Grand Guignol and the Art of Zit Popping

Brought to you from the desk of MTG Co-Founder Tara Garwood...

I have a confession to make. I am a zit popper. I admit it. I love to pop zits. The big ones, the little tiny ones, I even try to pop the ones that don’t have a head yet. When I’m in line at the grocery store behind someone with a big cream-filled pustule on the back of his neck, I can barely restrain myself from reaching out and squeezing it. I know that it’s bad for your skin. I know that it can cause scarring. I know that I should just apply some zit cream and wait for it to go away. I’ve heard all the urban legends about popping a zit on your nose and exploding your brain. And I don’t care. Because I love the feeling that comes with that moment of success, the satisfaction of having destroyed that little fucker. Ahh, sweet victory! And I especially love the pain. That sharp, focused moment of pain when the skin finally breaks and the puss comes squirting out. Without that pain, how could we ever truly appreciate the feeling of relief that follows?

It occurs to me that there is something of the art of Grand Guignol in the cycle of zit popping. In Grand Guignol (as in porno flicks, incidentally), we know that the big moment of horror (or sex, in a porno) is coming right from the start.

First, the zit appears. An infected pore begins to swell, a small mound pressing against the underside of your skin. You know immediately that you will destroy this thing, it’s only a question of when. As the intruder grows larger and stakes its claim with an angry red blotch, you carefully watch for the telltale signs that it is ready for popping. The wait is agonizing, and the longer you have to wait for it to come to a head, the more you want to destroy the thing. When the moment finally arrives, the whitehead just breaking the surface of the skin, you revel in it. The bigger the pop, the more disgusting the spray of puss and blood, the more satisfying the experience. You are both actor and audience in the Grand Guignol saga of the zit. And you love it.

Sometimes, when I don’t have any zits to pop and dreaming about attacking the zit on my Blockbuster cashier’s nose isn’t enough, I like to visit a little site called, popthatzit.com. I highly recommend it for that vicarious thrill of the pop that just you just can’t get from anything else. Mmm, I’m starting to feel the urge just thinking about it…