Get a T-Shirt, Boost a Bacon Pirate & Domestic Abuse Survivor

About this campaign

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnGBRER8AVk

My name is Karen Green and I’m a domestic abuse survivor. I’m raising money for next month’s rent and raising awareness of domestic abuse with my Bacon Pirates t-shirt design.

I'm a former professional t-shirt designer. I worked as a graphic artist for screenprinting, embroidery, and sign companies until my husband’s abuse sabotaged my career.

My marriage ended almost five years ago, but it’s still not over for me. Once I left my abuser, society starting doing the job for him. Friends didn’t care or didn’t believe me. Told me it didn’t matter and I needed to just move on and get a job. I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which means moving on is a biochemical challenge. I face stigma and discrimination because of the mental health fallout from being abused. And I went from middle class to below the poverty line because I haven't been able to support myself. The man who did this to me got to keep his six figure Silicon Valley job with stock options.

Domestic abuse is the number one reason for homelessness in women and children. I lived in a radio station for four months last year because I had nowhere else to go.

For several years, I was too crippled by PTSD to work, now I can’t recover my promotional products career. I can’t explain a four-plus employment gap to employers. I underperform in interviews because I have memory problems and stale experience. Despite my best efforts, I can’t make a living as an artist anymore. My promotional products career looks like it's over.

I created the Bacon Pirates art for me and my ex-husband. The eyebrows in this design were inspired by Stephen Colbert. I put this design on shirts, hoodies, stickers, magnets, a banner. I even owned baconpirates.com for a while.

In a recent GQ cover story, Stephen Colbert said, “I love the thing that I most wish had not happened.” I would LOVE to love this thing I most wish I hadn’t happened. I love this design but it stands for a relationship that left me in ruins. By putting the Bacon Pirates shirt on Booster, I hope I can give this design new meaning. My first t-shirt industry job was with CustomInk, which owns Booster. I know Empathy is a key corporate value at CustomInk, which seems pretty much perfect.

If you support my campaign and buy a bacon pirates shirt, the bacon pirates will become a symbol of empathy, and I need that logo to mean something new.

[Go to https://soundcloud.com/baconpirates777/shirtdesign for an interview with me about designing shirts by KBOO Radio's Don Merrill]