No You Don't Need To Buy a Shirt with Kurt Cobain’s Suicide Note On It

But this being the world we live in, you can buy such a thing if you are the kind of person who thinks this is an edgy fashion statement to make.

A Redditor on r/WTF spotted the shirt on Tuesday. According to Uproxx, an Etsy store beat out proprietors of distaste Urban Outfitters and was selling baseball t-shirts with a copy of the note on them. (Where the hell would you wear something like this?) Billboard notes that it’s just the latest in a kind of questionable trend of turning the darkest moment in someone’s life into a way to show off that you are edgy and cool enough to sport the despondent last message of a troubled man for the low, low price of $25.19:

Kurt Cobain’s suicide note has now been replicated in its entirety into a baseball shirt that can be purchased on eBay. A similar tank top depicting a replication of the note was also available until recently on Etsy, until a Reddit discussion drew attention to it, prompting the site to take it down. The image can still be seen viaStyleite’s post.

This means at least one person decided it would be cool to market Cobain’s most personal sentiment into a shirt. Sixteen of the eBay baseball tees have been sold so far.

I say save yourself the money and just spray paint “I am a huge fucking asshole” on a shirt you already own. A Change.org petition was launched to urge sellers on Etsy, Ebay and other retailers to please not do this:

It has recently come to my attention that small independent businesses all over the web have been selling merchandise (ie, T-shirts, tank tops, etc) with Kurt Cobain’s very real suicide letter printed all over them.

This not only is a huge insult and slap to the face toward the legend Kurt Cobain himself, but as well as to all of his loved ones, his devoted fans, his legacy, and most importantly people around the world who currently suffer with mental illnesses of their own such as depression, anxiety and self image dysphoria.

Mental illness and suicidal behavior is not a fashion statement, and it is not meant to be glamorized or flaunted about on a t-shirt. These shirts do nothing but encourage impressionable minds that these tendencies and behaviors are something to be displayed proudly or as some sort of cool status. Wearing this merchandise is no different than wearing a shirt with a depiction of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center.

I am formally asking all businesses that carry these utterly disrespectful shirts (as well as all other merchandise with the printed note) to formally apologize for ever selling them in the first place, and to immediately discontinue the distribution of said products.