TikTok Death

As adults, there are some things that we know not to do and one of these is touching jellyfish. However, a man on TikTok appears to have missed this memo, as he filmed himself licking a bluebottle that had washed up on beach.

Social media user Alexa Reed, known online as @Alexa_reed2, appears in the footage picking up the jellyfish and saying:

Hey guys I’m at the beach, and look what this is. This is a jellyfish, look how long the sting is. I am going to grab it then I am going to lick it.

Alexa Reed

He then touches the body of the creature with his tongue, jokingly exclaiming: “Ah it stung me, anybody want to pee in my mouth? I got stung by a jellyfish.” Shockingly Reed then says: “Let’s do it again,” before licking the animal for a second time.

However, what the TikTok user most likely did not know if that the bluebottle jellyfish, known also as the Portuguese man o’ war, is very dangerous.

The animal is particularly prevalent in Australia, where it is responsible for an average of 10,000 human stings each summer.

This usually causes severe pain, and occasionally the venom can travel to the lymph nodes causing airways blockage, inability to breathe, and cardiac arrest.

It is also possible to cause fever and shock, and in some cases, a sting may even result in death. The video which was captioned “still alive guys LOL” has been viewed over 35,900 times since being uploaded on May 9.