Bazooka Hands / Bazooka Arms / Руки Базуки

About

Bazooka Hands, also known in Russian as Руки Базуки or formerly known as Bazooka Arms, is the nickname of a Russian man named Kirill Tereshin (Кирилл Терешин) who became internet famous after he injected his biceps with three liters of petroleum jelly (Vaseline) to achieve massive arms that have deteriorated over time. It's also alleged that he injected himself with Synthol, similar to Rodrigo Ferraz. He first became known on VK in 2017 and later on Instagram in 2018. He then fought in the Russian MMA. In the early 2020s, he became known on TikTok under the username @officialbazookahands. In 2022, many on TikTok believed that Bazooka Hands was dead or about to die due to his increasingly unwell appearance and TikTok Lives which resulted in their own concerns.

Background

Kirill Tereshin (Кирилл Терешин) was born on August 6th, 1996, in Moscow, Russia.^[1] Before his bicep injection and later internet fame, Kirill Tereshin was a soldier in the Russian army, joining the forces in 2016 when he was 20 years old.^[2] On March 13th, 2018, he shared photos from this time in his life on his Instagram^[2][3] (shown below).

Sometime in 2017, Tereshin injected Synthol into his arms according to Complex^[4] in October 2019. Others like Rodrigo Ferraz 'Synthol Man' became famous for Synthol injection online prior to Tereshin. Other publications like the New York Post^[5] reported that it was petroleum jelly (aka Vaseline) that was injected into Tereshin's arms. It is currently unconfirmed which substance out of the two was injected by Tereshin.

Online History

Tereshin started his online presence in 2017 on the Russian social media site VK^[6] under the username rukibazuki_official. His first VK^[7] post was uploaded on December 8th, 2017, gaining over 280 likes and roughly 202,000 views in five years. Prior to this, Tereshin was being covered by Russian news outlets. For instance, one news segment about him was uploaded to YouTube on November 3rd, 2017, gaining roughly 14,000 views in five years (shown below).

On March 13th, 2018, Tereshin made his first post to Instagram^[8] on his initial account called ruki_bazuki_official. The post was a black-and-white photo of him with his then-recent biceps, gaining over 490 likes in four years. He posted to his Instagram^[2][3] multiple times on March 13th, 2018, and continued posting to Instagram going into 2019.

On July 19th, 2018, he uploaded his first YouTube^[9] video, a music video for his song "Grant." Over the course of four years, the video received roughly 242,100 views (shown below, left). Besides Tereshin's own videos, Russian YouTubers made videos about him as early as 2017. For instance, on November 25th, 2017, YouTuber LIKE SHOCK uploaded a skit about Tereshin, gaining roughly 10 million views in five years (shown below, right).

MMA Fighting

In 2018, Tereshin entered the world of MMA under the nickname "Popeye" in reference to the cartoon character. For instance, on August 26th, 2018, the YouTube channel TRUE GYM MMA uploaded a video of Tereshin training, gaining roughly 2.4 million views in four years (shown below, left). On July 23rd, 2021, the YouTuber Асхаб Тамаев posted a video of Tereshin fighting, gaining roughly 6 million views in one year (shown below, right).

On TikTok

On June 8th, 2022, Tereshin uploaded his first TikTok^[10] to his account officialbazookahands, gaining roughly 1 million plays and 3,600 likes in five months (shown below, left). Tereshin's account continued to gain followers and engagement. For instance, on August 7th, 2022, he uploaded a TikTok^[11] that gained roughly 14.7 million plays and 75,100 likes in three months (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References