The World Needs A Stronger Blog...

Look weird to you? Well, it should. It's 3 out of 4 of the legendary Black Flag bars designed by Raymond Pettibon.

In the late 1970's Raymond's brother, guitarist/songwriter Greg Ginn, founded Black Flag. Initially, Pettibon had been a bass player in the group when they were called Panic.

When they discovered that another band called Panic existed, Pettibon suggested the name Black Flag and designed their distinctive "four bars" logo designed to resemble busted up black flag, the symbol for anarchy.

Around the same time, Pettibon adopted his new surname; speculation suggests that he did so in order to avoid being referred to as "Ray Ginn" as in Ronald Reagan, already a much-hated icon in the early 80's.

ANYWAY...

We were on tour in Germany one time sleeping at a really nice squat in the middle of the country. I think we were shaving our heads outside and hanging around a picnic table when we met this dude who had 3 bars on his arm.

He was an old punk rock dude; a total mess; chain smoking Wests and drinking Duvel at 8 A.M. in a cut-off denim jacket.

He said he had 3 bars because wherever he was when he was getting tattooed with a hot ink pen, the cops came and raided the place. He had to split and never finished the tattoo. Left it as is; just the three bars unfinished.

That was like 20 years ago.

A classic tale.