Octopus attacks woman in face while she posed for photo

TACOMA, Washington -- It started as a fun picture and ended with a venomous octopus biting a woman's face.

Jamie Bisceglia met up with some fishermen who had hooked an octopus during a fishing derby and she saw an opportunity for an unusual picture.

"It was a photo contest in the derby," said Bisceglia. "So, crazy me, hindsight now and looking back, I probably made a big mistake."

Bisceglia put the small octopus on her face and posed for the picture. It grabbed her face with its suckers and then did something she didn't expect: It bit her on the face.

"It had barreled its beak into my chin and then let go a little bit and did it again," she recalled. "It was a really intense pain when it went inside and it just bled, dripping blood for a long time."

Bisceglia said the octopus was a smaller version of a Giant Pacific octopus that lives in the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.

According to a spokeswoman, it could also be a Pacific Red octopus.

KIRO-TV reports both species have powerful beaks used to break and eat crabs, clams and mussels, and their bite contains a venom to immobilize their prey.

Bisceglia said the venom left her in incredible pain, but as the owner of South Sound Salmon Sisters, a fishery and clothing line, she kept fishing for two more days before she finally went to the emergency room.

"I'm still in pain," Bisceglia said. "I'm on three different antibiotics. This can come and go, the swelling, for months they say."

She said the whole painful experience taught her a valuable lesson about handling a live octopus.

"This was not a good idea," she said. "Hindsight, looking back, I will never do it again."