Hoax Museum Blog: Body Manipulation

Ban Fake Tans! — The Baines School in Lancashire has decided to ban fake tans. From The Telegraph:

"The current trend for fake/spray tans does little to enhance the appearance of our young ladies," [Carol Robinson, head of the school] wrote. "We ask for your support in ensuring girls do not come to school looking varying shades of orange."
She claimed that fake tan went against the principles of the school, where staff strived to "promote natural beauty and contentment with one's own looks".
Her remarks have been met with cautious support with some of her more pale-skinned pupils at the school, which educates 1,070 children aged between 11 and 18.

Sounds sensible to me, and this seems like an appropriate place to post the pictures of the "Oompa Loompa Tan Lady" whose pictures have recently been circulating around the web. I don't know who the woman is, but as far as I can tell, the photos are real. Someone should have told her to go easy with the fake tan spray.


Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008.   Comments (8)

Girl cries crystal tears — Here's an oldie but a goodie (Thanks, Nettie!). This video from 1996 shows Hasnah Mohamed, a 12-year-old Lebanese girl who "baffled medical experts by producing crystals from her eyes."

Girl Has Crystals Coming Out Of Eyes


Fake? Of course. Hasnah's crystal tears were debunked by Joe Nickell in a 1997 Skeptical Inquirer article:

Hasnah, who claims to produce up to seven crystals a day, showed a collection of the allegedly apported rocks. From their rhomboidal shape and other properties, I recognized them as the natural quartz crystals generally known as "Herkimer diamonds." With the television crew being expected to arrive here the following day, I hastily made some phone calls and soon had acquired a handful of the gemstones.
Although such stones are indeed sharp - and I could see a dark red spot inside the girl's eyelid that probably represented a wound from one of them - I decided to duplicate the effect. All that was necessary was to pull out the lower eyelid to form a pouch and drop in a small crystal so that it rested, only a bit uncomfortably, out of sight. A tug on the lower lid causes the stone to come into view and then pop out of the eye. This I demonstrated at an appropriate time for the television camera, allowing their reporter to actually do the extraction himself. The effect was indistinguishable from the Lebanese "miracle."

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008.   Comments (44)

No tattoos in Jewish cemeteries — The New York Times debunks the myth that "If you get a tattoo, you can’t be buried in a Jewish cemetery":

The eight rabbinical scholars interviewed for this article, from institutions like the Jewish Theological Seminary and Yeshiva University, said it’s an urban legend, most likely started because a specific cemetery had a policy against tattoos. Jewish parents and grandparents picked up on it and over time, their distaste for tattoos was presented as scriptural doctrine.

But even if the cemetery thing is a myth, some scholars believe that tattooing itself is against Jewish law:

Rabbi Alan Bright, a spokesman for the Jewish Funeral Directors of America, dismissed the cemetery adage as “a load of rubbish,” but he said that tattooing was a no-no. He quotes Deuteronomy 4:15, which commands Jews to take care of their bodies, as evidence. But he noted that Jewish law prohibits many things that secular Jews do without a second thought. “The Torah prohibits anything negative that affects the body,” he said. “Smoking is more of a violation of Jewish law.” As are drinking alcohol in excess and overeating.

Not being Jewish, Jewish law has played little role in the fact that I've never gotten a tattoo. Though I have considered getting a small jackalope tattooed on my ankle.
Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008.   Comments (7)

Spiderman Tattoo — Photos of a Spiderman tattoo, showing an illusion of skin tearing away to reveal a Spiderman costume beneath, have been circulating around, prompting people to wonder if the images are real or photoshopped.

They are real. The tattoo is the work of Milwaukee-based artist Dan Hazelton. Check out his site for other examples of his work.

He very briefly discusses the Spiderman tattoo on his myspace page in response to a question from someone who asks, "can i get a tear out like the Spiderman one??" Hazelton responds:

please, no more tear outs. that tattoo is all over the internet and people are filling up my inboxes with all kinds of requests for comic or super heroes tearin out of them now. tear outs are a dated tattoo that the average public over used a long time ago. sorry but i dont encourage that.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008.   Comments (22)


Hand with no thumb — I found this picture on Puld.net, who writes: "The sources said this is not photoshopped or edited and this person really have no THUMB at all! I wonder how he “Thumbs Up” his friends?"



Update: Posted to the Hoax Photo Database.
Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008.   Comments (7)

World’s Largest Fake Breasts — The Telegraph reports that Guinness World Records has awarded stripper Maxi Mounds the record for the "World's Largest Augmented Breasts."

I gather this is a new category for Guinness, and it surprises me they would create it since they usually avoid awarding records for anything that might cause physical harm. For instance, they don't award a record for World's Largest Cat, because they're afraid people will overfeed their cats to gain the record. Nor do they award a record for sleep deprivation, so as to discourage people from staying awake for weeks.

Maxi Mounds gained the record thanks to her 36MM bust, which she achieved by inserting polypropylene string into her breasts. This augmentation technique was developed by Houston surgeon Gerald Johnson during the late 1990s, but has since been banned by the FDA.

Update: Via metro.co.uk: Maxi Mounds before and after. Too bizarre not to share. (Thanks, Nona)

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008.   Comments (26)

Unreal Beauty — The models in Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign (whose tagline was "we believe real beauty comes in many shapes, sizes and ages") may have benefitted from some "digital plastic surgery." From The Telegraph:

Pascal Dangin, a celebrated retoucher of fashion pictures, claimed the Dove women were far from au naturel. In an interview with New Yorker magazine, Mr Dangin, who runs Box Studios in New York, a company which retouches photographs and does regular work for Vogue, and the fashion companies Dior and Balenciaga, said that he had manipulated the photographs heavily. When asked about the four-year-old campaign, he said: "Do you know how much retouching was on that? But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive."

Dove's ad agency is denying it, insisting that they have no record of Dangin working on that campaign.
Posted: Mon May 12, 2008.   Comments (25)

Penis Theft Panic in Congo — Penis-melting Zionist Robot Combs have struck in the Congo. Minus the Zionists and the Robot Combs. From Reuters:

Rumours of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.
Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

So how do you argue with a man who claims that his penis has been stolen. Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, isn't having much luck:

"I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," Oleko said.
"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008.   Comments (11)

Halle Berry and her Six Toes — Does Halle Berry have six toes on her right foot? There are people out there who have spent a lot of time pondering this question. The evidence for the six-toe theory is based on these pictures, which are at least two years old.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that, no matter what these pictures appear to show, Halle Berry is not polydactyl. If she was, she'd admit it.




Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008.   Comments (25)

Quick Links: January 22, 2008 — Hiding in plainview
A police officer agreed to escort a car containing a pregnant woman to the hospital only to find the car was stolen - and the woman wasn't pregnant.

An honest politician?
Ed Hamilton is running for the position of Kerr County treasurer. His campaign promise is that, if elected, he won't serve. He won't even take a paycheck. Sounds like the right man for the job.

More men opting for chest implants
At least, that's what the headline claims. The article itself gives the impression that the number of men who get pectoral implants is very small.
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008.   Comments (0)

Music Faun Plastic Surgery — Hungarian plastic surgeon Dr. Lajos Nagy offers all the usual services at his clinic. You can get a breast enlargement, a nose job, liposuction, etc. But he also offers a rather unusual service: music faun surgery. He'll make your ears pointed so that you look like a music faun. His website, modernplasztika.co.hu, states:
A newfangled extravagance is spreading amongst the music-lover youngsters of New York, which, after invading America, is sure to conquer the whole world. Ears becoming pointed as a result of plastic surgery not only enhance the attractiveness of the face, but also improve the experience of listening to music. A sign of the popularity of this operation is that in big cities so-called Faun-Clubs are founded one after another, where entrance is only allowed with pointed ears. The reverberating success of this new look is supported by more and more celebrities with pointed ears, amongst whom we can find not only musicians, but, for example, models, as well.

Here's the description of what the procedure involves:
The procedure itself means a very careful dissection of the structures at the upper pole of the earlobe. The required reshaping is achieved by modellation of a specially designed chondro-cutaneous flap (a flap containing the own cartilage and skin of the patient). The new shape is fixed by means of absorbable sutures, skin closure is made with unabsorbable uninterrupted sutures.

I think the post-operative pictures on Nagy's site look like people wearing fake ears, so my hunch is that music-faun surgery is a joke. However, I wouldn't be willing to state this definitively. After all, there definitely are people who get surgery to make their ears pointed.

However, Dr. Nagy's site is registered to smartworks.hu, a Hungarian graphics studio, which makes me feel pretty sure that neither Dr. Nagy, nor his music-faun surgery, are real. The site is probably some kind of art project.
Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007.   Comments (19)

Fake Stigmata Controversy — During the 20th century, Padre Pio was one of the most famous and popular Catholic monks. He died in 1968 and was made a saint by Pope John Paul II in 2002. He was recently declared the Patron Saint of New Year Blues.

Pio was particularly famous for the supernatural phenomena associated with him. In particular, stigmata were said to have mysteriously appeared on his hands and feet. But a new book argues that Pio faked his stigmata:
a book called Padre Pio and the Italy of the 19th Century, by historian Sergio Luzzatto says the wounds were self-created using carbolic acid and he claims to have found documentary evidence to prove it in the Vatican's secret archives.

According to Wikipedia, this is hardly the first time charges of fakery have been leveled against Pio:
His accusers included high-ranking archbishops, bishops, theologians and physicians.
They brought several accusations against him, including insanity, immoral attitude towards women - claims that he had intercourse with women in the confessional (However, the same priest who accused Pio of these sexual acts later recanted his story and repented on his death bed.), misuse of funds and deception - claims that the stigmata were induced with acid in order to gain fame—and that the reported odor of sanctity around him being the result of self-administered eau-de-cologne.
The founder of Rome's Catholic university hospital concluded Padre Pio was "an ignorant and self-mutilating psychopath who exploited people's credulity." In short, he was accused of infractions against all three of his monastic vows: poverty, chastity and obedience.
In 1923, he was forbidden to teach teenage boys in the school attached to the monastery because he was considered "a noxious Socrates, capable of perverting the fragile lives and souls of boys."

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007.   Comments (72)

Woman finds toothbrush in her nose — The Mumbai Mirror reports that doctors in India removed a three-inch piece of a broken toothbrush from a woman's nose. The woman claims she's not sure how it got there:
So how did it get there? The woman claims she is not sure. She says, “Around two months ago as I was brushing my teeth, my husband accidentally pushed me and the toothbrush in my hand broke. I was left holding the lower portion of the brush but couldn’t locate the rest of it. Soon after, I started bleeding profusely from the nose,” she said. She visited the family doctor to stop the bleeding. “But since that day, I began getting breathless and a foul smelling discharge began to come out of my nose. I used to get restless gasping for breath sometimes,” she said.

Doctors are skeptical about the woman's explanation, saying that it's impossible that the toothbrush could have entered her nasal cavity through her mouth, but the woman isn't saying anything more.

I'm sure she must know how it really got there. After all, how could anyone lose a toothbrush up their nose accidentally? Sadly, the true explanation probably involves spousal abuse.
Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007.   Comments (8)

Exideal LED Therapy — The CScout Japan blog has posted about a new health/beauty product from Japan. It's called the Exideal. It's basically a panel of LED lights that you're supposed to sit in front of as it flickers and pulses. The company claims that the LED light will "“permeate the vitamins and collagen in your skin and make you beautiful from the inside”. This will set you back around $900.

I suspect you could probably receive the same health benefits from sitting in front of a regular lightbulb for a few minutes a day, and that would be a lot cheaper. (via OhGizmo)


Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007.   Comments (12)

Racelift — Racelift.com is the online home of the Institute of Ethnological and Racial Modification. The staff at the institute claim to have developed powerful new "Racelift Technologies" that allow you to change your race. For instance, among their testimonials is that of Hohepa Mikhailov, who transformed from what looks like a Russian sailor into a New Zealand Maori. His testimonial reads:
When I was studying and living with the Native Maori culture of New Zealand, I found it hard to relate because I would always be an outsider to them. I got my RaceLift in order to gain an insiders perspective of the Maori culture. The IERM surgeons were even able to apply the traditional Maori tattoo's on my face at no extra charge! Thank you Dr. John!
The site is pretty obviously a joke. If the dodgy science doesn't give away the joke, then the numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes throughout the site should. (Thanks, Oz)
Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007.   Comments (7)

Three-Headed Dog Costume — Halloween Mart has a page of "Halloween costume masterpieces." I couldn't help but notice the one of the three-headed dog. It reminded me of Vladimir Demikhov's two-headed dogs, that I included on my list of the top 20 most bizarre experiments of all time. On the left is a fake three-headed dog. On the right is a real two-headed dog.


Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007.   Comments (5)

Fishmouth — Pictures of an unpleasant looking character, apparently called "Fishmouth," have been circulating via email. As you can see, this guy has done his best to improve his appearance by inserting black disks into his cheeks. It creates a lovely effect, rather like a stormtrooper.



It seems that this guy is real. The BodyTwo ModBlog reports that Fishmouth is originally from Poland where everyone called him "ZygZag," but now he's living in a punk squat in Germany. They have some pictures of him without the cheek inserts.



I think the cheek inserts actually make him look younger.
Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007.   Comments (13)

How to cure internet addiction — Here's a news story that's been making the rounds recently. This case is said to have occurred in Chengdu city, China:
Jiang Ming promised his wife, He Ling, that he would not go on the internet any more and would spend more time at home. But he started to sneak into internet cafes again to have video chats with girls.
"I was on the internet, and suddenly the arrow on the screen stopped moving, " says Jiang Ming.
"Then I found that my right hand was on the mouse pad, and blood was shooting out."
In court, the husband pleaded with the judge to release his wife, since he was to blame for breaking his promise.

It was posted on Ananova.com, so right away that lessens the probability that it's true. It's also been reported in the London Sunday Times, the News of the World, the Sunday Herald, and the New York Post.

I can believe that a wife would chop her husband's hand off, but I find it hard to believe that this guy would a) not see his wife standing next to him with a huge knife, and b) not hear or feel a thing.
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007.   Comments (3)

Vernon, Florida — Joe Littrell forwarded me a St. Petersburg Times article, Dismembered Again, about the town of Vernon, Florida. It was so weird that I first I thought it was one of those joke articles, the kind that magazines such as the Phoenix New Times sometimes run. But all the references in it check out, so now I'm pretty sure it's real.

Vernon used to be known as Nub City, because the main source of income for town residents was dismembering themselves in order to file insurance claims. People there would come up with all kinds of ingenious ways to lose limbs:
L.W. Burdeshaw, an insurance agent in Chipley, told the St. Petersburg Times in 1982 that his list of policyholders included the following: a man who sawed off his left hand at work, a man who shot off his foot while protecting chickens, a man who lost his hand while trying to shoot a hawk, a man who somehow lost two limbs in an accident involving a rifle and a tractor, and a man who bought a policy and then, less than 12 hours later, shot off his foot while aiming at a squirrel.

Eventually insurance companies refused to insure anyone in the area, but Vernon went on to achieve some fame as the subject of a film (titled Vernon, Florida) by Errol Morris:
What Morris produced instead was 56 minutes of surreal monologues from an idle police officer, an obsessive turkey hunter, a pastor fixated on the word "therefore," a couple convinced that the sand they keep in a jar is growing, and, among others, an old man who claims he can write with both hands at once.

It sounds like a fun place to visit.
Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007.   Comments (6)

Japanese dolls made out of real human corpse skin? — Could it be? So claims this email:
The pictures below are Japanese dolls which are created by using real human corpse skin and hair! Seeing these pictures are enough to freak anybody out! I am not sure how authentic these Japanese dolls are but if you were to look closely at the pictures, you will notice some red blood lines around the nose, eyes and mouth area. This means if they really used human corpse skin, they actually sliced the face out to be put on these dolls!
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Two reasons why these dolls are obviously not made out of human skin:

a) Human skin would not be a good material to use for dolls. Like leather, it would turn brownish and grow hard. Not that I have any experience working with human skin, mind you.

b) These dolls are the creations of Japanese sculptor Yoshiko Hori. (Credit goes to Spluch for tracking this down.) And even though she calls them "dolls in the flesh," I can't find any report of her fashioning the dolls out of human tissue.
Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007.   Comments (22)

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