Blood Writes: It's Not Smart For A Taekwondo Beginner To Spar With A Black Belt

Welcome to Blood Week. We put out the call on Friday for your tales of of blood, violence, gruesome injuries, near-death experiences, mayhem, and blood. Many of you came through with submissions, which we'll be posting throughout the week. If you have a story and/or photos to share, email [email protected], with Blood Week in the subject line.

Up next is Mike, who's got a gory tale of how his early martial arts days probably ruined someone else's college visit:

I got into martial arts through my friend Jon, who was a black belt in taekwondo. One day when I was about a year into training, we decided to go down to our university's gym to spar. Most colleges probably frown on students using their facilities to punch each other in the head, so we would find empty rooms and use them. On this occasion, we were in the wrestling room. We spar for a little bit and my mind wanders off at the exact wrong moment, result in Jon kicking me in the face, breaking my nose.

Blood starting pouring out. Thankfully, since we were in the wrestling room, there was gauze and pads available to stuff up my nose to absorb the blood. There was, however, a great deal of blood all over the wrestling mats. I take some paper towels and start mopping up my blood. As I'm on my knees cleaning the blood up, a prospective student and his parents walk into the wrestling room. We make eye contact awkwardly for a few seconds, and then the kid asks us, "Uhhhh....are you guys wrestlers?" We tell them no and direct them to the wrestling office.

Once the blood is cleaned up, my sinuses start feeling really clogged. I go to blow my nose over the water fountain in the room and blow a blood clot the size of my palm into my hand. One of the grossest things I have seen. It was partially clotted, so there were all these thick pieces of clot swimming in a mix of snot and blood.

The fun part after this was telling my then-girlfriend, who proceeded to call me an asshole for getting my nose broken.