12 World Flags That Will Make Your Eyes Bleed

These countries really need to go back to the drawing board.

1. Central African Republic

Note to the countries of the world: please don't use more than four colours on your flag. The designer here believed that France and Africa should merge together, and so combined France's tricolour with the pan-African colours red, green and yellow. On this evidence, maybe they should be kept separate.

2. Mauritius

Equally, Mauritius, a tricolour is a tricolour for a reason. Four stripes is just too much to deal with and it hurts a little bit.

3. Seychelles

So many colours. So many angles. So many tears.

4. Maldives

Okay, why do all these horrible flags belong to such nice places? The Maldives appear to have chopped up a bit of Pakistan's flag, shoved it inside a red box and called it their own. The red represents the boldness of the nation's heroes, apparently. Bold indeed...

5. Niue

This little-known South Pacific island thought it was a good idea to draw a few stars on a Union Jack and slap on top of a bright yellow background. It wasn't. It really, really wasn't.

6. US Virgin Islands

Where do we start? The fact that the eagle has weirdly muscular legs? That it's using them to hold a leaf and a bunch of arrows? The ridiculous V I in the first font they could find? Help...

7. Mozambique

This wouldn't actually too bad if it weren't for the AK-47 they've decided to chuck on top of a hoe, a book and a star. It looks like someone made it on Photoshop but didn't know how layers work. Mozambique is the only country in the world with a modern rifle on its flag. Good.

8. Northern Mariana Islands

Is that a hooded figure standing behind the star? Apparently it's a stone, but it looks a lot more sinister than that. Then there's the meringue ring of shells, bananas and exotic vegetables... All in all, this flag looks like somebody gave a child acid and set them loose on clipart.

9. Vatican City State

Sorry, Pope Francis, but square flags are stupid and yellow and white together is bad for the eyes and looks like blancmange. Try again please.

10. Turkmenistan

This flag has a rug on it. The moon is also backwards and looks like it's trying to eat the stars. Enough said.

11. Christmas Island

I know it's December and we should all be getting into the Christmas spirit but it doesn't take The Grinch to see that this flag is hideous. Maps in general are a big no no, the colours are too bright and the bird is massive. It was designed by a competition winner, which just about says it all.

12. Guam

So flag. Much palm tree. Wow.