Gynomite!

Last night I was watching this YouTube clip of Marilyn Manson making a public appearance and getting his wig-hat combo ripped off of him (around 1:30), and just giggled and giggled.

I was a fan of Marilyn Manson back in the day, and still find him to be kind of hilarious and a shrewd businessman.  He’s basically just the geeky kid in your elementary school that used to talk about horror movies, eat his own scabs, and smell like Vicks Vaporub.  The first time I saw Marilyn Manson in 1994, they were opening for Nine Inch Nails.  Manson was just standing around during the Jim Rose Circus (remember that!?!?!), so 15 year old me decided to walk over and introduce myself.  “Hi, I’m Brian” he said.  The smell of Vicks and beer wafted over to me and I thought “huh, this guy’s going to be a rock star?”.

But I digress.

I also remember that at the height of their fame, they used to sell long sleeved shirts with all of Manson’s tattoos splayed across them.  I never saw anyone wearing them (and I saw a lot of Manson fans), and I thought it to be a weird homage to a person.  I also remember that they made Anthony Kiedis tattoo shirts and Johnny Depp tattoo shirts.  I couldn’t find ANY images of those online, but I did find t-shirts of Angelina Jolie and David Beckham’s tattoos.

Again, it’s a bit of a weird homage.  I imagine someone wearing one of these two shirts, just walking down the street, and running in to someone in line at Starbucks that was like “oh hey, those are David Beckham’s tattoos!”  You would have to look the person in the eye, but you would be ashamed at each others’ knowledge base, and it would bond you.  Don’t look away.  It’s always scary to meet someone with equal passion….for celebrity.