Woman regrets putting live octopus on her face for a photo

Hindsight is 20/20.

A woman in Washington state is now regretting her photo op decision to put a live octopus on her face, KIRO-TV News in Seattle reports.

Jamie Bisceglia told the station she was hoping to enter a photo contest as part of a fishing derby in Tacoma, Wash. She met a couple of fishermen who had scored a small version of a giant Pacific octopus. (To be fair, a spokeswoman at the Point Defiance Aquarium told KIRO the creature could well have actually been a Pacific red octopus. But, that’s splitting tentacles.)

That’s when Bisceglia got a wonderful idea. Or … well, maybe not.

Put the living octopus on her face.

“It was a photo contest in the derby,” she told KIRO. “So, crazy me, hindsight now and looking back, I probably made a big mistake.”

Initially, the mollusc grabbed her with its suckers. Then, it bit her.

“It had barreled its beak into my chin and then let go a little bit and did it again,” she said. “It was a really intense pain when it went inside and it just bled, dripping blood for a long time.”

Whether the octopus was a giant Pacific or a Pacific red, its bite has a poison venom that is used to stun and immobilize prey.

Bisceglia told KIRO the pain was pretty intense.

“I’m still in pain,” she said. “I’m on three different antibiotics. This can come and go, the swelling, for months they say.”

But did she learn anything from the experience?

“This was not a good idea,” Bisceglia said. “I will never do it again.”