A Japanese woman has been compared to The Incredibles’ Elastigirl because of her ability to stretch her earlobes enough to wrap them around things like umbrellas or selfie sticks.

Ayumi Takada, a 37-year-old woman from Tokyo, first noticed that her earlobes were super-elastic when she was in elementary school. It was a rainy day, and her hands were full, so she tried holding the umbrella with her ear as a third hand and it worked. That was only the beginning, as the Japanese woman has since used her unusually stretchy ear lobes to hold selfie sticks, calligraphy brushes, cleaning appliances and others.

Photo: Compass Media/Ayumi Takada

Ayumi’s elastic earlobes can stretch up to 4.5 centimeters, allowing her to wrap them around various objects and hold them into place, which may seem pointless, but can come in handy when both her hands are full. And while stretching the earlobes that much might sound painful, she claims it’s actually painless.

“People always ask me if it’s painful. But there’s no pain at all when pulling them or holding an item,” Takada recently told Compass Media. “The earlobe naturally bounces right back into place straight away.”

 

Ayumi, who used to be in the girl group Canary Club, doesn’t really know how she got her unusual ability. It could be a family trait, but then again she also played with and stretched her earlobes when she was little, especially when she felt sleepy, so maybe that helped a bit too.