The backlash comes from people who say they suffer from an obscure and perplexing condition called “trypophobia” ⁠ — a fear of clusters of small holes like those found in shoe treads, honeycombs and lotus seed pods. University of Essex Professor Geoff Cole, a self-diagnosed trypophobe and researcher in Britain who studies the condition calls it “the most common phobia you have never heard of.”…

Trypophobia was only named in 2005 after the word began appearing on Reddit and in other online forums, like in a post by an Irish woman named Louise who belonged to an online community of self-described “weirdoes who have an irrational fear of HOLES.”

Over the next decade, though, thousands of people have reported suffering from trypophobia. Support groups have popped up on social media. In 2016, Kendall Jenner raised the condition’s profile when she wrote a blog post saying the images give her “the worst anxiety.”