Here’s why girls are putting glitter on their tongues, and why that’s not a good idea

Allow us to introduce you to glitter tongues.

They’re popping up on Instagram — wet, shiny, slabs o’ tongue sprinkled with shiny glitter.

“Much like how we used to intentionally rub Ring Pops all over our tongues just so we could reveal that special blue raspberry tint once we opened our mouths, glitter tongue turns your smile into a surprise-inside treat,” notes PopSugar.

“Since you have to open your mouth to show off this trend, we like to think of glitter tongue as an aesthetic manifestation of inner beauty.”

The glitter tongue craze reportedly picked up steam after Australian makeup artist Jacinta Vukovic made a mistake while painting her lips and posted a photo of her oops to Instagram.

“I got glitter on my tongue, so I thought I would embrace it and make it the main focus!!” she gushed on Instagram, where she posted a photo of her fashionable “glitter tongue.”

Glitter tongues look like this ...

And this ...

And this ...

They begat a headline like this: “Glitter Tongues Are Proof The Glitter Instagram Trend Has Gone Too Far.” (Refinery 29)

Glitter tongues follow in the shiny footsteps of “glitter boobs,” “glitter beards,” “glitter butts” and glitter-bombed vaginas. They’re mostly a girl thing, though at least one male glitter tongue has licked up a few likes on Instagram.

But this trend could have fashionistas sticking their stylish tongues out at the doctor’s office and saying “ahhhh,” something to consider “before you go and squeeze glitter glue down your throat,” writes PopSugar.

Just like when women started bizarrely sprinkling glitter inside their private parts, this style trend comes with a warning.

“Most glitter products aren’t edible and therefore should not be put on the tongue, as it is likely even a small amount may be swallowed,” Adam Simon, chief medical officer at the online service Push Doctor told the Daily Mail.

Here’s the rub: Glitter is made of plastic, a substance the body can’t break down, Simon said. Swallowing it could cause a stomach ache, constipation or something more serious if there happens to be bacteria on the glitter, he said.

Even makeup artists add an asterisk to this craze.

“Eating small amounts of glitter, which are made of tiny plastic pieces, every once in a while isn’t harmful, but there’s always risks with anything. In this case, a stomachache,” makeup artist Andrea Whittle told Bustle.

And glitter made from glass? It’s a really bad idea to put that on the tongue.

“If you’ve swallowed glass glitter, go directly to the hospital,” notes Mental Floss.

Simon recommends using one of the newer, digestible edible glitters, made of food-based ingredients such as colored sugar or gum arabic, according to the Daily Mail.

“I couldn’t swallow the whole time I was trying to get a good picture,” Vukovic, the makeup artist who started this craze, told PopSugar, which also notes that the easiest way to remove body glitter is by pulling it off with adhesive tape — slowly.

This story was originally published August 29, 2017 at 12:39 PM with the headline "Here’s why girls are putting glitter on their tongues, and why that’s not a good idea."