TIMES SQUARE — A diehard Michael Jackson fan who went to the Madame Tussauds wax museum to see a sculpture of The Gloved One was badly scalded when staff tried to make a mold of her hand, a new lawsuit charges.
Bronx resident Tahkyia Brady is suing Madame Tussauds, claiming she suffered second-degree burns on her wrist after a gift shop employee dipped her arm into extremely hot wax.
“My skin came off. I was like, ‘Oh my, God,’” Brady told DNAinfo New York, recalling the April 27, 2013 incident.
Brady, 34, had been celebrating her wedding anniversary in Times Square when a barker for Madam Tussauds cajoled her into visiting the West 42nd Street museum, she said.
“I’m a Michael Jackson fan, and the guy said they had a Michael Jackson figure inside, so I decided to go in and see it,” she said.
After checking out the museum's celebrity sculptures, she decided to purchase a $13 wax cast of her hand as a souvenir in the gift shop.
“There were kids in line doing it, so I was thinking everything was fine,” Brady said.
A gift shop employee took her hand and dipped it into a cylinder of hot wax, according to the lawsuit filed in Bronx Supreme Court on Monday. Brady complained the wax was “really hot,” and a worker told her it was 175 degrees, she said.
The worker pulled her hand out of the wax and dipped it in ice water. He dipped her hand in the wax twice more — all while Brady complained of the heat, she said.
When the employee pulled her hand out of the wax the last time, sheets of her skin fell off, Brady said. A museum manager gave her burn cream, but by the time Brady got home, her forearm was inflamed and blistered, she said.
Brady went to urgent care the next morning and was treated for second-degree burns, she said.
The museum did not respond to a request for comment.
Brady, a city employee who lives in Parkchester, describes herself as a Michael Jackson fanatic, with posters of The King of Pop in her home and even her own wax statue of the star.
“I have a life-size Michael Jackson that looks way better than the one [the museum] has,” she said.
