The Kurt Cobain Suicide Note on a T-Shirt Was Surprisingly Not From Urban Outfitters

When it comes to the statue of limitations on good taste, Urban Outfitters is usually the clothing store known for breaking all the rules. But for once, they’re not the ones responsible for the embarrassing attempt at selling a Kurt Cobain suicide note tee. This time, it was sellers on eBay and Etsy.

While the contents of Cobain’s suicide note have been oversaturatedly publicized many times over (even including the time Courtney Love read it aloud after it happened), there is a certain obvious moral reprehensibility to slapping it on a t-shirt. Even Hot Topic wouldn’t deign to do such a thing now that they have their Joan Jett clothing line.

On the one (albeit dainty) hand, there is an issue of freedom of expression with regard to revoking this tee from the internet. On the other, what kind of heartless monster would want to don this as a statement anyway? And what does it say about the larger culture of callousness and desensitization? It’s evident that people have become so numb to the concepts of empathy and respect that someone felt it would be okay to turn Cobain’s tragic end into a profit–bringing a whole new meaning to the Nirvana song “Rape Me.”