Every so often, a new TikTok trend will have parents and police concerned as it seems to encourage destructive behavior in teens' schools and local communities.
But while the efficiency of the platform's algorithms can make such trends spread quickly enough to affect multiple communities at once, they tend to flame out just as abruptly because they're such obvious nuisances that even the platform itself cracks down on them.
For that reason, medical professionals and fitness guides are often more concerned about trends that appear to provide a health or aesthetic benefit to users, but actually pose serious risks to their safety and even their lives.
However, one tragic story illustrates that it's also possible for seemingly legitimate techniques to prove just as dangerous for viewers if untrained hands try them without understanding the associated risks.
After all, just because a skilled professional can make a dazzling idea look easy to execute, that doesn't mean just anyone can do it.
