What is the Gorilla Glue Challenge? Man hospitalised after sticking cup to his mouth

12 February 2021, 15:10

Tessica Brown goes viral after Gorilla Glue hair accident

By Jazmin Duribe

Please, let's not make the Gorilla Glue Challenge a thing.

Every week there appears to be a new viral challenge on social media, ranging from innocent to ridiculously dangerous. Case in point, the new Gorilla Glue Challenge inspired by Tessica Brown (also known as Gorilla Glue girl).

ICYMI, a woman recently went viral after revealing she used Gorilla Glue on her hair instead of hairspray. Gorilla Glue is a permanent adhesive commonly used on wood, laminate and bathroom tiles – it definitely should not be used on the skin or hair. Basically, Tessica's hair became permanently stuck to her head and she ended up having to cut it off and have surgery. The gripping ordeal looked incredibly painful and Tessica was even considering legal action against Gorilla Glue.

You would think that's enough to put anyone off misusing Gorilla Glue, right? No, now it's started a whole challenge. Here's what it involves.

READ MORE: Woman who used Gorilla Glue as hairspray raises $17,000 on GoFundMe

What is the Gorilla Glue Challenge?

The Gorilla Glue Challenge involves applying Gorilla Glue to your body to see how strong the adhesive is. It was, of course, inspired by Tessica Brown, a woman who famously used Gorilla Glue instead of hairspray leaving her hair permanently stuck to her head. After over a month of having her hair not moving, Tessica headed to hospital, before a plastic surgeon was able to get the glue off of her hair.

Tessica's ordeal has been highly documented and she's raised thousands of dollars through her GoFundMe because of it. Some actually doubt that Tessica applied the Gorilla Glue by mistake and believe it was a ploy to go viral so, in the hope of some short-lived internet fame, people are copying her.

Len Martin, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, wanted to prove that Tessica's stunt was all made up, so he decided to super glue a red cup on his face and simply "lick it off". However, that didn't happen. After leaving the cup on his skin for a few minutes it became stuck and as a result he ended up in hospital. The cup was then painful peeled off leaving a wound. If it doesn't heal properly, he may have to have a part of his lip surgically removed.

He told Fox8: "Did you see what the lady did with the gorilla glue on her hair? I thought she was playing around. I didn’t think it was that serious, that Gorilla Glue did all of that. I was trying to show people that it wasn’t as serious as she was making it to be. I put gorilla glue in a cup, place it on my mouth for a few seconds and started to lick it off, but that didn’t work."

Len now has to keep his face covered until the skin around his mouth heals because it's prone to infection.

This wouldn't be the first time Len has tried a ridiculous online challenge, though. In 2019, Len went viral for participating in the Ice Cream Challenge, which involved licking a carton of ice cream and then putting it back in the store freezer. He was later arrested for it.