Insta-gross: NJ woman educates followers with blood and gore

If you have a weak stomach, read ahead with caution.

A woman from South Jersey is making a lot of noise on the social media site Instagram by posting pictures of things she'd encounter each day at work. Her job, though, involves autopsies and dissecting organs for disease.

Nicole Angemi, a pathologists' assistant from Merchantville, has gathered hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram over the past year. Posts from just the past few days include the fetus from a spontaneous miscarriage, a sliced finger and a gangrenous leg infested with maggots.

"The reason I decided to do this is because the average person isn't going to go out on Amazon.com and buy an autopsy atlas that costs $500," said Angemi in a conversation with New Jersey 101.5 FM. "But I think the average person is pretty interested in seeing those kinds of pictures."

Avoiding any issues with privacy, Angemi said no photos involve her actual patients. Her content comes from textbooks and PowerPoint presentations, as well as submissions from online followers.

The married mother of three has had the mrs_angemi handle for about a year, but an abundance of "reported" photos forced Instagram to shutter the account for quite some time. Since then, Angemi's account was reinstated, and the number of followers grows by the day.

"It feels awesome," Angemi said.

Her photos, she said, have actually encouraged some followers to quit smoking for good. A grisly photograph of a cancerous lung or mouth was the final push they needed.