I would do it for the rest of my life if I could live off the wages. I loved those guys I worked with like family, and I was in the best shape of my life. Still the best job I ever had.
#40 Too Much Red Stuff
I have an aunt who eats ketchup on everything. Everything. On corn on the cob. On salads. In sandwiches. She warms it in the microwave and pours it over ice cream. I've watched her squirt ketchup on a slice of watermelon, dip apple slices in it, and use it instead of tomato sauce on pizzas. The worst is her "ketchup soup," which is a can of Campbell's tomato soup, ketchup, and sliced onions. The more repulsed her audience becomes, the more gleefully she scarfs it down. Blech.
#41 Drain Sludge
When I moved into a new apartment with my roomie, we both noticed a smell coming from the shower. I figured the previous people didn't clean the drain when they moved.
I tried pouring some cleaning stuff down there and didn't work. So I stripped to my undies and put on the pink rubber gloves I got from my mother.
There I was: a half-naked, 23-year-old man, a bit too hairy and chubby, with his arm down the drain pulling out hair and other unpleasantries that I figured must have been there for years. There was black sludge and the most rotten smell ever.
My roomie came home from uni during my cleaning. He took a good look and inhaled. He about almost died. His face literally changed color and he looked extremely faint. While I noticed the smell and didn't like it, I didn't recoil as he did. He literally ran outside so he could hurl.
#42 Delicious Sauce
My buddy is a very talented chef. One day, while prepping for a BBQ at his place, he started making this smokey, spicy, sweet blackberry reduction BBQ sauce. He was like, here, try a taste. It was absolute heaven, so I kept walking by with a spoon, trying a taste every couple of minutes. I couldn't stop myself.
So I do the logical thing—I grabbed a glass out of his cupboard and ladled the glass with BBQ sauce to taste. I did this without thinking really, then a bit later, some people saw my glass and said, "Oh, that drink looks interesting, what's in it?" That's when I realized I was standing around at a party, obliviously drinking a glass of straight hot BBQ sauce like some sort of idiot-psychopath.
#43 Dead Donors
I’m an anatomist and recovery specialist at a tissue bank. In short, I cut dead people into pieces so that they can be used for skin grafts, tendon repairs, heart valve replacements, and about a million different research and education applications. Sometimes I go home smelling of peoples' insides and I’m often told that my work stories aren’t appropriate for the dinner table. But it pays well, I love it, and I get to help advance medicine and improve more lives on a daily basis than I thought that I ever would.
#44 If You're Hungry Enough...
Apparently, eating an untouched hotdog (that’s wrapped in tinfoil) that is sitting ON TOP of a full garbage can is gross? I don't know man, I had no food that day and the person didn’t want it. Call me gross but even in the garbage, as long as it’s sealed up and protected from the trash, food is food.
#45 Cleaning Or Drinking?
When I was a kid, I fondly remember a spray bottle full of vinegar that my mom would use for cleaning the windows. My sister and I would always act like thirsty dogs at the sight of it. We would stick out our tounges and my mom would spray the vinegar into our mouths. Years later in science class, I was flabbergasted when people showed disgust at the sight and smell of vinegar. Nowadays, we keep a big gallon of white vinegar and I occasionally take a big swig of it.
