Cori Faklaris

cori.faklaris@indystar.com

Has ANYONE ever taken a great photo for their Indiana driver's license?

One man has: Daniel Mundschau -- who became one of the first Redditors to have a post go viral in 2014. And it's all because he deliberately set out to take a horrible one!

How to stage an official photo -- legally

While living in Valparaiso in 2011, Mundschau, now 37, got the idea to spoof the typically creepy/awkward/ugly photos we all sport on government documents and asked his Facebook friends for ideas.

One idea the Gen Xers quickly settled on: Aping the somewhat goofy sideburns of 1990s-era "Beverly Hills 90210" star Luke Perry.

And since one rule the group came up with for the project was to keep his weird look strictly legal, Mundschau grew out his own facial hair rather than wear a wig to look the part -- which took him a month.

"I had some police officer friends that I ran it by," Mundschau said. "We didn't want to break the law."

The Facebook group also came up with the idea for his maniacally staring eyes, he said. "It adds a creepy level" to the look, he said.

Shave a little male-pattern baldness into his look, thin out the beard, pull the head back to create a double-chin, and voila!

"It was like Christmas when it came in the mail," Mundschau wrote on a Imgur post a few weeks ago chronicling the story behind the license photo (which promptly zoomed to the front page of Reddit!).

Instant celebrity

Once Mundschau received his official Indiana driver's license with the crazy-great photo, he told me, the fun REALLY started!

Mundschau was pulled over three times by police officers, but his crazy-great photo was never really a problem, he said. The first cop "didn't bat an eye," though the other officers did need to give him a second look, he said.

On the other hand, "if I got carded, the license would get passed around," he said -- which earned him a certain amount of celebrity.

"At Applebee's, the manager would see me having drinks and send a server to card me and see their reactions," Mundschau said.

The only real problem Mundschau said the license photo caused him was at Walgreen's. There, the clerk would refuse to sell him a six-pack of beer because his license looked like a fake ID, he said.

One more joke to play

Mundschau moved to the Milwaukee area last year, which necessitated replacing his masterpiece with a brand-new Wisconsin driver's license -- and photo. But that didn't mean the hijinks were over.

The photo recognition software used by the Wisconsin Division of Motor Vehicles set off an alarm because the picture he took for that state's license didn't match the image on file in Indiana, Mundschau said.

A supervisor made Mundschau come to the DMV office and recreate the face (he said he held his hand on top of his head and threw his head back) to verify that he really was who he said he was.

Usually, the DMV will confiscate the old license after approving the new one. But Mundschau's in-person performance entertained the office SO MUCH that the Wisconsin officials let him keep his masterpiece!

"They clapped and said, 'Well done,'" Mundschau said.

Famous on the Internet

Mundschau, now the owner of Solid Structure Masonry and Chimney Repair in Racine, Wisc., is building on his viral Internet success with "Jack's Advice," a new YouTube channel devoted to relationship advice from the view of a narcissist (hello, Valentine's Day).

But he knows his dramatically awful driver's license photo will follow him forever.

"If I ever do commit a crime, there's one disguise I can't use," he said.

How do you think YOU look in your driver's license photo? (Are you too embarrassed to show it to anyone?) If you're able to laugh about it, snap a pic of your terrible photo and send it to me at heycori@indystar.com ... or tweet or tag me@heycori on Twitter or Instagram!

Want to keep up with the conversation online? Follow me on Twitter at @heycori or subscribe to my page at Facebook.com/heycori! And check back every morning for my Cheat Sheet guide to everything you need to know today at IndyStar.com -- or, bookmark my site at IndyStar.com/cori!