We set out once to film nematocysts actually penetrating human flesh. Repeatedly, we had been stung during the expedition and learnt to our cost not to be careless handling our subjects. Apart from the intense pain of the initial contact with even the smallest part of a tentacle, there shortly follows a migration of the pain to the lymph nodes – especially those under the arm. A nauseous aching starts there and continues for hours. So it was with some trepidation that we set everything up, on-purpose, to be stung on camera.
We were in very close on the finger that was to be offered to the tentacle, and through the camera viewfinder, I could see my own finger trembling as my partner brought the Man-o-war and its tentacles alongside the finger. Again and again we tried.
Could we get it to work? Could we, heck! Trying it without a finger, and with a touch of acetic acid and the tentacles exploded into activity – nematocysts firing off in every conceivable direction. To this day we have never been able to explain this. We have however succeeded in filming the event, and I’ve included still pictures that we took at the time, in more than one of the spreads.
