Above is a picture from a Lancaster, CA Walmart, taken last night. Here's one from Saturday, location unspecified.

In fact, we have yet to hear of a single Walmart that has actually stopped selling the shirts. — BEN POPKEN

Recent updates to this story.
Backstory.

The funny thing is that when I made that graphic I was referencing a biker logo and it was only brought up to me later that it was the SS skull.

For an artist who traffics so heavily in appropriating fascist symbolism and iconography, Shep Fairey might be well served by picking up a few history books.

As George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." — BEN POPKEN

• Shep Fairey talks about "the politics of aesthetics."

• From Shep Fairey's OBEY manifesto: "The OBEY sticker.... has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker."

• A reader reports eBay pulled his Walmart Totenkopf shirt auctionfor being "Hateful or Discriminatory," no word on the thousands of other auctions of Nazi memorabilia.

• Day 6, shirt still on sale at Walmart.

• A conversation we had with graphic designer Daniel Edelman.

karlhungus: I can tell you want happened with those walmart t-shirts
karlhungus: speaking from experience
karlhungus: working on stuff like that
karlhungus: not nazi stuff
karlhungus: but the (former) popularity of the skull and crossbones type stuff
fakeout: alrighty, spill the beans
karlhungus: did I show you the look book and packages I did for that ralph lauren ivy cologne?
fakeout: yeah
fakeout: i remember there were some skullies in there
karlhungus: well what has to be understood is that alot of the imagery used by skull and bones and the underground secret society aesthetic comes from nazi imagery
karlhungus: because the real skull and bones has long time connections to the 3rd reich
karlhungus: and alot of iconography was translated, carried over
karlhungus: now smart people that we were
karlhungus: stopped from continuing with alot of really nice stuff because when you put it up on the wall on its own it looked like we were calling for racial purity
karlhungus: I could show you hundreds of designs that had that problem
karlhungus: where you are sitting at your computer, grabbing crap off the internet, making something cool and not really thinking about it
karlhungus: but like I said, we had the sense to stop and say "wait a second, hiel hitler"
karlhungus: but it would seem that their "design team" didn't have the piece of mind to think in the same way
fakeout: right
karlhungus: I think that its an amazing logo on its own, all things considered
karlhungus: and its that the average walmart shopper either wouldn't know it if they saw it, or would approve if they knew it
karlhungus: a couple of things happen
karlhungus: one, the link between skull and bones/secret society and the 3rd reich is deep seeded in idea and imagery
karlhungus: and two
karlhungus: you have to be an active filter for it as you work with it
karlhungus: and three
karlhungus: that whole look is over, unless you are ralph lauren and know how to make it look good over and over again
karlhungus: just look it up on google, and you could construct related design in an hour
fakeout: the other thing, SS imagery is royalty free
fakeout: we were thinking someone working from a flash tatoo book
karlhungus: no, you are exactly right
fakeout: there's other items in the "no boundaries" line that have tatoo imagery on them
karlhungus: thats a huge part of it
karlhungus: thats good, you hit a big nail on the head there
karlhungus: alot of ancient ritual text/imagery as well as stuff like that are outside of the realm of copy right
karlhungus: copyright
karlhungus: most of it you can buy in clip art books at the local barnes and noble
karlhungus: or find on internet sites that house high res scans of pages
karlhungus: so, they just clinched their butt-cheeks and hoped that no one would notice
fakeout: or no one had any idea
karlhungus: its both
karlhungus: god that was the most unpleasant project of my life
karlhungus: like, you need to stop every so often and work out what's acceptable and stop it from leaving the sketch stage
karlhungus: and those above simple images are just throwing together a couple of elements from "the bank" as it were, and so it can easily head south
karlhungus: or head hitler
karlhungus: and as I said, its just simple sketching, in five minutes a can create a new symbol for the nazi party

Maybe now that it's on CNN, Walmart will actually finally remove the shirts from their shelves. Yes, this is so important, we put two adverbs together. — BEN POPKEN

Recent updates to this story.
Backstory.

Looks like Walmart didn't just rip off the Nazis, they also ripped off artist Shep Fairey, known for his "OBEY GIANT" creations.

Both have the same skull. Shep's has, "Defiant Since '89". Walmart's says, "Since 1978."

Shirt was on sale at Obey's merch shop Karmaloop, though it's currently out of stock (google cache here). You can still get it through a few other distributors.

We venture that Walmart's ripoff is not just a photoshop of the OBEY design. Note the inset star on the Obey design. We posit that Walmart's designer researched a clean version of the Totenkopf skull and deliberately ignored that it was found in the "Copyright Free Nazi Imagery" section. While the mechanical process of Walmart's recreation is indeterminate, the inspiration is clear...

Special thanks to reader Schvitzatura for pointing this out, on four different posts, at 3:04 PM, 15 minutes after we emailed Walmart's PR firm again to ask when they were planning on removing these shirts from the sales floor.

A call to a NJ area Walmart confirmed the shirts were still for sale today, six days after they were first spotted and four days after Walmart's PR firm promised their removal.

For your convenience, here's a translation of what that German Obey:Giant tshirt site has to say about the "Obey Defiant Skull" shirt:

Shep Fairey and friends knew their shirt is naughty, but apparently, Walmart's designers didn't. — BEN POPKEN

Judging from a recent entry by a South Dakota blogger, four days after Walmart's PR firm promised the t-shirt's removal, tshirts bearing Nazi SS imagery could still be found on the retailer's shelves.

"Evil King Macrocranios," says he was approached by a Walmart employee after taking this picture. Initially, she asked the blogger and his wife to stop taking pictures but was cool with it after she learned they weren't eBay scammers.

When they told her about the image's Nazi origins, the employee reportedly found the shirt to not be that big a deal and was more bothered by shirts promoting the, "sexually promiscuous Smokey and the Bandit."

The Consumerist urges Walmart to hasten these shirts' removal so we can stop writing about them. Our readers will be grateful. — BEN POPKEN

I'm in UR Wal-Martz wearing UR Nazi shurts [Please Save Me Robots] (Thanks Philip!)

UPDATE: Here's someone who bought the shirt five days later.

SIDEBAR: The number 88 has been forever ruined. See this recent picture of New York Mayor Bloomberg, inside.

RELATED: Target Pulls '88' Clothing. [Tolerance]

We interview the blogger who first spotted the Nazi Walmart shirts, Rick Rottman. He discusses how he first saw the shirts, why he posted it about them, and what happened next.

By the end, you may never think about the number 88 the same way again.

Subscribe to The Consumerist podcast and get these delivered directly.

Transcript inside. — BEN POPKEN

CONSUMERIST: This is Consumerist dot com, and I'm Ben Popken. Last Thursday, Rick Rottman blogged about some strange t-shirts he found at Walmart. They had a grinning skull on them, an exact replica of the one used by an infamous Nazi SS brigade during World War two. Rick discusses how he first saw the shirts, why he posted about them, and what happened next. And by the end, you may never think about the number 88 the same way again.

CONSUMERIST: When did you first spot the Totekkpof tshirt at Walmart?

RICK: You know the thing is I thought I saw them a couple of weeks ago. We were walking through the store and I thought it was just my imagination, I was seeing it wrong. But then that Thursday I walked right through and I looked right at it and I couldn't believe it because it looked exactly like the death head logo that the Waffen SS used. It wasn't just a skull and crossbones, it had a very distinct look to it.

CONSUMERIST: Right. How were you yourself familiar with this particular logo?

RICK: You know afterwards I kinda wondered about that myself, well why is it that I can walk by this and immediately and identify it with the Nazi SS you know. I mean I'm not a I used to read a lot of history books, but I was kinda surprised that no one else noticed it, which I guess they didn't before I did.

CONSUMERIST: What were your thoughts when you saw it and what propelled you to post about it?

RICK: When I was standing there looking at it and I was thinking what in the world, how could Walmart let this happen? You would think that making sure that stuff with Nazi insignias or Nazi swag doesn't show up on their shelves would be kind of a priority, you know?And then I remembered my phone has a camera, I always forget my phone has a camera and I'll see something weird going and I'll be "I wish I had my camera" you know and I'm thinking my digital camera and then I always have the camera on my phone I think I've taken all of three pictures with it, you know, so I went ahead and posted this, I figured, why not, you know.

CONSUMERIST: After you posted it, what happened?

RICK: Oh, it was ridiculous. I mean, I posted it and then I thought, I'm gonna post a link to Digg. I generally have about 20 or 30 people who come and read my blog a day. The first day it was over 56,000.

CONSUMERIST: Wow.

RICK: Yeah yeah, I had to email my hosting provider, I think I did something here, and they emailed back, yeah, we'll go ahead and make a few changes, just let us know next time you're gonna post something to Digg.

CONSUMERIST: Yeah, just let us know next time you discover Nazi propaganda inside a major retailer.

RICK: I guess people just love good Walmart slash Nazi stories, you know.

CONSUMERIST: Perfect Venn diagram for the blogosphere. Sweet spot! Yes!

And so then you, like anyone else who has put up a mention, you received an outreach from Walmart.

RICK: I got kinda ticked off because when he sent me the email, I thought he was being genuine and the thing is, I should point out, I don't really, I didn't at the time really blame Walmart for this happening, I mean, mistakes happen, I guess I would rather judge anyone, a company, an entity, or a corporation, or just even an individual, okay they made a mistake, I think this is just a mistake, but how quickly did they respond to correct or try and rectify this mistake? And in Walmart's case they haven't even responded at all, to this. They posted the thing that they were going to be removing all the shirts but this is, Sunday, this is the fourth day after I posted about it and the shirts are still on the sales floor.

CONSUMERIST: Right. Due to the attention that has been brought to it, there are other demographics that this shirt is probably selling better to than it was before...

RICK: I found messages from people on Nazi message boads and people were talking about going to Walmart and getting two of them.

CONSUMERIST: Yeah, I was reading some of these messages and some of them are saying, and I'll do a quote here, this is from "JB" who says he's a "National Alliance Member," he says, "As the guy who started the blog about the shirts in the first place, he shoulda just STFU about it and now he is contributing to the very problem he got his panties in a knot over, he should've just shut up and minded his own business, and this thing would've went away quietly before anyone noticed. Now thanks to his," he uses a rude word, "we are now goose stepping over to Walmart to get our SS shirts."

RICK: Yeah, he was quoting me, I was ticked off and I said, yeah, now they're all goosetepping over to Walmart to get their Nazi schwag.

CONSUMERIST: So how do you feel when you see comments like this?

RICK: He's welcome to say, he has somewhat of a point hidden in there, I don't necessarily agree with it, if I see something wrong, or if anyone sees something wrong, I think they should be able to point it out but then you would expect whoever's responsible for it to take action and unfortunately, Walmart hasn't taken action.

There was a few years ago, Target was selling some clothes with the number eight eight on them, and apparently there's some kinda white supremacy group that uses that as like a kind a code. Because eight eight, H is the eight letter in the alphabet and so eight eight means Heil Hitler you know. Well, they removed all those shirts immediately or hats or whatever they were. And I thought that was kind of excessive, you know. I mean you really have to be reaching to make some kind of connection between eight eight and white supremacy, you know. When I see eight eight, I think Eric Linderos' number, jersey number, I don't think white supremacy or anything. But an exact replica of the Waffen death's head, that's a little too close for me.

CONSUMERIST: Right, and somehow that's not a priority for a different retailer to deal with. Well, great, um, I guess the last question is, you know, as of now, do you have any theories as to how this tshirt got made in the first place and passed through the channels? Because as we said, it's an exact replica. If you cut it out and paste right over the top of the shirt, it will fit exactly.

RICK: I think what had happened, I think for some reason, skulls are kinda popular among a certain, let's say young male fashion or something. I think the artist was hard pressed to come up with a skull and they came across one that they had never seen before, meaning one that no one else is putting it on a shirt and so they went ahead and put it on a shirt. Little did they know that most people weren't using it because it was worn by concentration camp guards.

CONSUMERIST: Oh man, it's a doozy. It's a doozy. Well, Rick, thanks so much for speaking with us today, pointing out this phenomenon, and we look forward to seeing what, if anything, Walmart ends up doing about it. See if Walmart decides to pull it off the shelves or be more proactive.

RICK: Yeah, "if" is definitely the word. If anything.

As a chaser of sorts to all this depressing Nationalist-Socialist tshirt business, here's a comedic sketch from the BBC's That Mitchell and Webb Look.

It centers around two officers in the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf coming to grips with the insignia on their hats. — BEN POPKEN

Three Walmart's Totenkopf shirts are now available on eBay.

The current bids are $.01.

Packaging is in view in the auction picture, showing that the Totenkopf shirts are part of Walmart's "No Boundaries" line. It's uncertain at this time whether "No Boundaries" is specific to Walmart.

Walmart's No Boundaries collection, or "NoBo," represents the retailer's attempt to bring a streety, pop-punk, aesthetic into its apparel offerings.

Other NoBo items feature winged hearts, crests of arms, and slogans like, "Look at me now, have dreams about me later" (with the letters REOSL off-set in red to spell "Loser.")

Walmart's website shows 11 other NoBo items with skulls, though none feature the Totenkopf.

There's even a NoBo Geometric Comforter Set. — BEN POPKEN

This t-shirt kerfuffle isn't the first time Walmart has been accused of flirting with fascism, Adfreak points out.

In 2004: Walmart was smacked by Anti-Defamation League for selling the anti-Semitic text The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. And in 2005: Walmart funded a group that used a picture of a 1933 Nazi book burning to protest measures restricting big-box retailers.

And now one for '06. Walmart's yearly Nationalist-Socialist constitutional.

Speaking of dates, reader Daniel says:

"Soldiers of Destruction: The SS Death's Head Division, 1933-1945 by Charles W. Sydnor, Jr. has a publication date of 1977 - but I believe it was only available beginning in 1978"

While interesting to toss around conspiracy theories, we still stick with the hack designer trying to make an "authentic," "retro," t-shirt. He just may have no idea how authentically retro it ended up being.

A retailer as large as Walmart is bound to sell Nazi merchandise every so often. You know what they say, a million monkeys at a million sewing machines will eventually sew together a Mein Kampf quilt. — BEN POPKEN

Warning: baseless conjecture ahead. One of our readers is trying to track down who made Walmart's Nazi skull t-shirt.

Muckraker: I have reason to believe that the shirt comes from a tattoo flash catalog.
Muckraker: flash is what they refer to as pre-made logos that people choose from when they pick out a tattoo
Muckraker: But I have no corroborating evidence except that it's a popular tattoo
Muckraker: for neo-nazi's...
Muckraker: but is quite likely popular enough that it's distributed...
Muckraker: It's quite likely it's local to Arkansas

Arkansas? That's interesting, Walmart's HQ is in Bentonville, AR. Who says Walmart destroys local economies? — BEN POPKEN

Walmart removed your favorite Totenkopf shirt before you had a chance to buy it? Don't despair, there's plenty of neo-Nazi apparel sites around the web ready and willing to sell you a reasonable facsimile.

PzG
Militaria-net
Micetrap Distribution, LLC

So not only was the t-shirt extremely tasteless, it was also a ripoff. Man, the Nazis are gonna be so mad when they found out. — BEN POPKEN