BUNBURY man Dylan Thomas may have been through an ordeal which has horrified a lot of people – but he’s keen to commemorate the experience so it can never be forgotten.
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The ex-Australind Senior High School student is hoping his mates will chip in for a spider tattoo which will cover his chest similar to Spiderman’s famous suit.
Mr Thomas may be joking about whether he'll develop "superpowers" but on the weekend he was experiencing a "searing sensation" as a spider that had made its way into his abdomen through an old appendix scar, crawled underneath his skin, all the way up to his sternum.
He has become an overnight media sensation with outlets across WA and interstate contacting him for interviews.
The horrifying incident happened while Mr Thomas, now known as 'spiderman' to his friends, was holidaying on the Indonesian island.
"It wasn't really a tickling sensation, obviously once the venom started to affect my skin it was a really burning sensation like a searing feeling," he said.
Mr Thomas said he believed the spider had burrowed into his abdomen on Friday night as he noticed a mark on his stomach on Saturday morning that continued to worsen.
An initial visit to a doctor on Sunday saw him diagnosed as having been bitten by an insect and sent away with antihistamines.
Mr Thomas spent another day with the insect tunneling inside of him before going to a hospital.
"Well after running tests and putting things inside my stomach they finally found out it was a tropical spider that's been living inside of me for the last 3 days, managed to get it out luckily," he told his Facebook friends.
Two doctors who initially assessed him "had no idea" what was causing the marks on Mr Thomas's skin until they called in a specialist dermatologist.
The spider was eventually removed with tweezers. It was dead when pulled out.
Mr Thomas said he was keen to return to Bali but he might opt for a “nicer location” such as Seminyak instead of throwing himself into the heart of Kuta.
He’s hoping the incident will leave behind a “gnarly scar” and would hit up his mates to chip in for a spider tattoo across his chest.
