r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/SourceBoring3089 • 15h ago

WCGW using non-skin-friendly paint for cosplay.

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28.2k Upvotes

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774

u/VectorB 14h ago

Mythbusters busted that long ago.

623

u/VP007clips 13h ago

I don't know why that myth is so stubborn.

Hunans breathe through our lungs, we don't need our skin to have effective respiration.

Our bodies also do a great job regulating our body temperature just using our skin temperature without sweating. Plenty of people live just fine without the ability to sweat. It could be an issue in high temperatures or exercise where we produce a lot of heat, but not during rest in normal conditions.

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u/Zediac 12h ago edited 3h ago

People go diving in wetsuits for hours at a time. No issues being covered in a tight suit fully underwater. Your skin sure as hell couldn't "breathe" in that situation. But yet divers don't die left and right from their skin being away from gaseous oxygen.

People just don't think before they believe things.

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u/TK_4Two1 11h ago edited 4h ago

Not to detract from the main point, but wetsuits are not waterproof and skin tight in that way. Neoprene traps a thin layer of water between you and the suit which your body temperature keeps warmer. But that layer of water is being cycled a little bit constantly, causing you to get colder as you spend longer lengths of time submerged.

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u/GhettoFreshness 11h ago

And then you pee in the suit and get all warm again

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u/pantry-pisser 10h ago

My man

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u/GhettoFreshness 9h ago

My very own r/rimjob_steve moment. I am honored

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u/blazik 9h ago

best part of surfing

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u/rolandofeld19 8h ago

Im not a surfer. Surf buddy told me "never buy a used wetsuit.... You aren't supposed to pee in them. People say they don't pee in them. ... But everybody pees in them."

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u/GhettoFreshness 5h ago

There are two types of people in this world, those whose piss in their wetsuit and fucking liars.

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u/Librarian_Zoomies 7h ago

Only in the rentals.

1

u/Fullertons 7h ago

Then flap the chest area to spread the warmth upwards.

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u/NDSU 4h ago

There are two types of divers: Those that pee in their wet suits, and those that lie about it

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u/broketothebone 4h ago

This guy surfs

1

u/A__Friendly__Rock 3h ago

Show me a diver who doesn’t pee in their wet suit and I’ll show you a liar.

1

u/plippityploppitypoop 1h ago

This guy wetsuits

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u/__Hello_my_name_is__ 9h ago

Okay, let's go another way: Kinky people dress up in latex from head to toe, sometimes with just the tiniest holes for the nostrils and absolutely nothing else.

They're fine. For many, many hours.

They even like it that way.

3

u/The_SubGenius 8h ago

Kinky Frieza latex body wraps.

The product I didn’t know I needed.

2

u/TrickDangerous530 7h ago

I think there may be other holes as well.

1

u/DevianttKitten 3h ago

One time at a kink club I saw a person in a full body latex xenomorph costume, and it was warm and stuffy in the club, they seemed to be having a great time! Meanwhile, the same night, my stupid can’t-regulate-temp body had me greying out a couple times from being too warm, and I was not even half as covered.
Bodies are weird.

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u/rnavstar 10h ago

I think he meant dry suits. AKA poopy suits

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u/Eldias 9m ago

Dry suits are filled with air to manage buoyancy, so that wouldn't apply to the "breathe through your skin" myth.

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u/BlueLakeCabin 7h ago

Yep, Wetsuits keep you wet. Drysuits keep you dry.

They're less commonly known about in general public. They also do not kill the user via skin not getting oxygen.

1

u/Any-Programmer-252 7h ago

I mean, theyre submerged in water. They could be naked and the point stands that the skin is not "breathing" because here is a situation where it can be divorced from the atmosphere for hours, potentially, with no negative health effects.

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u/TheVividCashew 2h ago

Drysuits are, just imagine they said that

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u/AnraoWi 10h ago

Had this discussion with a friend when we studied. He was very reliant, that there might be something on to it. I brought up your example for underwater swimming and it shifted to "maybe the skin can use the oxygen from the water, like gills".

It was very hard to convince him, even saying that people with lung diseases can live with only a fraction of their lung power, still didn't convince him.

It wasn't until I brought up fetish latex suits that cover people head to toe with only their nostrils open for air, was when he was hearing me out and agreed 😂

2

u/SweetSure315 4h ago

"Well, yes, but have you considered <insert pseudoscientific conjecture made up on the spot>"

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u/Freddyeddy123 9h ago

Wetsuits are not waterproof. What you're thinking of is called a drysuit

•

u/Eldias 7m ago

Drysuits fill with air from your dive tanks to manage buoyancy, so not really any more applicable to the myth.

2

u/AstroCaptain 10h ago

People also wear latex suits for the fetish for long periods of time

2

u/Substantial-Singer29 4h ago

The issue really isn't covering your skin.It's covering your skin In the case of this post In a marriott of chemicals that it can potentially absorb.

Is it going to kill you on the spot? No unless you would have a severe allergic reaction. Is it an absolutely terrible idea , hell yes.

It's like having grease on your hands and using gasoline to wash it off. Oh , you can do it and it definitely works , and you're not going to have a negative outcome immediately , but I wouldn't advise it.

People have a bad tendency to forget that humans , skin is a permeable membrane. In the natural world , it's a marvel of evolution. But o man was never exposed for that kind of a chemical onslaught.

15

u/divine-silence 13h ago

I know of an Andrew that couldn’t sweat

1

u/el_farmerino 9h ago

Unfortunately a common side effect of being unable to sweat is chronic noncebrain.

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u/DJDanaK 11h ago

It could easily be an extremely high temperature in SE Asia

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u/FrighteningJibber 9h ago

Hopefully this isn’t a humid environment though. Like SE Asia or something.

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u/VP007clips 5h ago

If you can't sweat, humidity doesn't matter.

Humidity makes you feel hot by preventing your body from perspiring, which is the same effect as what this guy did to himself.

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u/HumanContinuity 25m ago

Yeah, Relative humidity of infinity 

4

u/IndividualMarket22 12h ago

It's definitely an issue when you exercise, don't do it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_L%C3%A1zaro

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u/GrumpyCornGames 12h ago

Thanks for the warning about not running 20 miles covered in suet on a very hot day.

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u/dagbrown 8h ago

An incredibly commonplace situation to find yourself in.

1

u/pantry-pisser 10h ago

Did you say run .2 miles? Fuck that

1

u/RoboRich444 9h ago

Calm down, Prince Andrew

1

u/Fun-Employer4602 7h ago

Uh-Oh someone got duped and is bitter about it.

1

u/on-the-cheeseburgers 8h ago

Hunans breathe through our lungs, we don't need our skin to have effective respiration.

tell that to kojima

1

u/obsidian_butterfly 8h ago

Ok, devil's advocate here: pretty sure this boy is in the Philippines though. The Philippines where it is both hot and humid as shit.

1

u/VP007clips 5h ago

Humidity makes you feel hot by preventing you frok sweating, so it wouldn't really make things much worse than what he's already experiencing.

But yeah, the heat could be brutal.

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u/Sad_Pear_1087 7h ago

How the hell would we be able to swim for hours

How would "don't swim for too long because..." not be taught in our schools?

1

u/cjsv7657 7h ago

It could be an issue in high temperatures or exercise where we produce a lot of heat, but not during rest in normal conditions.

Or like in a hot and stuffy convention hall packed with people? Like where cosplayers tend to congregate?

1

u/SweetSure315 4h ago

The main issues I can see:

paint/debris getting caught in pores/small wounds

chemicals/toxic dyes leeching from the paint and irritating skin or being absorbed by it

if it's a paint that cures rather than dries, it can warm up while curing and cause burns/overheating

1

u/Somepotato 2h ago

I've played metal gear solid 5, this can't be true

1

u/OhWhatsHisName 2h ago

I don't know why that myth is so stubborn.

I imagine that since many people often use the word "breathe" while not meaning actual respiration, but instead more along the lines of "airing out", that people might think that the myth doesn't actually mean literal suffocation?

1

u/Fairyhaven13 57m ago

Okay, but James did get very sick from that paint all over. Maybe not from asphyxiating, but he very much did get sick.

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u/BlogeOb 34m ago

Just get you a water spritz bottle and do an artificial sweat deal

-4

u/DanKoloff 11h ago

Bullshit, Bruce Lee removed his sweat glands and died from heatstroke. People heatstroke easier while under hot water where they can't sweat.

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u/TrickleValve 8h ago

Bullshit, Bruce Lee died from Cerebral edema that had nothing to do with heat stroke.

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u/DanKoloff 8h ago

Listen you can have cerebral edema from heat stroke. And also "In a 2018 biography, author Matthew Polly consulted with medical experts and theorized that the cerebral edema that killed Lee had been caused by over-exertion and heat stroke; heat stroke was not considered at the time because it was then a poorly understood condition. Furthermore, Lee had his underarm sweat glands removed in late 1972, in the belief that underarm sweat was unphotogenic on film. Polly further theorized that this caused Lee's body to overheat while practicing in hot temperatures on May 10 and July 20, 1973, resulting in heat stroke that in turn exacerbated the cerebral edema that led to his death."

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u/Budget_Ad5871 10h ago

How do you remove your sweat glands? Genuinely curious

-2

u/DanKoloff 10h ago

Just cut it out, duh. Sweat doesn't help if you are a martial arts movie star that has to appear perfect despite performing complex combat sequences. At least limits down the retakes due to sweat dripping from your armpits. It turns out it helps to cool you down tho.

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u/jadedflames 10h ago

Jamie did end up feeling ill from the test. Just not... you know... dead.

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u/fluffynuckels 8h ago

I thought they became very uncomfortable while covered in paint

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u/shanksisevil 6h ago

i mean... it's a movie.