so, whatever... i'm not gonna touch that argument... but what i will tackle is the great tattoo t-shirt debate... also known as "why the hell would anyone want to wear an ed hardy shirt?"
if you're unfamiliar with ed hardy shirts, an example is shown on the right of the above image... they're certainly, um, colourful and have your usual scrolls or tigers baring their teeth, etc... (please note the strategically placed "ed hardy" across the bust)... frankly, i just find them to be gaudy looking and all around hideous... yet the celebs buy them up in bulk -- from the t-shirts and dresses, to shorts and even f-ing bikinis...naturally i had to look into this (because i'm generally unemployed and fixate on stupid things)... you see, i'm more partial to shop at the sailor jerry's store, which reflects a simplistic vintage style of tattooing from the old school master (as shown in the image above on the left)... instead of hyper colour and horrid mesh hoodies, the sailor jerry wardrobe employs cotton knits, sailboats and pin up girls... plus, all the merchandise is about a quarter of the price of the ed hardy by christian audigier brand...
and don't get me started on the whole alcohol beverage branding from both camps... my only comment is that sailor jerry's rum is delightful... i cannot comment on these radioactive looking hardy products...
upon further research (i.e. sweet, sweet wikipedia) i found out that don ed hardy (the actual artist behind the brand) trained under mr. sailor jerry himself at some point... hardy is dubbed "the godfather of modern tattoo" and has a pretty heavy following...
so what i think this can all be chalked up as is an unfortunate appropriation of work... don ed hardy is probably a totally solid tattoo artist, but when you mix his designs with the ridiculous vision of the guy who made von dutch trucker hats so famous (i'm looking at you christian audigier) you get something worth vomiting over...
in short, the ed hardy store goods remind me of trippin' balls while watching a saturday morning cartoon -- and i don't mean that like it's a good thing... they're tacky looking, yet rake in the dough like it's no tomorrow... if you are in the market for a tattoo t-shirt rather than the real thing, i'd advise going the sailor jerry route... the designs are much more delightful on the eyes and no matter what way you play it, he was the old school master with the white tee and oily grey pompadour...
