The fanartist in question is Avimedes, a Taiwanese fanartist who draws primarily for Undertale. On May 10th she posted on her Plurk (warning for images with blood, needles) that she was given cookies as a gift; she ate one and a needle pierced her tongue.
Here is a translation of her post:
Warning, these photos contain a lot of blood.
I’m very sorry that I haven’t had a chance to say my thanks (for the convention?) and I am venting. But I received a needle in my dessert gift from the convention. Thank you, I have one more piercing now.
I am not trying to ask for comfort, I am only trying to tell everyone how serious is this matter, so do not comfort me.
This matter is unable to be investigated and hopeless to be investigated. This matter has made me lost of trust towards something, but from today onwards, I will not be accepting any more handmade food by others.
Any more follow up and notice will be posted(if there’s any), thank you for your attention.
From discussion (Twitter, Reddit) it seems likely that she was given these cookies because she draws Sans/Frisk art, and a “fan” decided that drawing a ship they didn’t like was worthy of attempted murder. Had Avimedes swallowed the needle it could have done considerable and possibly irreparable internal damage.
So I will say this again: DO NOT HARM REAL PEOPLE OVER FICTIONAL ENTITIES. I don’t care what the content is. These purity crusades need to STOP. The amount of vitriol and anger that the anti-shipping circles not only accept but encourage is dangerous, unhealthy, and unless stopped will lead to more people being hurt. There’s already been at least one incident of an artist being harassed into a suicide attempt.
Your moral indignation/righteous anger/upset feelings DO NOT justify the injury or death of other people. You have every right to protect yourself from viewing objectionable content, but that right stops far, far short of hurting other people. Going on these crusades DOES NOT HELP against the sort of issues that are purportedly being championed; it only causes more harm. We need to break away from this mindset, from purity culture, before someone is permanently injured or dies.
FICTION =/= REALITY STOP HURTING PEOPLE
Add to that the many many stories of real people being harassed and threatened over ships.
I know in some Western fandoms, the girlfriends or wives of actors get threatened for “interfering with ships”. As though the actors are their characters, and not permitted to have personal lives outside their work.
Creators have been harassed and threatened over Ships.
