Cellphone Tower Radiation Effects

About

Cellphone Tower Radiation Effects refers to a political art piece by conspiracy theorist David Dees showing someone holding a cellphone near a crying girl and a cellphone tower. The cell tower and phone are both emitting radio waves that cause half of the girl's face to tear away, revealing her skull. The piece was first uploaded to Dees' website in 2009 and became a popular exploitable meme in 2019 as people photoshopped various aspects of the image, usually to make it appear as if the cellphone is transforming the girl.

Origin

Around August 2009, artist David Dees uploaded a piece of artwork to his now-inactive website depicting his interpretations of the effects of radiowaves from cellphone towers on people. The image shows a young girl crying as half her face is torn away due to radiation from a cell tower and phone. The art is done in his typically grotesque, shocking style and is based on conspiracy theories about cellular signals causing cancer and other negative effects. It was one of many examples featured in a since-deleted 2010 article posted to Uproxx^[1] criticizing Dees for his antisemitic and controversial opinions and artwork in general.

The image was widely used by conspiracy websites in anti-cellphone and radiation-based articles over the following years, including in a since-deleted article about the alleged dangers of cellphones and WiFi on fetuses on conspiracy theorist David Icke's website^[2] in October 2013. On March 21st, 2019 the image was shared on /r/im14andthisisdeep,^[3] gaining over 764 upvotes in two years. That year the image started to see an increase in photoshops. On September 12th, Redditor u/shmitler77 posted a version of the image with the label "5G" on the phone to /r/cringepics, gaining over 200 upvotes in two years (shown below). This is one of the earliest edits of the image.

Spread

The image became significantly popular on Tumblr over the following years. On December 15th, 2019, Tumblr^[4] user daily-shitpost-bakery.tumblr posted an edit of the image replacing the image on the phone screen, gaining over 1,070 notes in roughly two years (shown below).

On August 29th, 2020, Redditor u/Barkie22 posted a version of the meme to /r/walterlore featuring an image of the dog Walter on the phone, gaining over 820 upvotes in a year (shown below).

In many photoshops, the cellphone acts as a device that transforms the girl due to radio waves. On February 8th, 2021, Tumblr^[5] user empezardexerox posted a version where the girl turns into Jotchua due to the radiation, gaining over 500 notes in seven months (shown below, left). On April 13th, Tumblr^[6] page grawly posted a version of the Jotchua image with distorted eyes in the context of a Discord conversation, gaining over 3,000 notes in five months (shown below, right).

On June 5th, Tumblr^[8] user gae-bolg-alternative-dot-exe posted a version of the image where the child turns into Riamu Yumemi, gaining over 1,500 notes in three months (shown below, left). On September 21st, Instagram^[7] page @patrickwarburtonfan53 posted an image of the girl transforming into Ralsei from Deltarune, gaining over 11,000 likes in a day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References