The ‘Cursed.Aesthetic’ IG account also has its mirror twin, the ‘Blessed.Aesthetics’ page to offer followers an alternative if they’re not a fan of cursed images. Though, based on the number of followers alone, it’s easy to spot that it’s the cursed pics that draw in the larger crowd. Possibly because of how mind-bendingly bizarre they are, forcing us outside of our comfort zones.

Cursed images aren’t anything new on the net. They’ve been around since at least October 2015, according to Know Your Meme. The page explains that cursed images are usually photos that are disturbing to the viewer. This can be either due to the super low quality of the pic (oh no, pixels!) or because of how “abnormal or illogical” what’s pictured really is.

“Images of this or similar nature are sometimes seen as the visual equivalent to CreepyPasta. They have inspired several popular social media accounts devoted to posting various cursed images,” Know Your Meme explains, adding that ‘blessed’ images are the polar opposite of ‘cursed’ ones.

That’s not all, though—there’s also a hybrid variant of pics that are both blessed and cursed that’s called ‘blursed.’ It might sound weird, but I love that word and it’s started me down a dark-yet-well-lit path into some incredibly unusual content.

After a Tumblr account dedicated exclusively to cursed images started publishing bizarre photos, the idea spread to other blogs. Later, in 2016, cursed photos spread to Twitter. Most recently, cursed images took a hold of TikTok users.

In April 2020, TikTokers edited their videos to include cursed images to the sound clip ‘Rhythm thief but cursed.’ There’s no doubt in my mind that cursed pics will be around for a while and spread even further across the net. It’s a good thing we’ve got so many blessed images to counter them!