Paulo Henrique dos Santos, a pool attendant from Brazil, wanted so much to impersonate the Incredible Hulk for a local running event that he painted himself with green industrial paint. He later found out the paint won’t come off no matter how hard he scrubbed.

I always thought becoming a superhero was hard, but a young Brazilian Hulk fan proves it’s returning to human form that’s really tricky. According to Brazilian news site Globo Extra, 35-year-old Paulo Henrique dos Santos achieved celebrity status in the Villa Cruzeiro favela of Rio Janeiro, after he covered himself in green industrial paint, only to realize it won’t wash off. His intention was to dress up as the popular superhero for a running event, but since shops didn’t have the brand of paint he normally used, this “genius” decided to go with industrial paint normally used for ballistic missiles and nuclear submarines.

Photo: Fabio Guimaraes/Extra

When it was time to remove the green paint, dos Santos noticed that no matter how hard he scrubbed, it would not wash off. He took 20 baths in two days, desperate to remove his improvised Hulk costume, but had no success. As if the embarrassed of having all his neighbors laugh at him as he walked around his neighborhood  wasn’t enough, photos of him and his mother trying to remove the paint went viral on the Internet. He was also forced to sleep in a room filled with plastic bags and feared the industrial paint could cause lead poisoning.

Photo: Fabio Guimaraes/Extra

Lucky for Paulo, this story has a happy ending. After a whole team of family and friends scrubbed him for 24 hours, the man finally succeeded in removing the green paint. Despite everything he had to go through, the wannabe Hulk says he doesn’t regret the incident…

Photo: Fabio Guimaraes/Extra