Here’s Why Paper Cuts Hurt So Much
I took a couple days off last week and did some work on the gutters at my house, and I took the time to get out the necessary tools to trim some dead branches from the maple trees in the front of my house.
While marking off the list some of the honey-do's that my wife had made up for me, I came out of the work that day with skinned-up knuckles and a few other cuts and scrapes on my hands. But I swear, those didn't compare with what later in the day brought me to my knees...a paper cut.
Ever get a paper cut and wonder why in the dickens that thing hurts so much? We've finally found the answer to this age-old question.
For the most part paper cuts typically occur on parts of our bodies that are the most sensitive, such as the fingers, lips, or tongue. So there's your first reason why they always seem to hurt so much.
You have to consider that our brains even have specialized areas to receive signals coming from these parts in high definition. So the pain is multiplied each time we receive a paper cut.
In comparison, when a knife cuts your skin, it leaves a clean cut. But when you receive a cut from a piece of paper, it leaves a trail of destruction.
The cut ususally isn't deep enough to leave the wound to scar or to scab up. No, it just leaves the wound open and with you using your fingers, hands, lips or tongues more frequently, the nerve endings are left exposed.
So what's the most important tip? Exercise extreme caution around stationery!