Man Ripping Off His Face
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About
Man Ripping Off His Face refers to the 2001 painting titled Face-Off by Chinese artist Xue Jiye, which depicts a naked man sitting on the floor tearing off his face with his hands and screaming. Online, the painting has been adopted as a reaction image, typically used to convey feelings of anguish, frustration and awkwardness.
Origin
In 2001, Chinese artist Xue Jiye painted Face-Off (originally untitled), an oil-on-canvas painting depicting a naked man sitting in a corner tearing his face off with his hands and screaming (seen below). On January 31st, 2021, Xue Jiye uploaded the painting to his official Instagram[1] account, garnering over 3,500 likes in roughly three years.
On September 18th, 2013, Tumblr[2] user Pixography posted the painting, with the post gaining over 2,400 likes and reblogs in 11 years.
On July 22nd, 2015, X[3] / Twitter user @nrlswirl used Face-Off, along with two other thematically similar paintings by Xue Jiye, in a caption meme, which is the earliest found use of the painting in a meme (shown below). The post gained just six retweets and 30 likes in nine years.
Spread
On October 8th, 2020, X[4] user @PainxPiss posted the earliest found viral meme using the picture, a How It Started / How It's Going meme that gained over 38,000 reposts and 210,000 likes in four years (shown below).
On December 4th, YouTuber Shoe0nHead used the image as a reaction to videos about actor Elliot Page's transition, with the post (shown below) gaining over 5,300 reposts and 94,000 likes on X[5] in four years.
On December 20th, 2020, Redditor boobioboobs combined the image with a snippet of a Bloomberg Wealth article about tax cuts for the rich. The post gained over 290 upvotes in the /r/catsaysmao[6] subreddit in four years and was widely circulated through reposts on X[7] and Tumblr.[8]
The image saw increased presence as a reaction and a caption format in 2024, with multiple posts based on it going viral on X / Twitter.
Various Examples
Template
Search Interest
External References
[2] Tumblr – pixography
[4] X – @PainxPiss
[5] X – @shoe0nhead
[6] Reddit – Oh really?
[7] X – @SocDoneLeft
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