A Post About Itachi Uchiha And The Images I Use Of Him

I’ve become intrinsically linked to the posing Itachi image I don in all of my social media accounts, to the point in which people have confused me for a new person just by switching avatars. And it happened by pure chance, given how internet communities ran in the 2010s.

Let’s explore where does that come from. In order to do that, we must go back to that very time we’ll be talking about. I can’t promise that everything I speak of will be in the proper sequence but it will be to the best of my recollection and with the receipts I have around still.

I’ve been a fan of anti-hero characters for as far back as I can remember. So when I first read Naruto in a edition of the now discontinued Shonen Jump magazine, I took an affinity to Sasuke Uchiha from the get go. Little would I know that I’d meet another one like him in the same story - his brother, Itachi Uchiha.

I vaguely recall a binge session of Naruto Shippuden around mid-2012 on Hulu. When Itachi was first introduced, I couldn’t stop fawning over him. The times he appeared on the screen before his battle with Sasuke were few and far between, which befits the Akatsuki, yet I wanted more, even if I had to stomach Deidara for it.

Pretty sure that, by the time of Itachi’s death, I already settled on using the particular screengrab as a way to honor how much of a fan I am of him. While I struggle to recall what pictures I used before Itachi, he has been part of my online image since at least 2012.

So how did the variants, commissioned over the years, came to be?

Around this time, I was running a Call of Duty podcast. One of the people I was fortunate enough to interview was Stuart Brown, known as Ahoy (XboxAhoy back then) and I was a fan of his vector art.. After the interview, I wanted to see if he’d entertain the idea of a commission piece and, fortunately, he indulged me!

*One of a chain of e-mails that led to vector Itachi, the longest serving profile picture identifier.*

While I was looking to launch my YouTube channel with art that wasn’t a screengrab, I didn’t quite know what I wanted. I was full of guilt for even having the chance, and it felt like I was wasting his time - we kept it simple with the expectation that I’d sketch something I’d like him to vector for me as a separate work.

A day which, as I write this, has not happened. With minor seasonal changes, vector Itachi has accompanied me for 5+ years and it’s pretty much my brand image.

*The genesis of blazpu Itachi, a watercolor-esque version.*

In 2020, with additional money due to the savings of not having to commute to the office because of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, I wanted to freshen up my image.

I first came across blazpu due to their Persona 5 fanarts. They posted the odd commission piece, which led me to believe that they had open slots - only to realize that they don’t do commission calls like most fan artists. It allows them to be more selective, I feel - I threw my pitch and they were interested.

Working with them was a delight, which is truly a blessing when it’s someone whose work you already enjoy. And I perhaps made it easy on them, as I provided them with a rough sketch, not to mention that I quoted one of their pieces as a reference. It also meant that I was moving away from reworking the scene that started it all into artists’ interpretations of Itachi.

I really like this one. While it’s unknown whether this one will last as much as vector Itachi, it has potential.

Summer of 2022. I was very captivated with a video game called OMORI, made by OMOCAT and their team. Like, I could not stop thinking about it.

I knew Donut from our pleasant interactions in the Anime UK News Discord server. She’s one of the people with whom I’d talk about OMORI and share cute fanart I found. So imagine my surprise when I find out that she’s an artist! And, on one of her commission calls, I took her up on it.

And so, OMORI Itachi was born.

My intention was to use this one almost exclusively on Discord, but it was used on other social media for a period of time.

The Itachi I got from Donu looked a bit squished - I recall sharing the feedback with her, but it was something I could fix with my sparse Photoshop skills.

Up until now, I’ve commissioned artists over Twitter mostly. This the first time I commission an artist over Instagram - he goes by Keito-kun.

I first saw him in a suggested post cosplaying as his art - likely a My Hero Academia one. And boy, does he know how to draw visually appealing men. He’s had success with selling his prints, so when he got experience working in the digital medium, I can only presume he saw an opportunity on commissions.

Given I like how he draws, I took him up on it.