A man from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, learned the hard way that using Gorilla Glue on his face was not a very good idea.
Len Martin had seen the viral TikTok video of Tessica Brown—who used Gorilla Glue adhesive spray on her hair to secure her style after running out of regular hairspray.
Brown wound up having to go to a Los Angeles hospital where she underwent a four-hour surgical procedure to remove the adhesive from her scalp.
Thinking Brown was "messing around" and in an attempt to prove her mishap was not serious, Martin applied the adhesive product on a Red Solo cup and attached it to his mouth in a Facebook video.
He was planning to simply lick the cup off.
In his Facebook post, Martin wrote:
"I thought that chick with the gorilla glue was making that story up...but no..its real... I dont kno why I tried it..now they talking bout cutting the tip of my lips off in surgery...yall pray for me."
You can watch the video of his stunt, here.
Like Brown, Martin wound up in the hospital where doctors had to remove part of his upper lip to remove the cup.
When asked why he did it, Martin told local TV station KLFY:
"I was trying to show people that it wasn't as serious as she [Brown] was making it to be, you know."
"I thought I could lick it off, kind of, to moisten it and pull it right off, but that didn't work though. It went backwards, you know."
The Louisiana native endured what he described as a "painful peeling" to detach the cup and was told by doctors the tip of his lip might have to be surgically removed if it does not heal properly.
This was not the first time Martin piggybacked off a video he saw online.
In 2019, he was arrested for licking a tub of Blue Bell ice cream and putting it back in a grocery store freezer in Belle Rose, Louisiana.
Authorities said his ice cream challenge was inspired by the viral video of a Texas teenager who licked a tub of Blue Bell ice cream and put it back on the shelf at a Walmart in Lufkin.
Martin tried to defend the prevalence of social media stunts but said of the #gorillagluechallenge:
"Everyone is on social media, everyday there is a new challenge, but I did not think it would go this far"
"This is not the challenge you want to try."
The Gorilla Glue company reminded the public of their product's warning with this statement:
"Our spray adhesive states in the warning label, do not swallow, Do not get in eyes, on skin or on clothing."
They added the product is:
"used for craft, home, auto or office projects to mount things to surfaces such as paper, cardboard, wood, laminate and fabric."
Hopefully, this is a warning that sticks and there are no more emergency trips to the hospital to reverse injuries from these dangerous stunts.
@thekalenallen/Threads
U.S. Mint
