three embroidery needles. Photo: VCG

 A 55-year-old man who had a prickly sensation in his posterior for more than 10 years finally discovered the cause was eight embroidery needles embedded in his rump.

The retired worker, surnamed Chen, is a resident of Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province, had an X-ray taken at a local hospital, which to his surprise showed the embroidery needles hiding in the soft tissue of his right butt.

Chen immediately recalled how at work one day 10 years ago he fell first into a rubbish heap, according to a report of Xiaoxiang Morning Post based in Changsha.

He even remembers falling on the needles and pulling some of them out himself. He thought he had plucked them all as he didn't feel any pain at the time. 

The newspaper said the operation on August 15 to remove the remaining needles lasted a full four hours. A photo of the recovered needles shows they had turned black and appeared to be thicker than they likely would have originally been. 

Netizens were surprised Chen could bare a pain in the butt for such a long time. "How can he persist not to go to the hospital," a netizen wrote on Sina Weibo.