by J.L. Shioshita—
Picture this: you’re standing in front of the bathroom mirror, scrutinizing every perceived imperfection, a ritual you perform nightly. You fixate on every line, wrinkle, and pore, each one magnified in your mind’s eye, like you’re examining rover images from the surface of Mars, gazing at an alien landscape that’s dry and inhospitable to life.
You hate what you see, your reflection mocking you like a deformed anti-version of the models you follow on social media. If you weren’t a civilized human being, you would punch the mirror and fracture it into a hundred jagged pieces as they do in the movies … the ones with all those beautiful people.
Over time, you’ve become desperate and angry, frustration boiling inside of you like a hot cauldron because despite having tried every fad skin care routine you could get your hands on, from the multi-step processes that took hours to complete to the one-shot miracle treatments claiming the world, nothing has worked. You’ve sunk thousands of hours and thousands of dollars into a face that refuses to be beautiful despite what your well-meaning friends and family might tell you. They’re blind to the truth; only you can see reality. It’s a cruel joke, and you’ve lost your sense of humor.
Tonight, you’re going to try something new. All the fancy lab-concocted bottle cures haven’t worked, so you’re moving on to natural home remedies. Maybe this will finally give you the results you desire. You found an influencer espousing the beauty benefits of the common black sesame seed and want to try it out for yourself. You once again resist that urge to punch out the mirror and instead turn to the bathtub, which has slowly been filling with steaming water. You grab the bag of black sesame seeds you purchased from the Asian market and pour the entire contents into the bath water, watching the tiny black seeds swirl and spiral through an invisible vortex, skittering across the water’s surface like a colony of tiny insects. You drop your robe, whisper a prayer, and climb in.
The water feels comforting against your body, and you slowly drift off to sleep, lulled by the soothing scent of a chamomile soy wax candle you have lit on the toilet beside the tub. You don’t know how long it’s been when you finally wake up, but something feels different. Your skin feels different. It feels tighter. You excitedly scramble out of the bathtub and head toward the mirror. You grab a damp hand towel and frantically wipe away the condensation. Then, you gasp.
Staring back at you is a hideous monster. Hundreds of tiny black sesame seeds have wedged themselves into the pores of your face, stretching them open like craters on the moon. You try to wipe them off in a panic, but they refuse to budge. They are embedded too deeply within your skin. You grab a pair of tweezers and attempt to dig them out one by one. The pain is excruciating as blood seeps from the open pores, but you don’t stop. You can’t stop.
You finally succeed at plucking one out and are horrified to find tiny roots jutting out from the seed and into your skin. You scream and dig deeper. Soon, your face is a red mask as the sink fills with pieces of flesh and black seeds. Eventually, you collapse onto the tile floor from blood loss, your listless eyes staring up at the ceiling, wondering if you’ll ever be beautiful, as the room fades to white.
The relentless pursuit of eternal beauty has led many people to pursue extreme and bizarre treatment plans. Compared to snail facials, fish pedicures, Japanese Nightingale facials, and Bathory-style blood baths, this particular skincare ritual involving black sesame seeds seems almost mundane. What harm could come from soaking in a tub full of tiny seeds? Yet according to this urban legend, which originates from South Korea, this seemingly harmless practice can be pretty dangerous.
The legend tells the story of a woman desperate for flawless skin who decides to try a treatment where she soaks in a bath filled with black sesame seeds. It’s supposed to rejuvenate the skin, leaving a healthy glow and tiny pores (if that’s your thing). However, in the end, things take a turn for the worse when the tiny seeds become lodged in the woman’s pores, and try as she might, she cannot remove them.
In some versions of the tale, the woman seeks medical help and learns that some of the seeds have actually taken root within her pores. In others, she uses a sharp implement to remove them, scarring her face further. It’s enough to make anyone queasy, especially those who suffer from trypophobia (fear of clustered holes). Those of you who have a gut reaction at the sight of a lotus pod know precisely how that feels.
But is there any truth to this tall tale?
Well, luckily, no. There are no reported cases of anyone getting sesame seeds lodged in the pores of their skin. The story likely stems from a cultural fascination with high beauty standards and an obsession with ornate skincare routines prevalent in South Korea. Black sesame seeds are an easy target as they are already commonly used in beauty treatments and cosmetics. You also find them as a staple ingredient in Korean cuisine, where they are toasted and considered nutritious. In fact, there is a separate urban legend warning against eating raw sesame seeds because it’s said they will sprout and grow inside of your stomach (similar to the American legend about eating watermelon seeds).
So, if you want to bathe in a tub full of the little black kernels, have at it. There’s no danger at all. The only real horror is falling prey to the fake representations of beauty we’re all bombarded with from the media and influencers each and every day.
HWA Colorado 