The full context from Seanan’s Tumblr:

“The context stuff: This happened almost twenty years ago. I was nineteen then; I am thirty-seven now. I would not necessarily shove my finger into a blood-covered lizard’s mouth today (okay, I probably would, but that’s not the point). Cellphones were not yet common, and no one in our group had one. So all the people saying “pics or it didn’t happen” are literally asking why, twenty years ago, we didn’t say “hold on, the internet is gonna be big and full of liars, better go find a camera and snap some sweet pics while this dude is screaming and the lizard is freaking right the fuck out.”

Bowie (the alligator lizard in question) was not a fully mature adult when this happened. This means that his scales were smoother, making it easier for him to burrow, and that he was smaller than the pictures of adult alligator lizards that I’ve seen people adding to the tweet thread. He’s also long dead of alligator lizard old age, because again, twenty years ago.

TL;DR: Yes. Every reptile-related story I have told on the internet has been true.”