Emily Brown
Twitch streamer xoAeriel left internet users disgusted after she shared a video of herself confidently licking Seattle's famous gum wall.
Located in Pike Place Market, the gum wall is exactly what it sounds like - an entire wall, packed to the brim with pieces of old, chewed gum.
It's absolutely covered in the spit of thousands of people, but that didn't stop Twitch streamer xoAeriel from sticking her tongue out and licking the wall like an ice cream cone in a video shared online this month.
Not only did xoAeriel lick the wall, but she also grabbed hold of a long piece of gum hanging down from the wall and started tucking into it like it was fresh out of the packet.
The thought of even touching another person's piece of gum can be enough to make you queasy, so it's no surprise that viewers were left horrified after seeing xoAeriel's video.
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"I wish I could unsee this," one person wrote after watching it, while another added: "This makes me want to puke."
"This is disgusting like wtf," wrote a third.
There's probably not much I could say to make this video any less gross, but there is a slight saving grace that came to light after xoAeriel shared her initial video.
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After being hit with a barrage of questions about whether her video was real, xoAeriel shared a follow-up post on Instagram to explain that she'd actually chewed more than 100 pieces of gum herself to stick to the wall.
It was the portion of the wall newly decorated by her own gum that she then licked, meaning she wasn't actually making contact with as much stranger spit as it initially looked like, though there were almost certainly a lot of germs still involved.
"So it's still kind of disgusting, and I did get really sick from it, but I didn't actually lick random people's gum," she explained.
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xoAeriel also shared a clip showing her chewing countless pieces of gum, before using gloves to stick them to the gum wall.
The explanation wasn't quite enough for all of xoAeriel's viewers to forgive her, with one person saying it was 'still so gross', though others said licking her own gum was more 'reasonable'.
I probably shouldn't need to tell you not to try licking the wall yourself - even if you have covered it with your own gum first - but on the off chance you're still thinking about it, just remember that xoAeriel got 'really sick' as a result.