The photos of this steroid abuser's violent chest-acne (and the subsequent scarring) ought to be posted in the changing room at every gym in the world. Before you complain about how gross the photos on the click-through below are, just be thankful they didn't photograph his shrivelled, damaged testicles, too.
He was a constant user of anabolic-androgenic steroids, of which acne is a side effect -- as is damaged sperm and shrunken testicles, both of which he also possessed.

Doctors ordered the patient to quit steroids and start taking antibiotics. Two months later, the acne was gone. So was the muscle. Only gruesome scarring remained -- and as his doctors wrote last week in the Lancet, that "is likely to remain with the young man for the rest of his life."

Graphic Evidence Against Steroid Abuse

  • maxoid

    good gracious, that looks like a dang industrial accident! i wonder at what point the guy thought “uh-oh, i had better reconsider…”

  • Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

    Jeff, RJ, glad you liked the chaser. The dog’s name is Tyson, and he has his own website, with a video gallery.

    I keep a stash of chasers, though I’m always running short. Any time you find a good one, do please feel free to pass it on to me against future need.

  • koreancracker

    D:

  • Al Benson

    Separate from the pros or cons of steroid use; I’m unsure what the person on the photograph went through, but as a long term steroid user and someone who has been around the body building milieu, I have never encountered anything like it.

    The information provided says that it was steroid induced…well we of course believe everything we read on the internet, don’t we?

    I would suggest that the single subject presented with something very serious more akin to a severe dermatitis and in my opinion based on observing hundreds of steroid users over many years, it is not directly attributable to steroid use that I have ever seen.

    Medical, recreational and cosmetic use of androgenic/anabolic steroids pose the risk of certain side effects, but there is no credible documentation of anything vaguely similar to what was shown in that photo.

    And just make a personal point, The benefits of my two decades of steroid have made me healthier, dramaticall retarded aging and led to a hugely satisfying sexual and personal life. My skin is not the color of Velvita and my nuts are not shrivled…where do people get this tripe?

    So don’t knock something you don’t fully understand based on the mems you have been spoon fed in the popular culture. Do go see the film Bigger, Stronger, Faster to get a better understanding of the issues involved.

  • Jeff

    #24, watch that tofu; enough of it will raise your estrogen levels. That’s because there is an estrogen analog in soy beans. Now, if part of your diet contains a testosterone analog, the same thing can happen. Eat enough bullocks and something might happen. And why is it that I find cows so alluring…?

    The Moderator said, “Any time you find a good one, do please feel free to pass it on to me against future need.”

    I now have another goal in life: I will add to the chaser bin at BoingBoing. Who says the American dream is dead?!

  • bsatow

    When using any type of drug there are risks. These risk increase when the drug is used inappropriately. There are thousands of bodybuilders in this world who have used or are using steroids to help build bigger muscles with no permanent side effects. I’ve personally known many power lifters and body builders who have cycled on and off steroids to help heal quicker and to put on muscles in areas where growth and improvement was needed.

    I’ve known many people who have lived healthy lifestyles, did not smoke, exercised regularly, ate healthy; basically lived by the book of health, who have gotten cancer and died, who suffered from acne problems, as well as other health ailments.

    I think what is happening here is that there are lots of people who really hate bodybuilders or muscle building. They are the same people who hate Wushu but love Yoga. Who are vegan or vegetarian and not an omnivore. They don’t like protein from meat and they don’t like dynamic sports. Am I making a stereotypical generalization? Of course, just like the folks who make them about bodybuilders and steroids.

  • kgb

    Just for clarification, it is okay to use scare tactics for steroids and not okay to use scare tactics for marijuana. Am I correct?

  • Takuan

    a chaser bin is a great idea!

  • Glottis

    I thought the photo on the link was the acne. Holy Living Mother Of God. Although, I do kind of want to see those babies before they had popped.

  • jbang

    KGB: This is nothing but another reason steroids need to be legalised – not necessarily for competition level anything, but like all drugs alot of the harms can be negated via education and removing the stigma attached to users of them.

    Steroids can be incredibly dangerous, though, I see a bunch of disasters weekly at the needle and syringe program I work at. Besides blood borne virus and infected injecting sites… acne that leads to severe skin infections / septicemia, cancer (and then some more cancer, guys) and yeah and alot of unintended pseudo-feminine traits.

    The argument for legalisation, when you consider the potential harms, is alot less black and white than other drugs.

  • markfrei

    #30 Jeff
    That soy bit is irrelevant. The studies aren’t consistent but while there is generally a slight raise in estrogen levels in men from soy, there is no negative impact on testosterone and a few studies even show a slight increase in testosterone (which the authors theorized was to balance the slight estrogen bounce).

    Meanwhile, there are countless other studies showing all sorts of real benefits from soy in your diet.

    Wheat also increases estrogen, by the way.

    The most annoying thing in the fitness world is the tendency to look for little ways to get a slight edge – before looking to the basic things that will get you 98% of the way there. Stuff like eating a hearty balanced diet, working out hard with good form, and lots of sleep is all you really need unless you’re a serious competitor.

  • Perla

    And then there are women who also use steroids who then make horror porn, Chyna. Don’t ask me how I know, I wish I could scrub my brain of that. Bottom acne and much much worse… Me and my damn curiosity

  • Takuan

    heh! “Soy is making kids gay!”
    http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53327

  • markfrei

    #36 jeff
    “Makfrei, an increase in estrogen can depress testosterone production.”

    Your statement is overly broad and cannot be proved or disproved the way you state it. It would have to depend upon why the estrogen is increasing and by how much.

    I do know that study after study debunks the dangers of tofu as far as testosterone levels, and show only modest increases in estrogen (which far from being evil is normal in men). As a vegetarian this stuff rather closely and see science debunking it over and over.

    Anyhow it causes me no harm – so either I’m an odd example or this is an old bodybuilder’s tale…

  • Tony Moore

    Sweet Christmas! That looks like a dose of shotgun-administered rock salt, or maybe a car battery exploded on the guy.

    i don’t know much about ‘em, but i’d imagine it’s like most other substances, in that most people who get into it go whole hog in their abusive regimens and really wreck themselves, because most people are stupid. I could be wrong about the steroids, but i’m pretty certain about people.

  • monstrinho_do_biscoito

    do steroids turn your skin the colour of barbeque ribs too?

  • Glossolalia Black

    Oh, come on, KGB. You might get nasty lungs and a bit of paranoia off a joint, but people should be warned about acne that looks like buckshot/acid burns.

    Which, BTW, you’d have to pay me to click through on that link. I’m a big baby when it comes to pictures of injury.

  • Jeff

    Makfrei, an increase in estrogen can depress testosterone production. I have not read anything that says wheat can increase estrogen, although I’m not saying it can’t happen in some cases (allergies can cause many odd effects).

  • Jamie Sue

    Just because you warned us that it was gross does not excuse your responsibility to provide us with a unicorn chaser.

  • Brian Carnell

    @29,

    Sorry, Teresa, but this is the equivalent of anti-marijuana scare tactics. The linked article never bothers to tell us just how much this anabolic steroids this person was using that led to this extreme acne.

    This is just like comparing someone who is smoking marijuna constantly for a long period of time to someone who has a joint once in awhile. The net result is to create a blanket repugnance at anabolic steroids.

    Hell, you could point out the dangers of rapid consumption of large amount of water to make the same point — doing things to the point of excess is a bad idea whether its marijuana, water or steroids.

    @22 I’m one of those folks who have been prescribed anabolic steroids as part of a hormone replacement therapy and the result has been amazing. Exercise, diet, etc. didn’t do crap for me.

    In fact, now I can understand why anabolic steroids are so frequently abused. But people are still crazy if they’re doing this without having the results closely monitored by a health care professional (then again, in this society we let people do a lot of crazy things, so if having big assed muscles is really the most important thing in someone’s life . . .)

  • Oskar

    The ultimate unicorn chaser (which I personally needed):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAwR6w2TgxY

  • Bugs

    Aargh.

    I used to be a member of a well-known training / body-building forum, as their “beginners” section seemed a good place to get advice on improving my spaghetti-thin frame.

    I ended up lurking in a sub-forum where people discussed various supplements, steroid regeimes, lotions and potions. What these men were doing to their bodies — and the total lack of scientific understanding of the drugs and supplements they were shovelling down in various and ever-changing combinations– was scary stuff. I think Tony (#5) is right that people get into the mindset, get carried away and end up ruining themselves.

  • Shawn Wolfe

    Hacking the meat. Beating the meat. Pulling the meat.
    It’s all Steampunk.

  • Anonymous

    no brain no gain

  • vonmises

    Antinous,

    One man’s threadjack is another man’s obvious point. The truth is, we are seeing arguments in favor of curtailing liberty because “others have to pay for the price”. See for example the attempts to ban certain unhealthy foods. That same rationale can and I’m sure is used to justify steroid restrictions – when you screw up your body but can get others to pay to fix it, you are passing on the cost of your choices to others, against their will. You may well think socialized health care is wonderful, and its benefits far exceed the costs (in all senses of that word), and that’s fine. But don’t ignore some of those costs just because it doesn’t mesh with your agenda. Fair?

    • Antinous

      vonmises,

      It has nothing to do with me disagreeing with you. You have no idea what I think about the issue. That subject is a sharp divergence from this discussion. And you have a history of cut-and-paste speechifying. It makes it seem like you’re here to promote an agenda, not to have a discussion. Perhaps you don’t understand the difference between the two.

  • Sister Y

    The endorphins and the feeling of control and progression over *something* is a big boost when all else is sliding around.

    That’s exactly it – and I think this explains one reason that it’s fun to train for athletic events, and I think it’s similar to why people, say, collect records or figurines. It’s a feeling of progress in a limited domain, tiny little serotonin/endorphin bursts.

  • RJ

    A chaser bin would be a handy feature. Maybe a link to it could be fit into the same area as the site highlights and BBTV listing.

    Of course, you could also open another tab and go hit Cute Overload. Just remember to come on back when you’re done.

  • Takuan

    “optimize their physical envelope”

    define “optimize”. To me, “optimize” means a body that can function and survive anywhere, in any circumstances.

  • rasz

    this story is BS
    I had a LOT of acne while I was younger, I had back/face/ass/ full of it, I was on lot of antibiotics. From those pictures it looks like he
    -tried to “play” with it, popping/scratching
    -antibiotics made it WORSE than it was before
    -he was sun tanning while on antibiotics

    nothing to do with steroids.

  • jeffjonez

    unwonderful.

  • Sister Y

    AndyGates has an excellent point.

    I have known a couple of steroid users. One is fine, no major problems – weightlifting and bodybuilding seem to be his ways of ameliorating his suicidal depression. The other one got meningitis of some variety. I have to wonder if that would have happened were steroids legal.

    We see bodybuilders as being very culturally different from us, but really they’re just another flavor of obsessive nerd. I think the answer to Takuan’s question in #55 is . . . steroids make you build huge muscles. (Not super functional, but then, neither are other forms of body modification.)

  • Takuan

    or maybe you are in denial or sell steroids?

  • Jeff

    Yo, non-gym-rat dawgs, I’m very familiar with the effects of steroids, and this example of acne is not horrific. This is mild and being exacerbated by the fact that this guy’s pumped up and his capillaries are filled with blood, making every pore and irritation stand out. AND, it’s often the process of waxing off hair or (gods forbid) shaving that causes horrible acne on the chest. That said, if you want to look like the hulk or some uber-male, I think it’s up to you, and that anabolic steroids should be available to those who want them. I have never used them myself.

  • jbang

    @17: “The problem with legalizing steroids is that people won’t stay within a safe dosage range.”

    and 21 Andy Gates: “That’s true of most drugs – legal and illegal, prescription and homebrew, people think they know best… There will always be stupid people. It’s not a very compelling argument for control.”

    At the risk of trying to threadjack (legalise drugs, rah rah rah), any and all drug trials where previous illicit substances are made available (Heroin trials in Sweden, recently) have been tied really closely to education. Theres a vast difference between stupid people and uninformed people, and whilst steroid users do run this risk of gambling with their health, I’m sure the majority would most probably change their attitudes and behaviours once they’d been given the proper tools and information to do their own “risk and harm analysis”.

    We may not be able to change the fact that there will always be “stupid” people, but we can certainly inform them. With education comes massive behavioural changes, especially when you’re really into modding your body or your brain.

  • justONEguy

    You could have let me finish my morning coffee at least! Ugh! Bad BoingBoing! Bad!

  • jaypee

    While the acne is kinda gross, I always hear tales of the testicular shrinkage that occurs with steroid abuse. Is it bad that I’m more interested in seeing his tiny, pea-like testicles?

  • Takuan

    “to build huge muscles”. Yes, but how is this different than pathologies like anorexia?

  • Anonymous

    Did you follow the link Jeff?

  • nick courage

    @11 and @13: you may want to click through and reconsider.

  • Jeff

    #14, Ah, I didn’t click through and now that I have I think you’re right. I’ve seen stuff like that, but it was poison ivy that had become infected. The picture on the front page IS mild compared to the other. Yuk! And just when I was about to grab a cold piece of pizza for a snack.

  • markfrei

    While the verdict is still out on whether or not steroids can be used safely. I body build completely without them (and am vegetarian to boot) and have great results, albeit with a lot more work.

    While it’s a little heavy handed on the anti-steroid rhetoric, if you are new to natural bodybuilding I’d recommend Stuart McRobert’s classic Brawn.

    The main thrust is that exercises like squats, dead lifts and bench presses, done right and with enough weight will raise your testosterone levels. Studies have shown this kind of exercise is especially beneficial as men grow older as it will counter act the normal drop in testosterone that occurs overtime. Thus you can counteract a great deal of the muscle wasting and sexual performance impact of aging if you include weight training as part of your fitness regimen.

  • EyeSpy Guy

    The problem with legalizing steroids is that people won’t stay within a safe dosage range. “More is better”, and to get the results they really want they take crazy high doses.

    The long term results of abusing such potent drugs is pretty horrific. Mind you, an argument could be made for evolution in action, since they become sterile pretty fast.

  • Shawn Wolfe

    The lace patterning of those crusty abscesses is a little bit Steampunk right now.

  • pAULbOWEN

    #36 Jeff and #43 Markfrei: my understanding is that it’s excess testosterone that causes testicular atrophy; basically your nuts are like “Woo-hoo! Someone else is doing the work!” and they shut down for a while. Spooky but not irreversible, though I wouldn’t want to put that to the test. Conversely, presumably, excess oestrogen would make the lads work a bit harder so you’d have a big swingin’ pair upstairs and downstairs. What a world of marvels we inhabit.

  • pAULbOWEN

    #46 Shawn Wolfe: very good! We need a YA novel about steampunk I feel.

  • Sister Y

    Takuan – well . . . what’s a pathology? I think the sense you’re meaning it in is, when do we have the right to intervene for someone’s “own good”? This may sound strange, but I think we have to look at whether the person’s rationality is still intact. There are many things that can cause physical harm to the actor but aren’t “useful” – getting piercings and tattoos, being a fencer or other martial artist (whoa knee injuries), skydiving, sex. But I wouldn’t want to define them all away as pathology. I think the point at which intervention is justified is the point at which the person can’t rationally appreciate the risk he subjects himself to. So, no problem intervening with children, people with severe thought disorders walking along a cliff, etc.

    I don’t think all bodybuilders necessarily have body image problems so severe that they interfere with their rationality. (I’m not sure I buy into force feeding anorexics in all cases, either – a doctor I know said he thought force feeding was appropriate as long as the anorexic claimed to want to live, but still didn’t want to eat. That’s close to what I think.)

  • Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator
  • Takuan

    indeed. I suppose I only care when young people are led astray.

  • andygates

    @17: “The problem with legalizing steroids is that people won’t stay within a safe dosage range.”

    That’s true of most drugs – legal and illegal, prescription and homebrew, people think they know best. Some take too little and don’t get an effect; some take too much and explode into rainbow-coloured ground beef in public places. There will always be stupid people. It’s not a very compelling argument for control.

    On the other hand, EW at the acne. I’d definitely suggest changing that regimen – that’s making too much test and he’s wasting his money.

  • Kay the Complainer

    @35 – do you think it’s a parody? Shades of Betty Bowers, perhaps?

  • Jeff

    #16, The verdict is still out regarding the long term use of many things. The fact is, testosterone is being perscribed more and more as part of male hormone replacement therapy. That therapy seems to work very well (ten years of data show some issues, such as increased risk of prostate enlargement). What you said about excercise stimulating the production of testosterone has not been shown with clinical data (although it might be true in some cases). Actually, most data suggest that when the hormones start to drop, nothing short of replacement therapy works. One can stimulate the production of testosterone with DHEA and several other testosterone precursors, but then you’re looking at only a very small increase.

    Do you eat egg whites or use whey? I don’t meet many vegitarian body builders, although I’m sure they must be out there.

  • Kay the Complainer

    I mean the “soy makes you gay” thing, BTW.

  • RJ

    All I can think is, “nah. I’ll just have to be all fat and squishy for awhile.” I might be built like Pyle from “Full Metal Jacket,” but at least my personal anatomy is unaffected. I can lose weight, but that guy can’t rebuild his cojones.

    Also, and maybe I’m generalizing too much here, but it seems to me that men who abuse steroids and pump themselves up to unbelievably huge levels are probably suffering from the same kind of disorders as women who have extensive elective cosmetic surgery. It’s a type of body dysmorphism, isn’t it, that leads to that kind of recklessness?

    They need psychological help, if you ask me. But that’s coming from a disgusting fatbody. ;)

  • Jeff

    Moderator, I want a new puppy just to teach it how to do that! That would be so fun. Thanks :)

  • LeavingHalfway

    @35 Takuan

    [Citation Needed] :)

    *phew*

  • andygates

    I wonder if part of the reason that, for example, marijuana and LSD users are cut slack while steroid users are vilified has very little to do with the safety or otherwise of the drug or drug habit, and a lot more to do with people just knowing and respecting some stoners and acid heads but not having that human hook into juicers.

  • RJ

    @18
    Perfect chaser for cleansing the mental palate. Thanks.

  • markfrei

    #20 Jeff:
    I am not vegan – I’m vegetarian. While I do whey and eggs, Seitan and Tofu are also major sources for me.

    And while I’m not up to digging out the old copies of MD to back it up, I’m fairly certain there are a large number of recent clinical studies that show exactly what I speak up, particularly in the context of men aging.

    My point on steroids is I’m not going to insist they are all evil. I just know that there are questions and as such I prefer to follow a path that is consistent with my lifestyle. I avoid non-organic foods and try to solve medical issues without drugs when possible – so why would I use steroids when I am able to get excellent results without taking on unknown risks?

  • bsatow

    Scare tactics. This doesn’t have to every steroid user. Life longevity centers prescribe steroids and HGH to combat aging.

    There are the terms drug abuse and drug overdose. I think he OD’ed on steriods.

  • Clayton

    Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator:

    I’ve never seen any commercials quite like that. I see your point, and his/her tone did suck, but the point was no as ridiculous are flat out wrong as you made it. Many drug ad “scare tactics” do focus on medical facts that might as well be published by The Lancet. Not enough ads do, in my opinion, but many do, particularly in public school anti-drug programs. This is a scare tactic, yes, and so are many, many anti-drug campaigns using medical facts. There is not a difference.

  • sicklecell

    About testicle shrinkage from wiki. “This side effect is temporary: the size of the testicles usually returns to normal within a few weeks of discontinuing anabolic steroid use as normal production of sperm resumes”

    just thought you’d like to know I’m back to normal now…

  • Ugly Canuck

    So ’tis tah-tah to temporarily tiny testicles? Tsk!

  • pAULbOWEN

    Still tho, pretty ripped, huh?

  • vonmises

    Scare tactics for marijuana…you might, um, run out of potato chips sooner than you thought?

    All substances should be available in the marketplace. Steroids are safer than injecting bleach, which is not regulated. Freedom includes the freedom to make choices others would not.

    Thn gn, y cn’t hv tr frdm wth sclzd hlth cr stt, whr thrs r frcd t py fr th cnsqncs f yr dcsns.

    • Antinous

      vonmises,

      You’ve developed this unfortunate habit of trying to hijack threads to your pet causes. Please stop.

  • OM

    …I can see it now:

    “Hey! Crater-Chest!”

  • ill lich

    @KGB– Teresa got it dead on about the idea of “scare tactics”– the likelihood that you will puff one joint and end up robbing a bank to support your weed habit is less than negligible, but the odds are pretty good that unsupervised steroid use will cause you health problems. “Scare tactics” are essentially bogey-man stories concocted by bureaucrats to trick the public. It’s not a scare tactic to say “if you drink methyl alcohol you will go blind”– that’s just a medical fact, however it’s obviously a scare tactic to say “if you masturbate you will go blind.”

    This story reminds me of Gregg Valentino, a.k.a. “the man whose biceps exploded.” Google it if you’re curious, not quite as disgusting as the acne, but pretty bad (his physique is a true freak-show curiosity, even among body builders, like some kind of Jack Kirby-inspired monster-dwarf).

  • Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

    KGB @1:

    Just for clarification, it is okay to use scare tactics for steroids and not okay to use scare tactics for marijuana. Am I correct?

    No, you are not correct, and your tone sucks too.

    Let’s make a distinction here. Scare tactics are when the media haul out that old chestnut about the kid who ingests [pick one: moonshine, speed, marijuana/hash/THC, LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, Datura ssp., DMT, PCP, cocaine, MDA, MDEA, MDMA (Ecstasy), MMDA, crack, etc.]. When he wakes up next morning in his own bedroom, he has an axe in his hand, he’s covered with blood, and his whole family has been gruesomely murdered — but he has no memory of what happened. Or they warn about LSD-laced candy suckers or temporary tattoos being given out to children. Or they publish stories about some guy taking PCP, then slicing his own face to shreds and feeding the pieces to the dogs.

    Scary facts are when reputable sources (in this case, The Lancet) publish true if disturbing information about substance abuse. The thing is, steroid abuse really does cause all kinds of damage. Nicotine is more addictive than opiates. Huffing spraypaint or oven cleaner can kill you. Addiction to injected methamphetamine will turn you into a scabby emaciated nutjob with wrecked veins. Severe alcohol abuse plus malnutrition can leave you with Korsakoff’s Syndrome. Sucking smoke deep into your lungs and holding it there will eventually fill your lungs with tarry and possibly carcinogenic crap. Et cetera and so forth.

    Informing the public about scary drug facts is a mitzvah.

  • andygates

    @ #57 posted by Sister Y, exercise is a well-known treatment for depression – I used it to break out of a sub-clinical bipolar mess of a time. The endorphins and the feeling of control and progression over *something* is a big boost when all else is sliding around.

    “We see bodybuilders as being very culturally different from us, but really they’re just another flavor of obsessive nerd. … (Not super functional, but then, neither are other forms of body modification.)”

    I know bodybuilders who treat it exactly as body modification: tattoos, piercings and biceps are all instances of the same class to them. I also know bodybuilders who are pure physiology hackers – tweaking this and that to optimize their physical envelope. Some of those guys are very smart and very technical.

    Hacking the meat might be something the BoingBoing massive can understand at a more visceral level. :)

  • Ugly Canuck

    What is scary is how easily some are frightened…you have nothing to fear but…

  • Takuan

    there is plenty of soy controversy, some well informed, some pretty damned stupid.
    Re: Steroids: what is the purpose of taking them? Users all fall down on this point.