What was the very first official Bounty Hunter shirt?

The very first Bounty Hunter shirt was screened in Scott's bedroom. It just said 'Bounty Hunter' with three snub-nose .38 revolvers underneath. Nothing too fancy, but it planted the seed.

Is there any particular "agenda", philosophy or belief system that drives the creative process?

Our "agenda" is ultimately to sell a product. Our personal politics are no ones business but our own. If anyone was paying close enough attention to some of the more drastic contrasts and clashing ideas we've put forth over the past 8 years they'd realize we're not in this to push a belief system or a philosophy. Lean too far in any direction and everyone gets comfortable and thinks they have things figured out. Can't have any of that, now can we?

Is there any public figure or belief system that you especially like to target for attacks and ridicule?

Nothing in particular comes to mind. Some "targets" may appear to be sitting ducks, so to speak - how hard is it to tear up religion? - but those tend to be more satisfying because of the large number of people affected. And remember, once the shirt leaves our warehouse we're not responsible for the person who decides to buy it and wear it. THEY become the person making the statement after they purchase the shirt, not Bounty Hunter. We have to laugh at those ones, the ones that call us names after they see someone else wearing one of our shirts. Nice logic, dipshit.

Is there any topic, type of subject material or illustration that you won't or wouldn't use?

Anything illegal would be an area we tend to avoid. Although many people have insisted that a lot of what we put on shirts SHOULD be illegal, it certainly isn't. Besides that, if we have a certain slant on something we'll go pretty much anywhere for a good laugh or an insult.

Who comes up with all these great ideas? Do you and your crew do them all "in house", or do people sometimes send you ideas?

Both. Most of the designs are done in-house by myself (Tareq), Scott and Tom. We have many Bounty Hunter designs that were done by other people too. We generally don't approach people for designs but when something feels right and blends in with the rest of the crap we won't pass it up. Sometimes other people's ideas are just that, an idea - then we go from there with the visuals.

With the election year upon us, do you have any ideas for skewering the President and/or John Kerry?

We threw a turd at George W. in our last catalog. Nothing too "political" so to speak, but again, sometimes those easy targets are irresistable. Don't go looking for any democratic endorsements anytime soon though, we're not that stupid either. Our Bush shirt was our big sell-out, man. We folded. I'd like to assume we won't bother with anymore presidential hoo-rah between now and the election, but who knows - the right sentiment might cross our paths and we'll have no choice but to set it out into the world.

I see your shirts on bands and clubbers at every show I go to. Do you guys ever set up a booth at metal fests, or is it all mail order and the internet?

We do business all over the place. Lots of orders online and plenty of retail businesses as well all over the states and in other countries. We've done a few of the music festivals but they usually just turn out to be a waste of time. Everyone's there is just trying to get buzzed enough to enjoy the lame show and the last thing they wanna do is go buy shit that doesn't have anything to do with the bands they paid to see. Here's a good one...We actually got kicked off the OzzFest tour. No lie. The people who were selling our shirts at those booths said they were getting too many complaints from customers and parents. Nice. We weren't quite sure how to take that when we first heard it, but we just get a good chuckle out of it now when it's mentioned. The shirts were selling just fine, really well in fact, but that wasn't the problem. Kicked off fuckin OzzFest - the very same year Jack Osbourne was wearing various Bounty Hunter shirts throughout the entire first season of their mtv series. Go figure.

Do you ever come into work, check the order screen, and find a surprise like an order from King Diamond, or, going in another direction, an order from Hillary Duff?

We have quite a few "high-profile" customers but we don't name names. And yes, when those requests come in we're often surprised and sometimes even excited. Sometimes we send them a shirt with a note that says, "Did you ever know that you're my hero?" Any really strange orders over the years, like an order for ten "I love a parade" shirts from Tipper Gore? Our strangest order is still probably from this big giant fat gay guy that called in to order our women's design that says "Fuck Men" screened on a dozen triple-X men's shirts. He said they were for him and his other fat gay friends and they just absolutely loved the design! How do you top that one?

Which Bounty Hunter shirt has been the all time favorite best seller?

Our "favorite" shirts are usually the ones that don't do very well with the customers. The shirts that sell the most are generally a little more "safe" and lack that certain sting that makes a design have a little more personality. Best sellers, a few would be "Do It", "Smack 'Em", "Parade", "Que Pasa?" etc.

Any particular design sell a surprising number to overseas customers without being an equally popular shirt here in the States?

The Michael Jackson shirt, "Que Pasa?" is doing quite well overseas with his trial pending and all the media hooplah. Apparently the frenzy behind that trial is out of hand in some countries. We couldn't have asked for a better international commercial for that shirt.

Have you guys ever caught any grief for a shirt design? You know, like somebody threatening legal action if you don't drop a shirt?

We've gotten bomb threats on our answering machine before. Sounded like pissed off parents that found our catalog in their kid's rooms or something. We don't send our catalogs to minors because of some visuals and language, but like everything else kids aren't supposed to have, they'll find it. No one has threatened us directly to drop a design but one store back east somewhere was told to take one of our shirts out of the front window display or he'd take the owner to jail. It was a cop that was threatening him. I guess someone told the cop about a shirt they thought was offensive (can't remember which one, sorry) and he went and put the heat on the shop until he took it down. Plenty of hate mail and retarded (in a bad way) messages from idiots talking shit on the answering machine.

Any particular person or organization gone out of their way to bitch and moan about Bounty Hunter?

No, not really. Anyone that has stuck around long enough to battle our amazing wits and striking good looks usually crawls away in shame back to their hole in the ground when we're done with them.

Any particular plans or ideas to enhance your market dominance of the moral impairment industry? The label (BirdInHandRecords) is a great idea. How about DVD's, books, video games?

One battle at a time. It takes all our strength as it is to stay alive as an individual entity in this world of corporate umbrellas. Very few companies out there survive on their own for as long as we have. We all dabble a little in various projects that creep their way into the Bounty Hunter mix from time to time, but for the most part we stay focused and attend to making FUN t-shirts best we can.

Thanks Tareq, your shirts are inspiration to us all.