On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump supporters stormed inside the US Capitol. The riot took place when the Congress had a joint session with the purpose of certifying that the Electoral College vote was in President-elect Joe Biden’s favor.
The US Capitol was in absolute disarray—improvised explosives were used, there was rioting, and the congressional leaders had to be quickly evacuated. In the midst of all this mayhem, however, a tattoo of one of the participants caught the eye of many, especially those from the video game community.
From all the pictures posted online taken during the riot, one Trump supporter had a tattoo of Dishonored’s Outsider’s Mark on his left hand. For those unfamiliar with this video game series, the Mark is seared into individuals whom the Outsider thinks are interesting. Once branded, the Mark gives the character supernatural powers, and it can be seen sported by various playable characters in the entire franchise.
After all the chaos, numerous Twitter users branded the Outsider’s Mark as a symbol of Antifa in an attempt to shift the blame onto leftists, as some people believe that the left-wing movement orchestrated the entire event to try and ruin the image of Trump supporters.
However, many gamers found the tattoo’s design to be familiar, and even Dishonored co-creator Harvey Smith confirmed that the tattoo was linked to the video game series.
I assure you, it’s not https://t.co/v3tMsTwm3I
— Harvey Smith (@Harvey1966) January 6, 2021
People really out here saying this dudes tattoo is Antifa related when it’s the Mark of the Outsider from Dishonored. People are really grasping at straws trying to blame yesterday on anything else but the obvious. If you support what happened in DC yesterday please unfollow me. pic.twitter.com/RwSLVO6Ng8
— TheConductor (@TheConductor__) January 7, 2021
In light of this, it’s absolutely ironic how a symbol from Dishonored was present in the storming of the US Capitol, especially since the video game series is all about overthrowing a corrupt government that seized power in unfair ways within a city infected with some kind of plague.
It seems very much like our real-world situation right now, given how we’re in the middle of a global pandemic, but it’s also worth noting that President-elect Joe Biden was elected through democratic voting. On the other hand, Dishonored’s Lord Regent was able to obtain power through a coup.
That being said, this wouldn’t be the first time that Donald Trump supporters utilized a video game symbol without even considering the meaning behind it or where it originated from. There was even an instance when Rage Against the Machine songs were involved.
Not only that though, there was a Trump supporter last year who was seen wearing the outfit of Homelander—the antagonist of popular TV show The Boys—much to the revulsion of both actor Antony Starr and show developer Eric Kripke.
Asides from the interesting crossover with the video game world, the storming of the US Capitol has impacted the gaming community in other ways. For one thing, Twitch announced the removal of the PogChamp emote after Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez, the face of the emote, made comments that essentially encouraged the disorder and violence that took place.
Since the terminology is a big part of Twitch’s community at this point, the platform says in a follow-up tweet that the company will be collaborating with the community to design a brand-new emote for viewers to make use of.
