Photo shows actor in zombie makeup, not lightning strike victim | Fact check

Kate S. Petersen, USA TODAY
Updated ·3 min read

The claim: Post implies photo shows lightning strike injury

A photo shows a shirtless person's back and spine covered with what appears to be bruising, scarring and discoloration.

"If you are lucky enough to survive a lightning strike, this is what your body will look like," reads the photo's caption in a May 29 Facebook post (direct link, archive link).

Some commenters appear to believe the image actually shows a person who was struck by lightning.

"I knew someone this happened to. It blew out the bottom of his feet and hands," said one commenter.

Another commenter wrote, "My body does not look like that, but that is interesting that it resembles a lightening (sic) bolt and did something to the veins. Burnt them, perhaps. I pray that it is not painful."

The post was shared more than 700 times in two weeks.

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Our rating: Missing context

The implied claim is wrong. The photo shows an actor wearing zombie makeup, not a person with a lightning strike injury.

Photo shows actor wearing zombie makeup

The photo does not show a lightning injury, according to Dr. Mary Ann Cooper, managing director of the African Centres for Lightning and Electromagnetics Network and an expert on lightning-related injuries.

"I have NEVER seen a lightning injury like this," she told USA TODAY in an email.

Dr. Christopher Davis, an associate clinical professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado, agreed.

"The ever so perfect bruising over each (vertebrae) is not consistent with a lightning strike," he said. "The description is a bit misleading too. 90% of people survive lightning strikes ... 'lucky enough to survive' connotes that most people don’t."

The image was posted on a website called Deviant Art in 2004 and captioned "Back bodypainting of a zombi." It is titled "Prothesic makeup 7." Another image posted on the same day called "Prothesic makeup 6," appears to show the front of the same person.

From the front, the person is drooling, menacing-looking and has zombie-movie-style facial mutilation. The image is captioned "My little zombie. Facial prothesis + Makeup + False blood + lens + bodypainting." It is dated as having been captured about a minute before "Prothesic makeup 7."

Fact check: Photo shows sand art, not lightning strike formation

Both images were posted on Deviant Art by a user who goes by "gorkafx," whose "About" page says they are located in Spain and interested in "FX Makeup Effects" and "Terror movies."

The purported lightning strike photo also circulated on social media in 2019. At that time, a spokesperson at Gorka Aguirre Studio, which specializes in gory effects and prosthetics, told AFP in an email written in Spanish that the photo shows their work and that people have previously used it without permission.

They said the person shown in makeup is an actor.

While USA TODAY could not locate the zombie make-up photo on the Gorka Aguirre Studio webpage, the site does feature other work from the gorkafx Deviant Art page. The studio did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lightning strike injuries can leave temporary fern-like marks, known as "Lichtenberg figures," on the body.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The claim was also debunked by Reuters and AFP.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Photo shows zombie makeup art, not lightning victim | Fact check