Yesterday, a Pokémon-themed thread popped up on Reddit. It was titled “My friend was drunk and on Xanax when he decided to tattoo a black face Charmander with no experience or artistic ability. The flame saves it.”


This is the tattoo:


This is what the Pokémon is supposed to look like, for reference’s sake. Charmander!

Comparing the two, the tattoo is not exactly the most faithful recreation. But given the circumstances? I’ll say that the guy’s tattoo isn’t half bad.

The poster of the Reddit thread claims that the guy in the image woke up the morning after the tattoo and asked his friend why he didn’t try to stop him from getting the Charmander tattoo. Turns out, the friend tried “multiple times” to no avail.


Just the same, the internet has fully embraced the guy’s rendition of Charmander, with many lovingly calling it Shartmander. In response to the original Shartmander, there are a number of funny images and memes floating around, all of which celebrate the guy’s tatoo. The initial image in this post, for example, was created by wowdracarys.

That said, the rendition of BELIEVE IN YOURSELF Charmander is partially influenced by the tattoo, and partially influenced by the artwork of Vaughn Pinpin, who drew a Tim-Burton style Charmander back in 2012:


The tattoo has some similarities, yeah? It’s easy to see why the Charmander jokes floating around right now mash together the guy’s tattoo and Pinpin’s Burton Charmander.


[Source: ButWhyPhil]


[Source: MightyLinebeck]


[Source: wowdracarys]


[Source: whatisseventimesnine]


[Source: BBZZZZTT]


[Source: cakebeerandmorebeer]


[Source: squishysquidface]


[Source: A newspaper clipping uploaded by Homer_Hatake]


[Source: nedesemcomic]

Curiously, a number of people are trying to capitalize on the meme by selling things such as T-Shirts and other miscellaneous items that have the Shartmander printed on them. This is occurring in spite of the fact that many of the images take heavy inspiration from the work of Pinpin, who is often not even credited as inspiration. Additionally, judging from Pinpin’s Twitter feed, they seem to feel that many of the jokes surrounding Shartmander are akin to “laughing with the school bully when the joke was punching me in the face.” I don’t think everyone’s jabs at the Charmander are mean-spirited, but it’s hard to say. Regardless, the Charmander is kind of everywhere right now.


You can check out more Shartmander images here, or check out more of Pinpin’s work here.

You are currently visiting Pocket Monster, a Kotaku blog dedicated to all things Pokémon.