“Red” was unfortunately more than just a metaphor for Taylor Swift over the weekend, as fans took to social media after her Houston three-night stadium stand wrapped up to share photos and video of what looked like a gnarly injury to her hand midway through the second of three concerts in the city.
On Monday, Swift took to social media and acknowledged the injury, while downplaying it, much as she had done by going on with the show Saturday despite suffering what appeared to be a bloody incident during an off-stage costume change.
“For those asking how I cut my hand,” Swift said in a tweet, “I’m totally fine and it was my fault completely — tripped on my dress hem and fell in the dark backstage while running to a quick change — braced my fall with my palm. It was all very Mercury in retrograde coded. Don’t worry about me I’m gooooood,” she added, blowing fans an emoji kiss.
She added her thanks to the three Houston audiences and attached three photos from the gigs… none of them gorefests.
Just got to play 3 insane shows in Houston and I’m waking up smiling reminiscing about how much fun we all had. Loving this tour so much because of the passion these crowds put into it all – seriously can’t wait for Atlanta ☺️ PS for those asking how I cut my hand, I’m totally… pic.twitter/j3MK7twzdc
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 24, 2023
Naturally, attentive fans had a lot more context for when and where in the set the injury occurred… along with massive amounts of admiration for Swift going on with the show, despite what looked like a painful loss of skin that eventually required a none-too-sticky bandage.
One typically detailed account, from ace Twitter reporter @lovr_23: “For those wondering about Taylor’s wrist here’s what happened: She cut right below her palm sometime in the change btwn ‘Tolerate It’ -> RFI (‘…Ready for It). Her wrist is fine (at) the end of ‘Tolerate It’ and by the time she walks down the stage for RFI you see the blood near her palm. It continues bleeding through the rest of Rep,” the “Reputation” segment of the show, said the correspondent. “They put a Bandaid on it when she changes into ‘Enchanted’ dress but you can see it not sticking well… The Bandaid really starts falling of during red and you can see her start to hold the flapping bit down with her fingers by the end lol… During ‘Folklore’ quickchange they seem to wrap it with something to make it stick but then at some point during ‘Folklore’ the TOP of her hand starts bleeding. I have no idea how lol… When she comes back on for ‘1989’ there’s a proper Bandaid on both the top and bottom of her wrist and it thankfully stays the rest of the show :)”
How Swift was bleeding from both sides of her hand, per multiple fan accounts, seemed destined to remain an unsolved mystery. And then, just like that, it was solved, as @lovr_23 did some digging and further reported: “She didn’t cut the top of her hand, it’s a piece of red confetti stuck in the bandage. only under her palm was cut; (the red confetti) doesn’t appear until MTR (‘My Tears Ricochet’) … so I think it got there when she’s on the ground for illicit affairs. lol you can even see the shadow.”
No word from the U.S. government on whether Swifties might be retroactively put onto the Zapruder film to finally figure out the JFK assassination.
it continues bleeding through the rest of rep (can catch glimpses of it all the way thru lwymmd).
— sophia (@lovr_23) April 24, 2023
they put a bandaid on it when she changes into enchanted dress but you can see it not sticking well :/ pic.twitter/3UucpP5hmv
The obsession over Swift pushing herself through the remaining two-thirds of a three-hour-plus show despite literally leaving some skin in the game was not the only thing that had the performer trending in recent days.
On Sunday, the phrase “I AM DONE WITH TAYLOR SWIFT” became one of the top trending terms on Twitter, initially alarming many Swifties, before further search results made the context clear. It arose as a joke uttered by fans feigning upset (or at least seeming to be feigning it) over the fact that she chooses to do certain covetable surprise songs on nights in which they are not in attendance.
At Houston’s NRG Stadium, the offending tour one-offs were “Begin Again” and “Cold as You” on night 3, “A Place in This World” and “Today Was a Fairytale” on night 2 (the one in which there was a passing danger of blood drops on her guitar), and “Wonderland” and “You’re Not Sorry” on opening night. Three of those six Houston-exclusive songs — “Sorry,” “Fairytale” and “Cold” — were being performed live by Swift for the first time since 2013.
