A Tucson tattoo model has tapped into the nationwide clown scare, grabbing media attention by creating a flyer for an alleged pro-clown event to be held October 15 in the parking lot of a Tucson bar.
"Clown Lives Matter — 4th Avenue Peace Walk," says the headline of the flyer, written in a typeface that appears to be dripping with blood. (See full flyer below).
"So come out, bring the family, meet a clown and get a hug!" the flyer says.
The dominating image of the flyer is a blood-splattered, smiling clown that would likely cause little kids to run away, screaming.
Hug that thing that looks like he might be holding an axe behind his back? No way!
Whether the event, which bills itself as a "peaceful walk to show that clowns are not psycho killers," actually occurs or not — who cares? The flyer alone is a hilarious example of the sort of instant PR that social media can create.
After KGUN9-TV news in Tucson ran with a short story on the flyer on Wednesday morning, claiming that "organizers" are planning the "march," at least two Phoenix-area TV stations ran blurbs about it, ABC-15 News and Channel 12 News. Fox News ran with a story on it. The tattoo model who photoshopped the flyer, Nikki Sinn, has been fielding requests for interviews on Facebook from major newspapers and ABC News.
The news media is crazy for stories right now about the scary clowns that have recently invaded the public psyche.
The evil-clown phenomena has been around for decades, but the modern iteration seems to have begun in England in 2013 with the the Northhampton clown, who just stood around looking terrifying. Several similar sightings in the United States followed. But the weird appearances, or questionable reports of them, anyway, has exploded in recent weeks. News reports about clowns threatening, grabbing, or even attacking people have surfaced, as if there weren't enough omens of an impending apocalypse. In the past two weeks, Mesa and Phoenix police have arrested a total of five teens in connection with clown-related social-media threats against schools.
Phil Villareal, the KGUN assignment editor and digital producer who broke the news about the flyer, tells New Times he believes the planned event is real, but admits it was apparently the creation of a single person.
That person, Sinn, doesn't appear to have ever worked as a clown, or give two squirts from a water-gun about clowns. In her InkedMag.com bio, she calls herself a "a crazy little ball of what thee fuck" who prefers tattoos with zombie and women themes.
Wherever she came up with the name for the alleged event, which may indeed draw people now that it's getting so much attention, "Clown Lives Matter" has already been appropriated by at least one haunted house, the "6th Street Massacre" in Amarillo, Texas, which promotes itself on Facebook with a cover photo (below) using that moniker next to blood-covered laundry.
Sinn told KVOA-TV in Tucson that the name of the "march" wasn't intended to offend any group.
"There is a lot of people who live their everyday lives like this and they are getting death threats," Sinn told the TV station. "We're just going to gather together and walk peacefully and pass out balloon animals and fliers and give out free hugs."
Believe it, if you dare.
