An RIP shirt, with the letters the standard acronym for "Rest in Peace," is a shirt with the name, and perhaps pictures of a person who has died, often from violent crime. The trend of RIP shirts began in the 1990s, and is commonly associated with high crime urban areas. It is usually close friends or family members who will order an RIP shirt for a lost loved one, and will wear it in remembrance of that person.
Like donning mourning clothes, wearing the RIP shirt is a way of expressing grief, and reminding others that one is in the midst of grief. Most are plain tee shirts, and the designs are silk-screened by tee shirt screeners. Their order of shirts may be large or small, depending upon the popularity of the victim and the number of people who want to honor the deceased.
In one way, RIP shirts are a youthful, individualized message of remembrance and grieving, but in another, they are a deeply sad commentary on people who live in areas where violent crime is common. Urban areas with high murder rates are with each death trying to make others remember that these deaths are not simply statistics, but the death of a person. Some silk-screeners in high crime areas comment that the RIP shirt seems to be their most popular request. Most don’t make money from the creation of these, charging only for materials.
In high crime areas there is an inevitable association between the RIP shirt and gang affiliation. Some in law enforcement are concerned that RIP shirts for victims of gang violence may further it by reminding people of deaths in their own gangs. Further, the “fame” of being on an RIP shirt, might seem like a noble death to a young person deeply immersed in gang life.
It would be a mistake to assume that the RIP shirt exclusively commemorates victims of gang violence. In areas with high murder rates, only some of the murders are gang-related, while others may have nothing to do with gangs. People may wear RIP shirts for parents, just as easily as parents wear them for children. The hope of family and friends in wearing an RIP shirt is that a person’s existence will be honored and not forgotten. It is a way of holding onto the dead and asserting that those who have died were loved and important.
