Reason woman can’t wear engagement ring to work leaves internet stunned

A woman’s alternate engagement ring has informed a whole new side of TikTok about the dangers of welding.

A video has gone viral after Allia (@_mustang_allie) shared why she wears a silicone engagement ring instead of her regular jewels to her work as a welder: the risk of “degloving.” Since the video has been posted, it has received over 15 million views and over one million likes. Allie posts frequent content about her life as a female welder.

“When you wanna wear your engagement ring at work, but you’re a welder,” Allie wrote in the caption. “No degloving here.”

People immediately flooded the comments with questions about what “degloving” meant, and why she had the flexible ring. Their inquiries were met with a sharp halt after some had googled the phenomenon.

Degloving, also called avulsion, is a traumatic injury that happens when the top layers of skin and tissue are ripped suddenly from the underlying muscle, tissue or bone. It can happen when a ring gets caught on an object, pulling the finger sometimes to the point of amputation.

In many manufacturing or even just manual jobs, degloving is a risk—and some are scared away from the possibility early on in their education with photos.

“Seeing photos of degloving during welding school will be forever etched into my brain,” @emilyy.pattersonn wrote.

“I saw *those* pictures when I took a brief woodcutting class in school,” @not_cat_thumbs wrote. “It’s etched into my brain. I’ll always remember to have my hair back and my jewelry off when using any sort of power tool.”

People weighed in from all fields about the benefits of silicone rings—and how, despite their arguably lower fashion status, they can be essential to keeping all the fingers intact. “My husband is a firefighter and I got him a silicone one for that same reason!” @nevanoodles wrote. “I’ve had to replace it twice, but he does still have all of his fingers, so it’s worth it.”

One commenter had a counter-perspective, though, based on a once-in-a-lifetime personal experience.

“I worked with windows before and had a slightly oversized titanium ring around my middle finger. Window slammed down, and I would’ve lost all my fingers on that hand knuckle down if not for the ring,” @khataclysmic wrote. “The slight oversize of the ring was just larger than my hand when flattened. So, I had enough room to slide it out. I have a picture on my old phone of the ring just holding the window up.”

Despite this rare case, though, most agree that in certain professions, silicone rings are the best bet. That doesn’t mean welders can’t make other fashion statements, though. In response to a question about acrylic nails while welding, Allie offered her experience.

“I’ve had them,” she wrote in the comments. “I just keep them short. I see some girls with them long. It all depends on your personal comfort, I’ve never had an employer say anything to me that I can’t have my nails done!”

Newsweek reached out to @_mustang_allie for comment via TikTok.