Oh Holey Night…Mare: 40+ Trypophobia-Triggering Images
Humans aren’t as logical as we all like to believe. Phobias, for example, are sometimes purely irrational fears. We know about the fear of heights (acrophobia), open spaces (agoraphobia), or sharks (galeophobia), but there’s one more you might not know about.
The phobia of closely spaced pores, lumps, or designs is known as trypophobia. For example, a scone or perhaps the opening of a lotus seed pod can trigger anxiety attacks or nausea in trypophobic individuals.
We’re displaying a few of the most popular images from the r/trypophobia subreddit, which is devoted to “the most widespread phobia you’ve ever heard of.” However, if you actually experience trypophobia, be aware that these images may make you feel uneasy. So having given the proper warnings, let’s close the book on a world that is dictated by small openings. Welcome, to Jurassic…wait, that’s wrong. Welcome to the Trypophobia collection!
Drum roll for the drum fish teeth
The drum fish’s unusual dentition is different from any other fish in the ocean, making it clear that it is not your typical fish. Drum fish possess numerous invisible molars, unlike most carnivorous fish that have jagged fangs running along their jaws.
The drum fish are called that way because they contain internal drums or look like instruments, but because they make croaking noises when swimming. Fortunately for any trypophobic divers, you probably won’t see this triggering tooth. That is, unless you’re really unlucky.
All hail the fungal overlords!
The chances that you haven’t heard of the spaghetti god is astronomical. We live in the age of social media so there is a decent chance you have heard of this. Why are we talking about a meme of a fake religion while looking at fungus?
Well, it’s because the fungal network looks like some sort of eldritch creature, like the spaghetti god. This is right in the alley of Lovecraftian horror and this fungus right here is something that we hope would never gain sentience.
Thorough cleaning is recommended
This looks like crust from a Bechamel pot, if we had to guess. What is Bechamel sauce, you might ask? It’s one of the foundational elements of traditional French cuisine is really a mother sauce, which serves as a base for many other sauces.
In its most basic form, béchamel is made from milk, a little spice, and a combination of butter, flour, and roux, which have been heated together. A smooth cream sauce is an outcome. It can be consumed by itself or as the foundation for a variety of sauces.
Looks delicious!
It looks quite appetizing but if you have trypophobia, you will have a hard time guzzling this down. It kind of reminds us of those molten sugar art they put on cakes and other assorted delicatessens. Some spun sugar creations look ingenious.
Well, the best course of action that we can suggest to those who’d like to eat this but have trypophobia blocking the way, is to cover their eyes and eat it like the French dish, Ortolans. You will be shielded from the holes and greeted with a tangy taste!
Holey mouldy
Can you recall to your mind the vivid patterns that appear in water when an oil spill is disturbed? Well, this is somewhat akin to that. Sure, you can’t equate a fungus to an oil spil,l but one can’t help but notice the similarities.
Plus, in all this trypophobic madness, there is a sense of connectedness. Just look at how the mold has spread all through the compartment, like a web of sorts. The web of life is represented everywhere, even in mold — you just have to look properly.
RUGamuffin
What do these look like to you? We see the appendages you would find on a sea anemone! Why on earth would you take pictures of rugs in your home when you can go outside and take pictures of nature instead?
Take some pictures of the flowers or even the sky for that matter. Just be careful if you’re using Macro, or those flowers could quickly end up in trypophobia territory. Maybe stick to photographing grass, clouds, or your pet instead.
The lamellae underneath the mushroom cap
Some types of mushrooms, most frequently agarics, have a crinkly hymenophore membrane underneath the cap called a lamella, also known as a gill. Mushrooms use their gills to spread their spores, and for us humans, they are crucial for determining the species.
Gills can also have unique macroscopic or microscopic characteristics. A mushroom fungus is composed of two primary components: an above-ground fruiting structure, or sporophore, and a subterranean mycelium. This would really sit well with any tripe lover as it reminds us of the stomach lining of a cow.
Datronia mollis
The particular lace doily-like fungus happens to be called common mazegill. It kind of looks like a gill with its frilly structure, giving off the resemblance of blood capillaries. And the structure is arranged like a maze, what an apt name.
Imagine if Daedalus the inventor managed to create the labyrinth that housed the Minotaur like this. It would die of starvation because all the sacrifices that have been put into the maze get lost before it has the chance of eating them.
“Ah! My eyes!”
This is the stuff that nightmares are made. Morpheus ought to take some notes on how to make a compelling nightmare by looking at this particular image. This makes Freddy Kreuger look like an Abercrombie and Fitch model in comparison.
The resemblance is quite close to that of Imhotep’s in the 1999 classic starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. You know, a face that looks wooden, rotten, and scary as heck! As far as glitches go, this takes the proverbial cake.
Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles
These barnacles appear everywhere, don’t they? On boats, docks, litter, and inside shells, too. Just look at this example. Now the most plausible explanation would be that the shell was separate when the barnacles found it and liked it as a substrate.
It’s flat, it’s smooth and hey, it’s free real estate. There’s a meme-related joke for you guys to enjoy! Not every day do you come across jokes like that. In this economy, we can do about with a good laugh, you know.
Cicadas emerging from the ground
Cicadas that are seventeen years old endure the first few months of their final year digging upwards. By April, the cicadas have reached a nymph phase and are resting just beneath the surface. The cicada nymphs emerge from the ground via holes that are half an inch in length.
They can fit a million or more individuals in a space that is less than 1 acre, which increases the likelihood that they will survive. The nitrogen boom these insects bring is phenomenal. We don’t know what’s worse: the incessant buzzing of these critters or the holes they leave behind?
Anyone got some Coke?
This looks as if the artist just went ahead and pasted Mentos everywhere. Now that would be a good idea. Instead of selling peppermint lozenges off some glass bottles, this would be a novel way to sell them off the counter.
If anyone wants one, they just pay the cashier and pluck the required amount from the vase itself. After dispensing all the lozenges, one can use the empty vessel as a flower vase. Just be careful not to spill a bottle of Coca-Cola on that thing.
Bewildering bubbles
Any well-agitated water, whether or not it contains soap, forms bubbles. To notice these bubbles, keep an eye on the pool beneath a cascade. The bubbles can stay longer so because soap, as well as detergent, stabilizes the surface by building a network involving lengthy molecules.
But this begs the question as to how people with trypophobia have a shower. Can they ever enjoy a bubble bath like a normal person? Perhaps there are special bubble bath formulas that reduce the number of bubbles for trypophobic people that want to have a spa day.
More holesome than wholesome
You don’t have to be Gordon Ramsay to go absolutely crazy over seeing this for the first time. It looks like a pile of peeled-off glue rather than a microwaved egg. What happened to having good old-fashioned scrambled eggs on the pan?
Or just a plain two-egg omelet. Just scatter the yolks and make sure to fry them over some butter. Then fold it and make the edges a bit crispy. Make a sandwich out of that instead of this phobia trigger.
What could it be?
We’ll give a cookie (sadly not literally) to anyone who can guess what this is. You have until the end of this paragraph to guess what this is before we reveal what it is. Nope, it’s not a fungus of any kind.
Anyone who’s a fan of grilled cheese might recognize this right away. This is the product of burnt cheese. That honeycomb pattern that triggers trypophobia is something quite common to see if you see melted cheese on a griddle. This serves as motivation not to ruin your food!
Makes you think
This is a lotus seed pod. It kind of looks like a rocket launcher pad, don’t you think? But the weird thing here is the seeds, not flames ready for blast-off. Usually, lotus seeds aren’t this pearly white and big, so to speak.
Well, we did some digging into the post and it seems that the OP put some beans in the holes. For what intents and purposes, we will never know. Art, maybe? Or perhaps it was just to mess with trypophobic users online.
Shedding
Reptiles molt their epidermis to allow them to grow. In a procedure known as sloughing or molting, they develop a new layer of skin beneath their old one. They do this in order to get clear of any parasites and it allows them to develop further.
It is a symptom of a health issue if your pet doesn’t fully shed its skin. If your pet doesn’t shed correctly, it’s crucial that you get veterinary attention. This does make us wonder how trypophobic reptile-lovers survive when their pets begin to molt.
Bika Ambon aka Indonesian honeycomb cake
One of the characteristic varieties of moist cakes originating from Medan, North Sumatra, is Bika Ambon. This cake has perforations in it and a distinctive golden tint. In particular, Bika Ambon cake has a unique taste and perfume that we find irresistible.
The cake is well-loved and it has turned into a gastronomic symbol of the joy of the residents of the city of Medan. Quite the treat awaits you if you manage to let go of your fears for the brief time it takes to munch on one.
Cthulhu’s lunch
Now, this might look like a food item featuring octopi, with all those holes. If that was your guess, you wouldn’t be that far off and we would forgive you for thinking as such. It does evoke the look of the limbs of a Pacific octopus.
In actuality, this happens to be a food item called a Mac and Cheese pork loaf. Now that sounds quite appetizing to us, we’re not sure about you guys. But the pork does look too pink for comfort. Maybe cook it further to avoid any issues?
Extra?
What do we have here? A double-layered chip? The kind of a bonus prize you would find in a bag of chips when you least expect it? Looking at the packing bubble foam-like structure of the pattern, that might not be the case this time around.
Most probably this could be a piece of plastic from a machine that is used in the production. It has that characteristic sheen to it that is part and parcel when it comes to plastics. Not the most pleasant — or safe — thing to bite into.
Forbidden gold
The backstory behind this is quite warranted to understand what’s going on here. OP’s shower was continuously becoming clogged by something, leading to a constant buildup of standing water. The plumber managed to pull this out of the OP’s shower pipe.
Looks like the resin you get from pine trees when you tap the trunk. Or maybe a glued-together wad of silica gel beads. People are already grossed out by what comes out of their pipes, and this certainly wouldn’t help anyone with trypophobia. Shower head full of holes and this? Yikes!
Encounters of the foam kind
Relax! You all jump into worst-case scenarios like Roland Emmerich and planetary-level disaster movies. Not that we are complaining — who doesn’t love a dramatic film? But no, this is not some alien organism or intense movie prop, it’s just foam.
The poor pooch who uses this as a bed really needs a new one, stat. Foam is efficient at trapping moisture and in the long run, it could mean that the dog might contract rheumatism. So put this to recycle and buy another one!
Trumpet vine root cluster
This is a root cluster from a trumpet vine, though it looks more like the heads of a hundred maggots. Yeesh! The trumpet vine is a simple-to-grow natural plant with clusters of spectacular, trumpet-shaped blooms in shades of yellow, red, and oranges that hummingbirds like.
We don’t know if animals experience phobias as we humans do — how would you even test that? They’d surely have a hard time in nature with things like these around. The only saving grace here is that it’s a root cluster, and not what you’d see on a regular basis.
Lotus root bonanza
The lotus plant’s rhizomes and stalks both exhibit the perforation designs that run all through the entire plant. In many varieties of Asian cuisine, the rhizomes of the flower — often generally referred to as “lotus root” — are served as vegetables.
Usually, they are cooked in a variety of ways and presented as thinly sliced through into the root (a few inches in diameter), displaying the distinctive pattern. It seems that whoever bought this particular root had come across a bonus treat.
Lesser of two evils
This thing looks like a hive for barrow wights. All sorts of nightmares are prone to crawl out from these entrances when the clock strikes the witch’s hour. A portal to unwanted dimensions, this is. We can imagine the mindless ones pouring through this.
But, even the most hideous of things can have their redemption in the light of the sun. The owners just have to fill all the openings with a mixture of compost and soil and plant vegetables, fruits and flower seeds in it. Not so scary anymore, right?
Bank of Trunk
Nope, not everything that looks like a hacksaw blade isn’t made out of barnacles. These are coins, believe it or not. It must be a good luck ritual done by the hikers in this part of the world. It’s a common occurrence, actually.
Common as in seeing people practice luck “rituals” such as this. For example, love lock bridges are a popular tourist fad all over the world. If someone ever tried to get to those coins, they might just hit payday. How old do you think some of them are?
X-Files theme plays in the background
Now, what in tarnation are these things? If this was a mud pit in Africa or Asia, the most obvious choice would be that elephants have been here. Then again, they’re a bit too circular to be that of an animal’s feet.
But the only issue is that the padded foot musculature and the bone arrangement of the elephant foot spread the elephant’s massive weight quite effectively so the holes can’t be this deep. Fish maybe? They are known to make small puddles when the water level is low.
Pin feathers of a pigeon
It’s common knowledge that birds can lose feathers, but what happens after it comes out? Whenever a feather gets lost, a replacement one will grow through the skin’s open follicle. The thorny origins of a fresh feather poking out are known as the “pin feather.”
They start out looking like a narrow, pinkish tube that turns white as it gets closer to the summit. The feather will be nourished by the pink area, which has a continuous blood flow, as it develops and ultimately recedes. The keratin covering that covers the white portion of the tube serves to shield the developing feather from harm.
Oh! The horror!
Now, this is a near-perfect setting for a monster horror movie. Assuming at least some of you have seen the Netflix series Love+Death and Robots, we say that this reminds us of that WW2 Russian army episode where they encounter monsters…
…in a burrow just like this. You could place some miniatures in the middle of the hole and enact the last stand of a troupe of survivors. It gives us the creeps even if we don’t have trypophobia. We’d hate to stumble across this in the woods.
Seems like a fungi
Have any of you ever had a close-up look at stubble after not shaving for a couple of days? We’d bet that it would look something like this. Now, this isn’t stubble per se, considering that it was found under a mushroom…
We’d like to call this mushroom stubble. However, these are in fact pores through which the spores are ejected into the wind so that they can be germinated in some other area. Nature is ingenious, and insidious when it comes to phobias.
Vapourer Moth eggs
This comes from the vapourer moth. The males possess antennae that resemble combs, and they use these to locate the chemicals released by new emerging flightless females. In the summer and early fall, the males are frequently observed flying. When the sunshine catches them, they take on an orange hue.
The fertilized female then immediately begins to lay a significant number of eggs on the exterior of the cocoon she had just emerged from before passing away. Usually, the eggs overwinter as eggs, and the newly emerged caterpillars quickly transform into incredibly colorful, bristly critters.
What lies beneath
So, a sensible explanation would be that there are pebbles and rocks underneath this “lawn.” All of it is hidden under the root structure and hidden by a very thin layer of soil, which is susceptible to getting washed away.
But the outcome is a pattern like the kind you would find on a lotus pod. Every trypophobe’s nightmare comes to life with one power wash. The OP must have had quite the surprise when this thing unraveled in front of him.
Tongue peeling
Imagine, your tongue starts to flake off one day as you gaze looking into the mirror. One may notice that the tongue’s skin is separating or ripping in these situations. The first error to avoid is brushing or washing your mouth.
When you eat foods that are extremely acidic or hot, your tongue will start to peel off. Fruits, chili, salsa, tomato sauce, and carbonated beverages are all included in this list of foods. If you keep consuming these meals frequently, the amount of peeling can get worse.
Feel the texture!
Okay if no one is going to say it, we will. That is one heck of a large strawberry right there! How can we tell even if we can’t see a strawberry nearby? Easy. Just look at the size of that chocolate coating.
This definitely is an adult’s hand and judging by the finger length, it must have been quite the bountiful berry. Plus look at the impression on the chocolate, from the strawberry. Yeesh, it makes our skin stand on its ends.
How can this happen?
That looks less like a bar of soap and more like something else entirely. Ah yes! We know the perfect example. Have you all seen what happens if something like a book is submerged in the dead sea for a while?
It accumulates salt on every exposed surface. Now, this thing looks like a book with salt crystals formed around it rather than a mutilated bar of soap. We would also very much like to know how on earth this happened. Unbelievable!
Who is caper-able of such a thing?
There seems to be some misunderstanding between capers with caperberries. Even if they both come out of the same species, Capparis spinosa, which would be common all through the Mediterranean, they cannot be used interchangeably. To be clear, the berries are really not the tiny, spherical, citrusy capers.
These flavorful, teeny-tiny “peas” are really the immature caper bush buds. The berries are also harvested by those who prefer a less strong alternative to capers. But finding a caper berry like this, in a salad of all places, can seriously freak some people out.
Hundreds of small, black seeds!
In many species in nature, in the event that fertilization is unsuccessful, the great majority of species typically self-abort. Nevertheless, a female papaya plant is regarded as asexual if a fruit grows despite it having unfertilized ovules. Parthenocarpy is the name given to this peculiar condition.
There you go, people! If the multitude of seeds in papaya freaks you the heck out, well worry no further. There are also seedless varieties. Also, they taste the same as their seed-bearing cousins, so no need to worry about eating anything watery.
Think, think!!
Whatever the mold that was used to cast this candle, it was full of air. This looks like a cross-section of a loaf of bread, rather than looking like a candle. Plus, all these perforations remind us of something else!
Remember the Nickelodeon cartoon, Jimmy Neutron? When Jimmy starts thinking, we are shown how the neurons work and how the synapses start shooting electrical impulses. So this wax melt looks like that brain sequence from the cartoon.
The gall! The audacity! The horror!
An insect called a gall wasp lays its eggs in the soft tissues of trees, flowers, and other plants. A gall develops as the larvae grow, and this gall typically prevents the plant from growing properly. Typically, a particular bug will only contaminate one type of plant.
Or at best, just other individuals within the same family of plants. In extreme circumstances, the plant may perish and the yield may be jeopardized. Just look at the eldritch horror right here, in this gall. Like a thousand-eyed abomination!
Corralling thoughts of fear
We think it’s safe to assume that most of you guys are vaccinated, right? When you were kids? Well, the scars still can be seen on the upper arm of many an adult, teenager, and kid. Kind of like a permanent reminder of the importance of healthcare.
Well, this piece of coral reminds us of those vaccination scars. Not the shape of the coral but the imprint of the polyps left on this. Those are the indentations that look like small disks. Looks a little bit puckered, doesn’t it?
We’ll stick with the red, thanks!
White strawberries from South America arrived in North America roughly 100 years after red strawberries from Europe, which arrived in the 17th century. Because it requires red strawberries as well as bees to keep being pollinated, the white strawberry is feminine.
It’s also more difficult to produce. Might be a rarity but that doesn’t steer our imagination away from the fact that the skin of this fruit looks like a magnified picture of a freshly shaved face. You know, all that bristle, in all its trypo horror.
Is pink your color?
So the OP purged a chemical pump into a bucket and came across this. Now imagine a Furby or Patrick Star from SpongeBob SquarePants sustained burn injuries just like Freddy Kreuger did. This would be the possible and plausible outcome.
Yeah, yeah, we know that that comparison is as grim as it comes. But we have to make sure that the message gets through. After that explanation, we are pretty sure that you would not look at anything pink, the same way ever again.
Blistering barnacles!
Anyone who has ever managed a sailboat (or a pressure washer) understands how much work it takes to get rid of barnacles. Because of this, some sailors refer to them as “crusty foulers.” They have a tensile strength of 5,000 pounds per square inch.
Also, with an adhesion ability of 22 to 60 pounds per square inch, they produce a fast-curing cement that is among the hardest natural glues ever discovered. Look at these all dried-up barnacles looking menacing as heck on this rock. It gives us the creeps!
Ice Moths
Those who have the luxury of living in a place that is chemical free would get this next one. When the use of pesticides is non-existent, there is an abundance of a large variety of moths in a given area that is comparatively wooded.
Now, when they gather around a light source as such, especially the smaller ones, they look something like this. The mere mention that this is a formation of ice took us by surprise because this really looks like a gathering of moths.
Queasiness, personified
If anything in this list serves up a double or a triple dose of trypophobia, it would be this. Just look at this thing. OP says that it is burnt pepper gravy. Not only does it sound spicy, but it also looks spicy as well.
We can’t even imagine the damage this would do if this particular thing ended up with a person who has this phobia. So far along, we have not made fun of anyone with trypophobia, but raised awareness as these conditions can get severe if neglected. Pay attention!
Bubbly
Prior to packing carbonated drinks, fresh CO2 is typically injected at high pressure. After being insulated, the gas disappears and dissolves uniformly across the fluid. These particles are happy to mingle openly with the brew, provided that the container is closed.
The differential pressure between the gas inside the container and the air in the room causes the carbon dioxide to try to leave once the top is removed, upsetting the balance. Bubbles play a role in that. So this just might trigger your trypophobia.
One does not simply make that mistake!
Crumpets are round bread that has been flattened and fried on a skillet or in a pan. They are frequently mistaken for English muffins because of their close ties to English culture and society. The crumpet and also the English muffin may have some similarities.
These two happen to be quite different foods. In addition, many Brits will not enjoy people who combine the two dishes due to the cultural ties with crumpets in England. If it looks like a shower head full of small holes, then that’s a crumpet.
Return of the galls
Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae, often known as cedar apple rust, is a complex two-year-long fungal disease that strikes juniper plants. The spores of some juniper species survive the winter as nothing more than a reddish-brown infection on immature twigs. That’s a nasty surprise to find in the spring.
These galls grow in the early rainy spring, and vivid orange piles of spores are carried by the wind to vulnerable apple as well as crab-apple trees whereupon they infect them. Even one glance is enough for anyone to exclaim, “what in the heck?” when they see this irradiated wig.
We can’t believe it’s not meat!
Any guesses as to what this is? If the response is along the lines of that this looks like a steak that has been tenderized with a meat tenderizer, well you are far off. But we do look towards that comparison.
Well, what would your reaction be if we told you that this is the inside of a raspberry? Upon having a closer look, you can totally see that it is a berry, not meat. But the eye can be fooled at an appropriate distance!
Stranger Things theme plays in the background
Now, this is a perfect reason why you should plop the whole cherry in your mouth when eating it. You eat the whole thing inside your mouth and spit the stem out, like a normal human being. When you deviate, this happens.
It looks like a piece of the Upside Down from Stranger Things. We don’t know if this would trigger trypophobia or the bidding of the Mind Flayer. Even something beloved and sweet like cherry can look sinister when you take a bite out of it.