Who the hell is Ed Hardy?
Ed Hardy is going viral today because of a Tik Tok trashing 2000's fashion. Going to be honest though Ed Hardy may have been related to Jeff Hardy and the Hardy brothers of the WWE. Now I was 6 years old in 2005 so, to be honest, this trend was a little before my time but with everyone talking about Ed Hardy I had to start looking into who the hell Ed Hardy is.
So every dude was wearing these graphic t-shirts that were pretty badass looking. Everyone talks about Ed Hardy t-shirts but no one talks about Ed Hardy the guy.
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Ed Hardy has a pretty interesting story. I always imagined Ed Hardy being some sort of fashion mogul that made a ton of money of his clothes but in reality, Ed Hardy is a pretty fucking cool dude. Born in southern California Ed Hardy was a tattoo artist that got into Tattoos because of his friend's dad with Army tattoos. He got into the career and brought tattoos to the mainstream. He changed the tattoo industry because instead of just having artwork on the wall people could pick from, he would personalize designs individually to match each person's vibe.
Ed Hardy's artwork is extremely unique and complex artwork became a cultural phenomenon. Ed Hardy morphed classical military tattoo culture into what I would describe as southern California kinda Tex-Mex imagery with heavy Japanese influence. The story is actually pretty cool.
I'm starting to understand why Ed Hardy became popular because the designs were so cool that people who didn't want to commit to a tattoo wanted to rep them without the permanence.
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Ed Hardy even admitted that his shirts had started to be repped by douches and ruined his good name. I might start repping more Ed Hardy, I was too young for when it was trendy but I might just have to bring it back. Its like Nickelback, everyone trashed Nickelback so bad that people actually missed out on some sick bangers. My best friend gave me the best advice He said each day's a gift and not a given right leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind and try to take the path less traveled by. That path my friend is wearing Ed Hardy t-shirts in 2021.