What intrigues me is that this ‘genre’ of tee shirt holds such specific (and not really THAT accessible) design and subject matter, yet attracts such a vast range of wearers… To name the stereotypes, you’ve got children, geeks who spend their whole life on ‘World of Warcraft’, weird old men with ageing gurns and overgrown stained beards who wander round car boot sales with a load of carrier bags, wholesome yet socially inept tourists, heavy metallers ( ref. Rag Freak!), and ///Uber Trendies///Art Fags///… (Note the signature use of excessive forward slashes there///Art Fag punctuation trademark, yeah?///)
Kids wear them because they’re inoffensive and you know kids, they LOVE animals. Oldies/tourists wear them as attempt to be a bit ‘jazzy’; it’s a bit more exciting than a grey smock, yet doesn’t make any crude advertisements. (E.g. “I’m With Stupid ?” or something similarly lame). Metallers wear them because the aesthetic style of the tee shirt is quite glam rock/gothic looking, so would therefore go well with their style visually. Geeks wear them because, to be fair, the tee shirts are rather naff, and TRUE geeks are attracted to the naffest shit out there. Uber trendies///Art Fags base their style on geeks, hence the clear lensed glasses, etc, so perhaps wear the tee’s as a celebration of their love for their idols…
How is it possible for such a garish and eye-catching item of clothing to bring together so many different ‘types’ of people, cultures, and ways of living from all over the place?
There is no real answer, but it’s cool to think there is a unique piece of clothing that can bring a lot of different people together through a visually random form.
From what I’ve seen, the tee shirts are worn to be the owners own. One of my animal tees is the classic three wolves howling at the moon one, which is very popular, as you’ll see in the photos, but I personally think the tee shirts look individual and unique on everyone I’ve seen them on. Maybe that’s just ’cause I like ‘em!