Is it true that if you completely cover a person's skin with paint, they will die?

In both Russian-language and foreign publications one can often find an urban legend that after applying a layer of paint to the entire body, a person will die. We checked whether this is actually true.

In the post-Soviet space, the story of death due to paint-covered skin is known largely due to articles in the 1960 Children's Encyclopedia. Its author, physiologist Alexander Kabanov, discusses the role of thermoregulation in the human body, although he prefaces his text fictional a story about a similar episode involving Leonardo da Vinci. In the Western tradition it is much better known episode from the movie "Goldfinger" about the adventures of James Bond, where the villain kills a girl by covering her body with gold paint. Allegedly, to prevent the actress from suffering the same fate, some areas of her skin were even deliberately left unpainted. However, this story can also be found in Russian-language publications - for example, in the online version magazine GQ and on website fans of actor Sean Connery, the first actor to play James Bond.

Let's start with the “theory” from Bond. The main character directly explains in the film that the girl covered in paint died due to the inability of the skin to participate in the breathing process. In the 1960s, when Goldfinger was filmed, there really was widespread the opinion that people breathe through their skin, and blocking all pores will lead to death. Moreover, supposedly even a small unpainted area of ​​skin was enough to guarantee survival. Shirley Eaton, who played the role of the "golden girl", remembered, that this is exactly what they did on the set, and a team of doctors was on duty on the set. By the way, the actress is still alive, although she left the profession shortly after the release of Goldfinger.

However, not all experiments with actors covered in paint in American cinema ended as well. During the filming of The Wizard of Oz in the late 1930s, the body of actor Buddy Ebsen, who played the role of the Tin Woodman, was destroyed. covered first with clown makeup, and then with aluminum dust. Two weeks later, the artist was hospitalized, but survived. However, as it turned out, the problems occurred precisely because of the dust, and not because of the paint. Jack Haley, who replaced Ebsen in the cast, was made up immediately with a mixture of paint and metal powder, and everything went smoothly without any serious problems.

The fact that covering the body with paint may cause breathing problems is not confirmed by authoritative sources. A person breathes through the nose and mouth, so “clogging of pores” can't make any significant changes to this process. It is important to note that we are talking about special paints for body art. If you cover the body with acrylic or other paints that are not intended for such purposes, it can end disastrously due to the unsafe substances they contain. This is probably what caused the death in the original story of the "golden boy" during the Renaissance, which told Giorgio Vasari. Although the art critic does not specify what the young man died from, in the colors of that time contained large amounts of metals and other toxic substances - it is much more likely that the boy died due to their exposure, and not due to problems with thermoregulation.

Another version explaining the possibility of such a death is that the paint blocks the sweat glands, through which waste products, including toxic ones, are not released. However, in this case the explanation is the same as in the case of breathing: the role of the skin in the process of excretion is significantly inferior kidneys and other organs, so this will not have a serious impact.

At the same time, modern specialists emphasizethat an absolutely real danger for a person covered with paint is heat stroke. When wearing makeup for a long time, performing active actions and/or being in the heat, paint can have approximately the same effect as tight, tight-fitting clothing. However, if makeup is applied to the body of a trained person, and the process itself is controlled by specialists, dire consequences are unlikely to occur. So, in one of the episodes of the TV show “MythBusters” the hosts covered their bodies with paint to find out what effect it would have on their well-being. Doctors measured temperature, pressure and other parameters before and after applying paint. Experts were unable to record any significant changes in these indicators.

Thus, applying makeup even to the entire body can hardly lead to the death of a person - at least, we could not find a single recorded case of such a sad outcome. Stereotypes emerging from popular culture and popular literature only indicate that in the past this technology was imperfect - the risk of harming one’s health was not much higher than that of artists who constantly worked with paints. At the same time, with the development of body art, special paints began to be produced that minimize possible threats, and people using them are more likely to suffer due to their own unpreparedness, carelessness or carelessness.

Mostly not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Is the story about the “golden boy” and Leonardo da Vinci’s fault for his death true?
2. Snopes. Did an Actress Die During the Filming of ‘Goldfinger’?
3. NBC. James Bond lied to us: Death by gold paint unlikely
4. BBC. Goldfinger and the myth of a Bond girl's death