It was the question everyone on the Internet was asking. The mystery everyone wanted to solve. But just when you thought that the virtual world was over #TheDress, one man has given the viral debate another boost into the limelight.
Daniel Howland of Austin, Texas, has marked the temporary trend permanantly on his leg with a tattoo of the famed bodycon dress. The tattoo features a blue and black dress along with the words "White and Gold?"
The brouhaha began last week with a Tumblr post of a lacy dress and a question: "Is it white and gold or blue and black?" The photo and the mystery went viral.
The picture of the dress, sold in Royal-blue by British retailer Roman Originals, led to confusion between friends and family as some were sure the dress was white and gold while others were adamant that it was blue and black.
Jay Neitz, a neuroscientist at the University of Washington, told Wired that the image of the dress hits a "perception boundary". Our eyes perceive colours based on different wavelengths that reflect off what we see. The disparity on the picture is due to people's eyes compensating for the lighting in the photo in different ways.
According to The Daily Mail, Howland, 24, spent just 20 minutes getting the image of the now famous dress inked on his leg. He then posted a picture of the ink job on his Instagram account.
"It was one Internet thing that I really couldn't wrap my brain around. It was very frustrating. Because of this, I thought it would be fun to get the dress tattooed on my leg," he said.
Howland initially saw the dress as white and gold, but now sees it as exclusively as black and blue.
In an interview with ABC, Howland said: "I thought it was funny that it upset a lot of people and I had a spot on my leg I didn't care about."
After receiving criticisms for his seemingly frivolous choice, Howland posted another picture of the tattoo, this time captioned with the words, "Still a better tattoo than infinity sign spouse name. Feather exploding into birds. Etc."
Speaking to The Daily Mail he said: "Either people really love it, or they think I'm a complete tool. Some of my friends also think I'm stupid for doing it. But my parents think it's really funny. I didn't see a reason not to have it done."
Over the weekend scientists and celebrities like Taylor Swift, Jimmy Fallon and Singapore's own Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made their stand, hashtags were spawned and multiple article were writen. Here are some memes the hot debate generated over the weekend.
