It's been 22 years since English extreme-metal band Cradle Of Filth first printed up their infamous "Jesus Is A Cunt" shirt, yet it still continues to make headlines, reports Dan Epstein of Rolling Stone. The T-shirt bears the image of a masturbating nun on the front with the phrase "Vestal Masturbation," and the words "Jesus Is A Cunt" in unmistakably large lettering on the back.

The wearing of the shirt has resulted in numerous arrests and prosecutions over the past two decades, while politicians (and other self-appointed guardians of the public morality) of several countries have angrily denounced its existence. "Who would have thought?" laughs Cradle frontman Dani Filth. "Twenty-two years, and still so much upset!"

 

 

As with so many iconic rock & roll creations, the Cradle T-shirt essentially began as a lark. "It was all very silly, I suppose," Filth recalls. "It was 1993, and we were about to go on tour with [Norwegian black-metal band] Emperor. We had a different T-shirt at the time – it had a picture of my wife, who was all done up in black metal regalia, and it said 'The Black Goddess Rises' on it. We needed to get a new shirt done quickly for the tour; we'd already come up with the 'Vestal Masturbation' image and phrase, but we still needed a back print for it."

During the brainstorming session for the shirt, someone – Filth says he doesn't remember who – uttered the immortal phrase, triggering howls of mirth from the band. "We all were laughing about it, like, 'Oh my god, that's so anarchic – can you imagine that on a T-shirt?' We looked at each other conspiratorially, like, 'Shall we?' And yeah, we did it. Even at the time, we thought, 'Well, this is pushing the boundaries a little bit.'"

Learn more at this location and get your very own "Jesus Is A Cunt" t-shirt here.