Getting along with a roommate is often no easy task, especially when your roommate does something absolutely bizarre and unsafe.
A woman on Reddit who goes by the name Aitabeki took her dilemma to the AITA (Am I The A**hole) subReddit for some input.
The Original Poster (OP) asked:
“AITA for telling my roommate that she can’t clean her piercing with pasta water??”
She explained:
“Trust me I’m confused as heck to what went on but me (22F[emale]) and my roommate Becca (23F[emale]) had a major argument.”
“Becca got a piercing that got infected/irritated and after going to the doctor was told to clean it with a saline solution. All well and good right? Saline is just salt and boiled water? Cool.”
“But Becca wanted to save money after the doctors and not make up the saline and ‘waste water’ so she’s been using her leftover pasta water to clean her piercing???”
“Because that’s basically salt and water???”
“As soon as I found this out I told her that that’s disgusting and probably why her piercing is still infected but instead she called me out for judging her for ‘being thrifty’ and that not everyone’s ‘made of money’.”
“She’s refusing to speak to me until I apologise for ‘implying she’s poor’ but I’m fed up of hearing about her sore nipple if she’s just going to slather it with pasta water.”
“I just want to know if I’m the a**hole and overreacting for refusing to apologise. I’m not a piercer so maybe this is actually common practice and I’m dumb??”
“The piercing was not done by a professional, her friend did it for her a few weeks ago.”
“I’ve given her pasta Recipe in a comment below and from the reactions I think I’m morally obligated to tell you guys please just don’t do this?? (It goes pasta, salt and then water.)”
“And about the money for the doctor visit, she asked her grandma to cover it? I don’t know much else about her financials apart from her paying her rent and half the bills?”
OP’s fellow Redditors were then asked to judge who’s in the wrong in this situation using the following acronyms:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
- NAH – No A**holes Here
As you might guess, not only was their verdict the easiest one in history, but pretty much everyone was either howling with laughter or gaping in disbelief.
“this is the funniest NTA I’ve ever seen omg. I wish I could take a peek into Becca’s mind to understand why she’s using pasta water??? Like, have you told her that as the pasta cooks, starch and stuff gets into the water, contaminating it? Would she be able to understand that???” —LeSqueenix
“I mean can’t she just boil the salt water take a bit out leave that to cool, and put the pasta in the pot??? I mean I get her understanding of double uses but C’mon man” —olive_maths
“NTA why can’t she just boil the salt water, remove some and then cook her pasta in it. I don’t understand why she waits until after she already put the pasta in there!?” —flufferfu**er
“Excuse me, hot water? Well look at money bags over here guys!”
“NTA and this is hilariously stupid” —Scamperillium
“I mean maybe Becca can use the pennies she saves from this to pay off the hospital bill when her nipple falls off or she gets gangrene or something in her breast tissue. Idk tho” —kiwibirb95324
“What I don’t get about this is, they’re roommates so surely they’re sharing the bills money so it’s a 1/3 of the basically negligible cost of a pot of water plus a little salt when salt costs like 50p for a massive thing anyway.” —bab_101
“NTA – Hahahahah pasta water. Honestly.. ok well, If you want to be -thrify- because you ‘aren’t made of money’ why not take a bit of the salty boiled water BEFORE you put pasta in it to clean it?! Then use your nasty crusty nipple water to make pasta. Problem solved.” —MarsWater5
“I have a lot of piercings, and every single one of them was screaming in pain at the thought. I can’t believe someone could be this stupid holy crap lmao.”
“Years ago I’ve had my lip piercing get infected during the healing process and I can’t even imagine the thought process behind wanting to put pasta crap all over your already irritated skin. Yikes. NTA OP, this is insane.” —Meh75
“Becca is maybe the dumbest person on earth and she owes me an apology now.”
“I have pierced nipples. She needs STERILE saline. She could get an infection and literally lose her breast. If you’d like, I can message you to give you specific aftercare instructions.”
“NTA” —TallCombination6
“It’s… salt. And water.”
“Salt. And. Water.”
“How much does she think that costs?”
“As for whether this is common practice or not – I’m not pierced, but I’ve made plenty of pasta. In addition to water and salt, it also has yeast/starch residue in it (from the actual noodles). Yeast infections are most definitely a thing. Balance of evidence says you’re right, and your roommate is being a m****.” —T1s1phon3Aaronz
“NTA, she’s being ridiculous. The 6 cents she is saving by getting a fresh cup of water and putting some salt in it is going to be offset by the thousands of dollars in doctor bills when it continues getting worse” —HellblazerHawk
“NTA. But what? She has enough money to buy a piercing, but not enough to buy the $.0006 of salt and $.00009 of water? Seriously, a container of salt is $.69 and tap water is somewhere in the realm of $.003 per gallon. It’s not the cost she’s worried about, it’s the tiny bit of extra effort. Just wow.” —Stiggalicious
“I think it’s a mindset from being terrified of poverty or struggling with money. She can splurge on a piercing but she has to boil the water, pasta and salt at the same time because it’ll cost less.” —Readingreddit12345
“Uuuuuuh, NTA?”
“She’s clearly projecting her insecurities about money onto you. This is legitimately disgusting, and she’s going to hurt herself by doing this.”
“Don’t make substitutions for doctor’s treatments without checking with your doctor first.” —jacano5
“I, what the f**k did you just make me read? No, no, no, no, and another no.”
“NTA. This is absolutely where the infections are coming from. If she can’t afford bare minimum after care for a piercing, she can’t afford a piercing and shouldn’t be getting them. Especially with nipple piercings, those have a tricky enough healing process without slathering them in germ food.” —RestaurantNo7749
What else is there to say here? Please do not clean your infected nipple piercings with pasta water.
Just… please don’t.