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What is TikTok polaroid challenge? Internet aghast as Jeffrey Dahmer victims' photos surface online

In the ‘Jeffrey Dahmer polaroid challenge,’ users of TikTok look up victims' photos online, find them, and record and post their reactions

TikTok users are terrified as the ‘polaroid challenge’ featuring Jeffrey Dahmer victims goes viral on the social media platform. According to Indy100, in the fictitious ‘Jeffrey Dahmer polaroid challenge,’ users of TikTok look up victims' photos online, find them, and then record and post their reactions to them. And although many of us find it difficult enough to witness accounts of Dahmer's crimes on the social media platform, other social media users have enjoyed hunting up the actual photos. 

Since Netflix released the new horror series ‘Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ starring Evan Peters as the infamous serial killer, it has set records and aroused intense debate. Many viewers have criticized the biography for being too graphic and disrespectful to the murderer's victims. Given the depth of people's obsession, the search term ‘Jeffery Dahmer victim Polaroids’ has received 531.2 million views on the platform. TikTok has made moves to remove some of the unspeakable content, however, one user managed to post an edited clip with the title ‘Jeffrey Dahmer real polaroids’ and captioned it as “EDITED REPOST!! [Because] TikTok took down the unedited one with 130k views.” 

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Countless social media users have spoken out against the sickening trend. One user wrote, “The new Jeffery Dahmer show is so f*****g grisly. I cannot believe it happened irl & what happened to all those deceased victims what a sick man he was. What’s even worse is that there are a couple REAL polaroid photos that he actually took released out there on the internet.” “People on tiktok are upset because they couldn’t find the Polaroids Dahmer took of his victims. What tf is wrong with people? I’m actually sick to my stomach right now,” another added. Meanwhile, others have criticized those who expressed their displeasure at the images, questioning their purpose for searching for them in the first place. One such user wrote, “The tiktok’s r so shocked about the jeffery dahmer polaroids like Hello. He ate People’s insides and kept their bleached Bones in his apartment what did u think the polaroids would be like.”

Between 1978 and 1991, Dahmer killed and dismembered 17 young men and boys, and investigators discovered horrible polaroid pictures of their bodies all over his house. After being arrested, Dahmer explained that he often photographed his victims at different stages of the killing process, so he could recall and re-live the experience. According to The Sun, he said, "It was my way of remembering their appearance, their physical beauty. I also wanted to keep... if I couldn't keep them there with me whole, I at least felt that I could keep their skeleton. I even went so far as planning on setting up an altar with 10 different skulls." 

After Dahmer's killings went unsolved for 13 years, the police were finally able to apprehend him due to the Polaroid photos. When Tracy Edwards, Dahmer's 18th victim, managed to flee and call the police, they found a bedside table drawer inside Dahmer's apartment. There were about 80 Polaroid photos of his victims' severed bodies inside. The images were helpful in assisting the authorities in locating the victims whose remains were not recovered. Dahmer's ninth victim, David Thomas, remained a missing person as his body was never recovered. Nevertheless, evidence recovered in the killer's apartment strongly suggests that Thomas was killed by Dahmer. The same can be said for the three other victims Dahmer acknowledged having killed but whose bodies were never discovered.