User blog comment:Rapture's Daddy/Would splicing raw ADAM explain Splicer deformities?/@comment-1330314-20100809214244

My theory is: when a Splicer finds a Sea Slug, they either keep it or squish it into goo. They then go to a Gatherer's Garden where they put the slug (or the goo) into the machine and get whatever they bought in exchange. ADAM in any form, whether it's a plasmid or a tonic or another kind of upgrade, works like a cancer, so the deformities you see are various kinds of tumors.