Things that have made folks cringe or look at me funny:
The rusted meat cleaver that used to sit on my tv counter in the living room.
My enema bag. No joke. It was part of my cowardly bondage lion halloween costume several years back. It's a huge, 3 quart clear kit that I filled with vodka, lemonade and some wine for color, and was slurping on at a halloween fetish ball in LA. I kept sticking the enema business end into strangers faces asking the question "Enema?" and when they cringed, I'd take a hit of booze off it. Great. I walked right past security with it, they loved it, took pictures with me and everything.
The stainless steel speculum on my mantle next to the baby bat in a jar.
Then there was a dried mouse foot earing I used to wear. It hung down from the ankle joint down, had it's claws still & everything.
The Taxi Driver shirt's always a good one.
But the classic was my whole house in Champaign Illinois. The walls were all covered with my artwork, at the time it was abused children themed & mutilated bondage s&m drawings. B&W ink drawings placed behind battered window frames from condemned buildings. I was The Last House on the Right, and we'd joke when I'd bring girls home from the bar "Look, she hasn't run yet!" and my room mate would be like "She will, she will." We couldn't believe when we got robbed by a bunch of junkies.
One year on Halloween, I put in the omen soundtrack with some other goodies on a loop, and stood in the open doorway in my jason voorhees costume, with a bowl of candy in one hand and a fucked up rusty machete in the other. I didn't move, just stood there. Well, no one would come up to the door, they just walked right on by. I used to get looks from people riding with me when I carry'd the machete in the car. I had it for years there for open road discussions. Right on the floor in the passenger side or in a sheathe I put on the back of my drivers seat.
The upside down cross earings used to get looks, or the 1/2 long black fingernails. In the midwest, the long painted nails freaked folks out worse than anything else, especially men.
For some great fun shirts go check a friend's site,
www.eckwear.com, where I got a kick ass Omen hooded sweat shirt. He's got the best horror shirts I've seen anywhere and good quality.
My Smoke Crack and Worship Satan used to get some stares also. Or the Marvel Can Suck My Cock, but I don't think that's horror related. I spent a night in downtown LA Jail wearing leather pants, no shoes and a Genitorturers t-shirt that Punish Me in big bold white letters, that got some looks but thankfully nothing else. I spent 5 hours staring at a wall hating myself and mentally cursing myself for being dumb enough to get thrown in there.
Man, I could go on and on...
