Shiny or painted? Twitter debate rages over photo of legs

Forget the debate about “The Dress.” Twitter is abuzz about “The Legs.”

The controversy swirling now is about whether a photo of a pair of legs shows them shiny or streaked with white paint.

A Twitter user ignited the debate by posting the photo with a question Tuesday: “Are these legs shiny and oily or are they legs with white paint on them?”

Many speculated the legs were covered in baby oil or even plastic wrap , while others see only paint.

So what’s the right answer? The marks are indeed white paint and the photo offers a clue to their origin as the legs are surrounded by art supplies.

Many say that once they see the paint, the optical illusion of shiny legs is forever lost.

The Instagram user who originally posted the photo last month with the simple caption of, “I like the feeling of paint on my skin,” has been identified by several outlets as Hunter Culverhouse. She says she didn’t set out to confuse the internet when she posted the picture.

“I was finishing off some art homework and had some white paint left on my brush and just decided to draw random lines. I had no intentions of making it look shiny,” Culverhouse told Buzzfeed.

The controversy over the legs’ appearance brings to mind last year’s heated discussion around the colour of a dress, which appeared to shift from black and blue to white and gold depending on the light.