Star Sapphire

After I has the first two I thought I was done. But when they added characters and additional corps to the mix, each with their own colors and logos I had to collect them all!
Continuing with the Green Lantern theme, I bought this one along with "hope" at WonderCon a few years ago in San Francisco. Graphitti, the company who licenses these designs, always has a booth at the big cons and makes a killing selling shirts all weekend. I didn't have a job at the time so my mom bought these two for me. She would only get ones that were positive -no rage or death or whatever-. This one may be harder to find locally since Love is not as popular as greed or will or something. You can get them online though.
http://www.graphittidesigns.com/shop/VIOLET-LANTERN-SYMBOL-T-Shirt.html
I still really like the quality of all these shirts. The fabric is nice and heavy and the ink is really solid. This was the only color they had it in and, along with my Japan museum shirt, it is the only other purple one I have. The kind of obscure and fairly retro comic book reference is totally worth the hue. In the comic they all wear Violet so it could be worse.
This is what I love about this whole line of shirts: the design is just the logo in the center and the brand on the armband. The corps of the day is the Star Sapphires! They burn the Violet light of love. With their frontwoman Carol Ferris who was Hal Jordan's main squeeze for several decades. Over the years she would don the mantel of the Star Sapphire and wreak havoc for an issue or two like Sinestro would. After the Sinestro Corps War there was a brief period of calm, the eye of the storm. As the Sinestro corp was formed other hues of the spectrum of light were forming their armies too. The Sins of the Star Sapphire was the next story, it chronicles their secret origins, motivation and role in the upcoming events. The Star Sapphire oath goes a little like this:

For hearts long lost and full of fright,
For those alone in blackest night,
Accept our ring and join our fight,
Love conquers all-- with violet light!

The Star Sapphires aren't my favorite corps, not even in my top 3. The comic book reference is still good because people who are familiar with them don't see the logo that often. I like to wear it as a conversation starter, a purple shirt with a bold graphic will definitely get a question or two. Telling the story of the Star Sapphires is a bit confusing but it segues well into the rest of the main plot. If someone asks what the symbol means -and I can tell they don't really want to get into it- I say that it represents Love.

My most memorable time wearing this was at karaoke two years back. The shirt got a lot of exposure and it was right when the Blackest Night was just getting into full swing. I don't think wearing this on a date would go as well as I might think, or it wouldn't send the right message, perhaps a third or forth date? maybe valentines day? If you see me wearing this shirt around it means that I'm in a good mood.
PS. I wanted to try a pic like this but it really didn't turn out as awesomely as I had hoped =/