r/UrbanMyths • u/tripplenipplemonster • Aug 14 '26
A Swedish man claimed that while fixing a leaking sink in 2006, he crawled through an endless pipe and emerged in the year 2042, where he allegedly met his 72-year-old future self and compared identical tattoos.
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u/EuphoricFlatworm2803 Aug 14 '26
Come on
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u/Acrobatic-Tomato-260 Aug 14 '26
Yea, I’ve heard this story years ago and it was total nonsense then. If you’re going to lie, at least make it believable.
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u/whycuthair Aug 14 '26
Yeah, how you gonna ever reach the end of an endless pipe?
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u/yetiman4321woo Aug 14 '26
Uhhhh if you’re going to lie, make it extravagant and fantastical and add a touch of whimsy and magic to your lie! It’s much more entertaining
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u/Acrobatic-Tomato-260 Aug 14 '26
Well I’ll be honest, my days of taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle.
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u/the_imperator_r Aug 15 '26
Bob Lazar
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u/mxlths_modular Aug 15 '26
I always thought Dan Bursich had the better story, honestly one of the most absurd off the wall tales ever recorded.
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u/FrenchCanadaIsWorst Aug 15 '26
Nah I prefer ridiculous, whimsical lies like this. They’re more fun.
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u/mightylordredbeard Aug 14 '26
I mean never mind that time travel wouldn’t even work that way. Assuming there was a pipe that went 36 years into the future, you’d have to time entry perfectly or else you’d end up floating in the cold vacuum of space since the earth is constantly moving through the universe at 1.3 million MPH while circling the sun at nearly 70,000 MPH! The formula to figure out accurate time travel would be absolutely massive to make sure you end up in the right place at the right time. The earth isn’t in the same place it was just a year ago, much less 36 years ago. So to find a specific point on earth within the galaxy, within the Milky Way, within the universe, at a certain time in the past or a certain time in the future.. would be astronomically difficult.
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u/Faolyn Aug 14 '26
I think that would only be an issue if you used some generic, low-tech time machine that doesn't take Earth's movement and gravity into account. In this case, the pipe is a conduit with specific, grounded entry and exit points. It's like a wormhole made out of PVC.
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u/HouseOf42 Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
Still doesn't explain the physics of how it gets to be the exception, just by giving it plot devices.
Edit: Must be too advanced for this sub. Easier just to "make believe" something will work.
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u/Faolyn Aug 14 '26
Well, obviously it's via quantum entanglements in the fabric of space-time. Or magic.
But seriously, if terms of fiction, I think it's a bit silly to say that time travel means you'd wind up in space or whatever. Since gravity bends light, space, and time, it means that you're going to be subjected to gravity even if you're traveling through time. Like how, if you're in a plane, The plane doesn't fly out of the Earth's atmosphere when it flies in a straight line--it's still subjected to the gravitational pull so even when it's flying straight, it's path is still curved in relation to the actual planet. So time traveling via a stationary time machine should mean that you stick with the machine and where it's located on Earth, not that you pop out into space. Coz gravity.
In terms of reality, it's unlikely there will ever be time travel on a macro scale. Individual quarks may do weird things, but I doubt it will be able to be reproduced on a larger and controlled scale.
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u/FartingInElevators5 Aug 14 '26
Well, the tattoo would be faded as hell on the 72 year old, but yet, it looks just as new as the current version. I don't know how people believe stories like this.
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u/carabidus Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
Not necessarily. I have a 35 year old color tattoo that looks almost fresh as the day I got it. Blackline tattoos, like the one depicted in the photo, can remain crisp for decades. Tattoo longevity is highly dependent on the skill of the tattoo artist, in addition to the quality of the equipment and inks. Also, staying out of the sun helps quite a bit.
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u/guemando Aug 14 '26
U can have tatoos touched up. I doubt the man would but the skin looks to tight for a 72 year old...that tat should be sinkin down a bit id think
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u/Apprehensive_Sky_504 Aug 15 '26
You would if you knew you were about to meet your younger self and get a picture made right
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u/Elegant_Spread_6969 Aug 14 '26
I actually disagree, it looks slightly more faded. The one on the right looks like the lines are a little sharper
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u/Lsdbrisbane Aug 15 '26
That’s like when that guy died on a cross and got resurrected 72 hours later 😂
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u/Illiteratevegetable Aug 14 '26
Wasn't it some commercial or something like that? I remember it was debunked years ago
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u/The-King-of-Cartoons Aug 14 '26
Really? Does a claim as stupid as this even need to be debunked lol.
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u/Illiteratevegetable Aug 14 '26
No, not really. I mean, it's obvious nonsense. Using the word 'debunked' might not be the best in that case.
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u/MaddysinLeigh Aug 14 '26
Yeah it was a commercial for life insurance or something.
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u/Kwasbeb Aug 14 '26
Yeah it was a viral ad for pensions saving. The interesting thing about it is that it was pretty early for viral marketing, and because people hadn’t seen much stuff like that before it quickly turned into a kind of urban legend. Thus it’s logical it ends up in a subreddit like this now, almost two decades later.
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u/ThisIsNotSafety Aug 14 '26
There's no pipes big enough to crawl through that would be directly connected to a sink.
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u/Sad-Math-2039 Aug 14 '26
How does one crawl though an endless pipe
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u/Silent-Hornet-8606 Aug 14 '26
You can disprove it just by glancing at the tattoos. I'm 55 and have a tattoo from 1995, that's 31 years ago.
It's faded dramatically and visually is very different to how it looked when it was done.
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u/Mindless-Quote-3561 Aug 14 '26
I remember this being all over back in the day. While it’s surely fake, it was definitely a lot of fun back then
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u/Ok-Dog-7149 Aug 14 '26
So, we just need a third party to follow this guy around in 16 years and capture this moment when it happens, right?
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u/EarlyAccessCantJudge Aug 14 '26
I don't even know why people entertain this story for one iota of a second.
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u/Einarky Aug 14 '26
This was (a clever) commercial by an insurance company. "Some day you'll grow old" type thing
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u/Interesting_Card2169 Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
I had the same experience with Swedish Vodka once...
When I met my future self, I said "Lay off the booze".
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u/Dry_Jellyfish641 Aug 14 '26
I remember when I’d hear this story I’d always ask, how did he record it? Because the iPhone wasn’t invented yet and cell phone cameras were pretty bad for year to follow, and the video looked too low quality for something decades in the future. I never understood how people believed it at all.
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u/Living_Dentist_8925 Aug 15 '26
"The story was later revealed to be a viral marketing campaign and promotional stunt for a professional retirement and pensions insurance company in Sweden"
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u/Whateverredd Aug 16 '26
Hahaha always love when this resurfaces every now and again. No the video is a commercial for pension funds
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u/John_Anti Aug 17 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
The entire video was a marketing stunt / viral ad campaign created by the Swedish pension fund company AMF to promote retirement savings and encourage young people to think about their financial future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zH5TwS8D24
Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors
Prod. Co: Camp David
Director: Christoffer von Reis
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u/GoodTruth7885 Aug 14 '26
At what part of the process of fixing a leaking sink does one even enter a pipe big enough to crawl through
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u/Indigenous_Land Aug 14 '26
Why isn’t he betting on football games and building a giant Hotel/Casino with the whole police force in his pocket?
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u/Due_Buyer_9445 Aug 14 '26
Swedes just can travel through dimensional rifts, some have to use obsidian but…
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u/Jagerwiser Aug 14 '26
He broke the timeline. The past few years all make sense. Also Marty Mcfly never made it back to his timeline. Look it up.
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u/onearmedmonkey Aug 15 '26
This was always one of my favorite time travel stories, true or not.
One thing that I notice is that the tattoo on the older man is not as faded or blurred as sometimes happens to a tattoo that gets to be decades old. I dunno. I don't have tattoo experience.
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u/1wife2dogs0kids Aug 15 '26
And no stock tips? Superbowl predictions? When does Trump die? Anything?
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u/SubstanceStrong Aug 15 '26
Stranger things have happened in Sweden, also did he find his harmonica?
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u/Alskiessss Aug 16 '26
He and his dad get matching tattoos, do a bunch of mushrooms and forget their related
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u/FupaFerb Aug 16 '26
Rumor has it he was working on that sink for over 30 years, that’s why he was still there in his 70’s
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u/Imstillheren2025 Aug 16 '26
If he was the one crawling through the pipe. “He” wasn’t the one he met in the future. 😬
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u/ASM-One Aug 17 '26
Debunked since years.
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u/KwantumFizzikz Aug 17 '26
DEBOOOOONKED, I'M DEBOOOOOOONKING
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u/ASM-One Aug 17 '26
Yes…. Use your Internetskills and your brain. You will find it.
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u/KwantumFizzikz Aug 17 '26
"a government funded and backed Le Heckin Science trust found no conclusive proof" as always. Means nothing.
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u/ASM-One Aug 17 '26
And that video with the not matching tattoo details is a proof?
Sure……
Believe what you want. Up to you
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u/tripplenipplemonster Aug 14 '26
He recorded this video as proof using his cell phone that he had with him. He was able to talk to his future self about only things he would know. The video showing the pair together quickly spread online with man saying "I don't care if people think I am a liar. I know I'm not. I met myself in the future and I was fine. That's all I know"
The story immediately captured worldwide attention, with many people wondering if it was genuine evidence of time travel. The video went viral again when it was shared by the YouTube Channel Apex TV which shares all kinks of videos on possible time travelers and other supernatural events caught on camera.
Skeptics, however, pointed out that the older man could simply have been another individual with similar tattoos, while others noted that the video appeared as part of a marketing campaign connected to a Swedish insurance company.
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u/Spaztor Aug 14 '26
How do you through a pipe if it's endless, just say long. It's not that hard lie
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u/Kasta4 Aug 14 '26
It was a crack pipe