The weird side of Instagram

You could use your Instagram powers to post pics of landscapes, you drunk in a nightclub bathroom, music festivals and interesting-looking gates and doorways – but let’s face it, that’s been done.

Fortunately the photo-sharing app isn’t all snapshots of your friend’s ugly babies and showy arty stills of city skylines. Dig deeper, and you’ll find a few quirky, original and downright weird users to add to your Follow list.

@jinushikeisuke

The official Instagram blog recently highlighted one of the service’s users, Keisuke Jinushi, for his unusual take on the ‘couples’ photos that are popular with Instagrammers in his native Japan. While his picture feed would indicate that Jinushi spends much of his time in the company of an attentive and snap-happy girlfriend, it’s all lies – Jinushi creates the faux girlfriend pics himself by applying foundation makeup and red nail polish to his right hand.

Although admitting that his significant other is actually his hand leaves Jinushi open to an onslaught of off-colour jokes, he revealed the truth behind his elaborately staged photos on his blog, and even included ‘behind the scenes’ shots of how he makes the images appear genuine.

Most are taken in public, and surprisingly onlookers don’t seem to pay attention to Jinushi’s shameless self-documenting – although living in Japan, they’ve probably seen much weirder. Whether you attribute his style to being a satire of nauseating couples oversharing online, or a bad case of being Forever Alone, is up to you.

@shavaunna

Delving further into the weird side of Instagram is Shavaunna. Shavaunna is a disembodied Barbie head with a pair of doll hands stuck in her neck and a habit of changing her hair color on a regular basis, and she’s totally ‘hotter than u’. She has a close circle of friends, and enjoys parties, beauty treatments and hating on her frenemy Larissa – all of which she documents through Instagram.

Shavaunna's photos aren't recommended for those of you with a doll phobia. No-one is sure who’s behind the account, but there's a high chance it's someone's bratty younger brother who couldn't quite grow out of his habit of decimating dolls. Regardless of Shavaunna's real identity, with almost 3000 followers so far they've found a niche market for brilliantly bizarre Instagramming.

@khiesti

At the other end of the spectrum is Kerstin Spielkkins, aka @khiesti. Spielkkind is an elementary school teacher by day, Insta-artist by night, who creates uncomplicated but adorable art out of everyday objects combined with simple black drawings.

Spielkkind is inspired to create the projects by 'the child' in her, and incorporates flowers, fruit, toys, and household items to bring a basic doodle to life. Her monsters and creatures are super cute, and while effort and preparation obviously goes into her photos, it's not nearly as unbearable as some of the 'art' you're regularly subjected to on Instagram's Popular Photos feed. Overall, it's a charming idea that has probably had many of her 80,000+ followers furious that they didn't think of it first.

@cashcats

There can be no mistaking this account’s intentions – it does exactly what it says on the box. Picture after picture of cats and cash, moggies with money, kittens and currency...and it’s glorious.

The account has an international flavor, and although Benjamin Franklin appears prominently via the expected piles of American hundred dollar bills, there's still plenty of cats representing their various homelands by posing with Euros, British pounds, and Chinese Yuan.

Although the photos all fall under the same account, the pictures are user submitted and pulled from the Ca$hcats blog. We can only commend whoever thought to bring two of humanity's favorite things together in such an inspired way. Haters gonna hate, but these cats have obviously never heard the phrase ‘meow money, meow problems’.

@itssteviewonder

Finally, the Stevie Wonder parody account It's Stevie Wonder promises followers ‘a small piece of my life shared from my point of view’, and proves you can stretch a bad taste joke into over seventeen thousand subscribers. Horrendous.