Aspirin A10s Hoax

About

Aspirin A10s refers to a social media hoax claiming that consuming dangerously high amounts of aspirin, a common anti-inflamatory drug and a melanin inhibitor, can lead to eye color changing from brown to blue. The myth was spawned by a viral X / Twitter post and was followed by jokes and memes on the platform in October 2023. A10s is a reference to the light-blue color of eyes on the 1998 Eye Chart.

Origin

On August 10th, 2023, X^[1] user @kogito83 posted photographs of their eyes, insisting that they have changed color to a greener shade of brown, writing, "seriously the brown is literally receding lol" (post since made private). The post gained over 30 quote tweets and 360 likes prior to being made private. Later that day, X user @cynomaxxx commented, "Aspirin," with another user replying, "What about aspirin makes eyes lighter?" @cynomaxxx then quoted^[2] the reply with an edited version of the 1998 Eye Chart captioned with aspirin dosages supposedly required to change eye color to shades of blue, commenting that aspirin inhibits melanin production and that "a10 conquerors can be yours." The post (shown below) received over 430 reposts and 2,800 likes on X in two months.

Spread

Later on August 10th, 2023, X^[3] user @footslurper posted a photograph of himself holding seven aspirin tablets in his hand captioned "Just hold on hitler I'm coming." The post (shown below, left) gained over 390 reposts and 3,600 likes in two months. Two months later, on October 2nd, 2023, @footslurper quoted^[4] the post with a photograph of hazel eye and its edited version in which the shade of the eye was changed to light blue. The post (shown below, right) garnered over 1,700 reposts and 13,600 likes in four days.

The post achieved viral spread on X through quote posts and, later on other platform through reposts. For example, on October 2nd, YouTuber Shoe0nHead posted^[5] screenshots of @footslurper and @cynomaxxx's posts, writing, "i believe in him." The post (shown below) received over 5,400 reposts and 102,000 likes in four days.

Community notes clarifying that consuming high dosage of aspirin will not lead to the change of eye color but can cause poisoning with symptoms such as seizures, coma and respirator arrest were added to this and some other viral posts.^[5]

The viral spread of @footslurper's post was followed by jokes and memes about changing eye color by consuming 50 grams of aspirin daily.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References