She’s giving her own manicure skills a thumbs-down.
A TikToker claims she lost an entire fingernail after performing an at-home gel manicure that landed her in the hospital.
Lana, who goes by the username @lanalovessushi, shared a video showing an infected thumbnail, which she said became extremely swollen and red after she cut her own cuticles.
“When your nail tech says don’t cut your cuticles … listen to them,” she wrote over the top of the clip, which has attracted 272,000 views since it was posted last month.
She followed up with another short of her thumb wrapped in a huge bandage and gauze, lamenting, “Update: they removed my whole nail.” Lana’s pain gained 15 million views — and the doctor apparently let her keep the removed nail “as a keepsake.”
Some self-described nail technicians offered theories in the comments, warning readers they should never cut their own cuticles.
“As a licensed nail technician, what people mistakingly refer to as ‘cuticle’ is actually living tissue,” one user wrote.
Another alleged professional agreed: “I work in dermatology (and nail clinic). Nail services are the root cause of 99% of the problems people come in for.”
One TikToker suspected Lana may have used unclean tools. “This is most definitely not from only cutting your cuticle, there was unclean tools + cut tissue,” the user speculated.
The Mayo Clinic and the American Academy of Dermatology warn against cutting cuticles at home or in a nail salon, as dirt and bacteria can become trapped in the skin, which can lead to infection, according to Healthline.
In a follow-up video, Lana shared some theories about what went wrong. She said she felt like she got “carried away” with the cutting. She revealed she has been giving herself gel manicures for about two years.
“I usually cut the cuticle,” the TikToker explained. “I push them back, and I’ll just cut off the dry, dead skin, but I do get carried away sometimes ’cause you start snipping. You start snipping it off, and then it lifts, and it keeps lifting, and then there’s more skin, and you just keep cutting.”
Lana said that after she finished her manicure, her right thumbnail was quite “sore,” but she didn’t think much of it because it’s been that way before.
However, this time was different as the soreness became increasingly worse, she divulged, and the skin around it became “puffy,” leading her to go to the emergency room.
“Eventually, it was just so painful, I couldn’t do anything with the thumb,” she moaned. “Eventually, I got scared.”
This is not the first manicure to go wrong. One woman claims she almost lost her thumb after contracting a staph infection when her nail tech allegedly mistook her real nails for acrylics.
“Cheating” on a nail tech and attempting a DIY manicure has led to major problems lately, with one woman showcasing her “Humpty Dumpty nails” and another her depressing baby-pink claws within only the past week.
