Skip to main content

Was Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne bounced from Instagram for psychedelic, sexual photos? (update: yes)

Was Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne bounced from Instagram for psychedelic, sexual photos? (update: yes)

Share this story

That The Flaming Lips' frontman, Wayne Coyne, posts odd, psychedelic, and sexual imagery to Instagram should be of little surprise to anyone familiar with the singer, but Instagram seems to have just taken notice. According to The Future Heart, Coyne was kicked off of Instagram this weekend along with all of the more than 1,200 photos that he had shared with his followers. Though some of Coyne's content ostensibly violated Instagram's policies against sexual material, the majority of his photos were reportedly tamer personal pictures, shots of artwork, and behind-the-scenes looks at his band.

Coyne's new account remains active

Coyne has already started filling a new Instagram account with psychedelic artwork and sexual content (the account is as NSFW as you might imagine), though it remains active for now. Instagram didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but The Flaming Heart speculates that it was photos from Coyne's The Womb art gallery — which features paintings of women giving birth — that finally crossed the line.

Update: Coyne says that Instagram did indeed take his previous account offline for his sexual photos, posting a screengrab of this very article by The Verge to his new account on Wednesday.

For Instagram's part, it doesn't have just its own terms of service to worry about — it has Apple's watchful eye to deal with as well: in one instance earlier this year, the professional photo hosting service 500px had its app briefly pulled from iTunes over its inclusion of nude photography. But while both Apple and Instagram's policies might stifle genuine attempts at art, Coyne himself doesn't seem to be too caught up on it. "Got kicked off my old Instgrammmm account !!!," his new profile reads. "Sorry !! This is the new one!!"