Some douche steals Ian Curtis' (of Joy Division) headstone

The headstone marking the final resting place of deceased Joy Division singer Ian Curtis is suddenly missing.

Whoever stole it is a total douche, and deserves a special place in hell where screaming emo demons torture them with burns from a thousand clove cigarettes, poke them with a million blunt eyeliner applicators, and blind their eyes with painfully asymmetrical hair extensions for all eternity.

The grave marker, wherever it is now, reads: "Ian Curtis 18 - 5 - 80" and the words "Love Will Tear Us Apart".

Here is a story in the Times UK, and above is a music video by Jonathan Beamish for the earliest recorded version of "Love Will Tear us Apart," produced as a John Peel Session for the BBC in 1979 (jesus! 30 years ago, wow).

• [El Mariachi]

  Please don’t refer to Joy Division as “emo.” Sheesh. Injury, meet insult.

  Mdhatter – Speaking of insults, using “colostomy bag” as an insult is pretty insensitive to the unfortunates who have to use them, and in a much more direct way than “douche” (French for “shower”) can be inferred as derogatory towards vaginas.

• [Xeni Jardin]

  @#18, oh, I didn’t — merely that emo demons would be likely to take up their cause. In hell.

• [mdhatter]

  #18 – Yes, it is unfortunate for both men and women with colostomioes to have such a stinky filth-ridden thing as a colostomy bag. That’s why a comparison to one is insulting.

  the term ‘douchebag’, however, implies that vaginas are dirty things, and they are not. They are awesome. Using ‘douchebag’ as an insult also impugns women. It’s sexist.

  Similar to how how (self disemvoweling here) ‘sshl’ and ‘cnt’, though separated by fractions of an inch, have vastly different meanings when used as insults.

  Just food for thought, and a change of terminology I rally for.

• [zuzu]

  Wow- I was but a 4 y/o babe, when this came out. At least that was around the time I saw Debbie Harry on the Muppet Show, and decided I wanted to be just like her when I grew up.

  Precocious child you were.

• [Powell]

  Definately a s**tbag move that.

• [Kieran O’Neill]

  I think the correct response to this is to borrow from Serbian (or Eastern European languages in general, I believe).

  I would do so, but that’s liable to get me disemvowelled. Let’s just say that once God, their father, the Pope, the donkeys, dogs and elephants were done doing nasty things to them, their siblings and children, alive, dead or both in sequence on their mother’s grave, it would probably be about right.

  (See, no sexism in there at all. Well, swap the father/mother roles so the father’s in the grave and the mother uses a strap-on if you’re a purist.)

• [keratacon]

  Strange.

  I was just watching Stroszek last night.

• [doggo]

  In other desecrating-the-memory-of-Ian-Curtis news: The Joy Division Zune

  *&%#$@!

• [gretagretchen]

  Curious — is that footage of the actual Joy Division or footage from the movie Control?

  If It’s the actual Joy Division, the film Control really did get it spot on (in looks anyway)

• [franko]

  poor ian curtis. even in death he can’t get any peace.

• [Itsumishi]

  I read this last night in Melbourne’s very uncredible street magazine MX. I prayed it was one of the many mistakes they printed.
  I am very sad to hear it was not.

  The sort of person that steals a gravestone is the sort of person who deserves to live forever in screaming agony. The sort of person that steals Ian Curtis’ gravestone deserves to live forever in screaming agony while their hair is burnt and their feet are set in cold blocks of ice.
  God damn I hope they catch these m-f-ers.

• [Orchestra Spy]

  I didn’t steal it, but I agree. What a douchebag.

• [zuzu]

  Look, I’ll put it back if Xeni puts the head back on the statue of Jebediah Springfield. Deal?

• [Xeni Jardin]

  @zuzu, I can’t do that. His head has been unpublished.

• [Anonymous]

  they will bask in what they have stolen and be no closer to enlightenment than a fallen leaf or a turd floating in a drain…. piss weak comes to mind when thinking of anyone who do such a thing

• [Anonymous]

  kill your idols

• [Jake0748]

  That’s a pretty foul thing for somebody to do. But I wonder if the outrage is partly fueled by the fact that the guy was some musical celebrity.

  Are the people who stole this headstone any worse than these guys?

  http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/09/teens-desecrate-grav.html

• [mdhatter]

  That sucks.

  Also, I’ve been trying to swap to using the term cholostomy-bag (or cobag for short).

  Using douche as a dirty word implies too many negative things about lady parts.

• [holtt]

  Sorry I can’t weep over this. Why do I care about this person more than the ones I found when I blindly Google “Teens Desecrate Tombstone”?

• [ployntabs]

  You don’t think it was a couple of stoners out for a larf? I’m sure Mr Curtis doesn’t care. I doubt we’ll see it on ebay. I bet once these guys get straight they’ll bring it back and then get high again, then steal it again because it’s funny.

  later; seven eleven burritos.

• [Shawn Wolfe]

  Does the guy (or gal) work at Cinnabon by chance??

• [nina]

  Such a beautiful video- my long, jet black spider-farmer hairdo almost grew back, just watching it.

  Wow- I was but a 4 y/o babe, when this came out. At least that was around the time I saw Debbie Harry on the Muppet Show, and decided I wanted to be just like her when I grew up.

  James Dean’s head-stone, as vandalized by fans who regularly nick chips off of it, to take home as “souveniers.” It evidently needs to be replaced every few years, as a result- but I liked the lipstick marks!

  

• [Contrasoma]

  #5 & #6: No one’s saying that the people who did this aren’t any worse than the examples you cite. People are upset because Ian’s music had a substantial impact upon their lives and his legacy being disrespected in such a callous manner bothers them. This coverage this story’s getting isn’t any more incongruous than that given to any other story about any aspect of an artist’s life apart from their work itself.

• [Takuan]

  we drill a hole in the headstone and he can keep it
  http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Heights/9417/cangue1.jpg

• [Contrasoma]

  Oops. “are any worse”.