My Chemical Romance World Tour Merch Includes Gay Tramp Stamp and Teeny Bopper Magazine

GayNrd Editors June 3, 2022

My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way knows his audience. The band which embarked on a world tour after the release their new single “The Foundations of Decay,” May 12 has two must have “take my money” items of merch.

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The first is a tee with very hot pink cover for an imaginary teen tabloid called Boy Zone (think Tiger Beat), introducing the band as the “saddest boys in the world.” The shirt was designed by illustrator Kerin Cunningham, who described it as “a bit whimsical, a little bit ironic, and a whole lot stupid in the best way,” but it was conceptualized by none other than MCR co-founder Way himself.

The second must-have item — is a black T-shirt printed with an enormous (and rather homoerotic) image of a man wearing nothing but tighty whiteys, with a My Chemical Romance logo tramp stamp on full display. That design called the “Mickey Taylor Photo T-Shirt” is the gay porn star from an old Tumblr post (which only has 2,000 notes) to use his image for official merchandise.

Them:

Today, Taylor is a musician and animation student, but he still identifies as a former sex worker with pride. Via Instagram DMs, he told me that he got the tattoo when he was 18 while living in a hostel with a friend. The friend, who had never tattooed anyone, inked the logo on him after Taylor drew it for her. “This was my peak fandom mixed with my rebellious who-gives-a-fuck phase,” said Taylor. “[In] hindsight I shouldn’t have got a friend to do it, haha. Seems reckless now but still zero regrets. But don’t get home tattoos. Ever!”

How it started vs how it’s going @MCRofficial pic.twitter.com/TfgO4eYqWP
— Mickey Taylor (@itsmickeytmusic) May 16, 2022

The origins of the shirt, though, began when he received an email from a member (“shan’t name names”) inquiring about his tattoo. Although at first Taylor was afraid that he was being sued, it turned out that the unnamed member had seen the tattoo from one of his “movies” (quotes his) and “thought it was cool.” The member added that Gerard Way also thought it was cool and “wondered if I’d be down to take some photos for the merch.”

Tbh I was just freaking out as fan of the music but also just the fact they even knew me, haha,” Taylor said. “And that they’ve most likely seen me doing some very slutty things.”
Although Taylor, who’s also a huge fan of Gerard Way’s comic book series turned Netflix hit The Umbrella Academy, tried to negotiate some signed merch, he agreed to a “cool deal” with the band and took the photos for them.
“Honestly the whole thing has been a pleasure,” Taylor said. “I had no idea when [the shirts] would drop or if, but it happened and I found out through Twitter which was WILD! The hilarious and also super friendly comments have been incredible and it’s made the whole situation even more bizzare and fever dream-ish haha. None of it feels quite real.”

Another one for the bucket list… Official tour merch for @MCROfficial. This design is a tribute to that weird time where you’d find MCR in the pages of Tiger Beat– What if MCR had their own special issue in a teen heartthrob magazine? pic.twitter.com/c5TFhh5osX
— Kerin Cunningham ★ (@KerinCunningham) May 16, 2022

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The band’s inclusion of Taylor, including identifying him by name at the merch table, instead seems to be a meaningful, if cheeky, tribute to the band’s queer past and to its fanbase — an assessment that Taylor, who identifies as panseuxal, agrees with.
He told me that to be “seen by a mainstream band is a huge level of respect from them,” and that he really appreciated being asked to do it, though he also said that it was “all still totally nuts.”
“I just think they could have hired anyone, like some hot woman smoking a cigarette as so many bands do and call it ‘edgy’ but they didn’t,” Taylor says. “They hired the mixed-raced, queer guy, ex-sex worker and were the ones who came up with it.”