I have a couple of the little suckers. In my ear, they start to hurt after about 30 minutes. Nose / mouth - no pain because there's more in between the two magnets. I still don't see how you could leave them on for so long that you'd have dead tissue on your ear / lip / groin.

Now, how someone could swallow both halves of the magnet, let alone at slightly different times, to clamp together portions of their interior is beyond me.

The article abstract from the EMJ seems to make it clear that this is actually a serious story and not some fluff designed to sell papers.

I just plain don't believe this. First, the blood circulation being cut off with a fake piercing would be so minimal it's not funny. Second, women have been wearing clamp-on earrings for millennia with no sign of problems. Third, unless these kids are managing to find some pretty heavy duty industrial-grade (but out of necessity very small) magnets, it is highly doubtful they could clamp any of their internals together especially with such strength as to cause perforations.

As part of a previous job I was required to buy these sort of super-strong magnets and they cost a hell of a lot of money. I think someone is creating 'news' just to sell papers.