Irene Strychalski, the artist behind the drawing of the "hugging emo couple" that traveled the Internet in 2008

Those who surfed the Internet in 2008 will remember a drawing popularly known as “emo couple hugging”, although its original name is Hugzz and it was published on the DeviantArt platform. The illustration toured Messenger, Fotolog and other social networks of the moment.

During that time it was shared and sometimes modified by young people who felt identified with the emo aesthetic, a subculture that was born linked to the emotional hardcore musical trend . As was customary then, phrases, filters or stickers were added to the photographs. The image was circulating without attribution, but recently a user recalled on Twitter that the work was by Irene Strychalski. Using the formula of the meme "whoever has artistic culture will understand this photo", which recalls old images often in an ironic tone, the tweet accumulated more than 10,000 retweets and 66,000 likes .

The creator of the illustration is called Irene Strychalski and now works for Marvel https://t.co/HIPK0jQf9S

Irene Strychalski, a 31-year-old American girl born in Taiwan, explains to Verne via video call that the drawing was originally a project for her animation class: “I was very interested in emo aesthetics at that time and many of my friends from the music club. Animation liked the drawing, so it became a Christmas card ”.

The artist received with surprise the multiple messages in Spanish, including the one from @ItsPuri, on social networks and assured that she would recreate the original drawing. Although she had known for years the popularity of the image, it was not until a few weeks ago that she discovered that it had been an international icon throughout the world. “In those years my friends told me that people used my drawing as a profile photo, little by little I realized that they were downloading it and making their own edits. I didn't know that everyone had known her for so many years ”.

Hey thank you so much! Sorry I only know like 5 words of Spanish ... But I'm honored that people still remember and enjoy this image!

Thanks for the support! ❤️ https://t.co/KFB6OALxeP

Thank you very much! I only know like five words of Spanish ... But it's an honor that people still remember and enjoy this picture! Thanks for the support!

Although she is a professional artist today, it doesn't bother her that so many people have used her image without permission or credit. “I was about 16 years old when I drew it, we were all very young and nobody really knew how authorship worked. The Internet was like the Wild West. In fact, many people have mentioned me now to apologize for having used that drawing without permission during those years. It would be very different if it happened today, but it's been so long ago that I can't be upset about it, ”says the illustrator. The image was so popular that some users have brought back those editions and even created their own new designs.

Tribute to those days of Orkut, MySpace, messenher, etc with emos, with an iconic illustration by @RenieDraws which made me want to redraw it pic.twitter.com/Evr6x71Ydb

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Redraw of a drawing by @reniedraws This drawing is my childhood, although I feel more familiar with the "emo" version At first I was going to redraw that version (the edited one) But I thought that if I made a drawing and someone edited it, I wouldn't love them to do a redraw of the edited version instead of the original So I opted to redraw both versions. Fact: when I was a girl I associated the original version with the floguers and, edited, with the emos Both urban tribes in conflict (okno... #Fanart #redraw #infancia #emo #art #floguers #mydraw #myart #myartstyle #draw #drawing #dibujo #mangaanime #manga #anime #animecuple #love #nostalgia #nostalgic #digitalart #digitaldraw #beauty #black #negro

A post shared by IARU (@ 25.centavostudio) on Aug 17, 2020 at 11:45 PDT

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I've seeing again in my TL this iconic picture of @reniedraws, from like 10 years ago or so, and I just had to 🥺🥺 #emo #scene #rawr # rawring20s #throwback

A post shared by Ana Ferre (@anndrawspoppys) on Jul 31, 2020 at 11:46 PDT

Strychalski studied at Savannah College of Art and Design (Georgia, USA) and specialized in animation and sequential art. He currently works at Marvel, animating some of their productions and illustrating comics such as Deadpool, Gweenpool or Marvel Rising. However, his true dream is to publish his own online comic, Fiendish, a story about monsters, magic and mystery set in other dimensions. “I've always liked to draw and tell stories, so I'm struggling to get my own comic out. I also consider that I am very fortunate for my work, ”explains Strychalski.

The author has decided to share a new version of the image on Instagram and Twitter, updating it to a more contemporary style and baptizing the protagonists as Teo and Nia. Strychalski, who has reached almost 26,000 followers on Instagram, thanks in the publication the renewed attention she has received for this image from almost 15 years ago: “I am very grateful that so many people are interested in my work and it is a motivation to improve . It's like having a lot of new friends. "

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Here is the redraw of the hugs illustration, as promised! I remember seeing an edit that gave the girl dark hair and a pink shirt, so I made a version with those colors too (second image). And as requested, I've also made these into wallpapers. I wanted to make sure the image quality was nice, so I put it up on my digital store- but rest assured that it's free to download (or pay what you like). You can find a link to that through my main website. Thanks to everyone for continuing to blow up my Instagram, haha. I really hope everyone likes this new iteration! 😊🖤🖤 #drawing #hugs #hug #cute #sketch #illustration #kids #manga #comics #redhead #cuddle #chibi #goth #emo #couple #squish #love #amour #sweet #artofinstagram #instaart

A post shared by Irene Strychalski (@reniedraws) on Aug 18, 2020 at 10:35 PDT

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