Long before the skull was the trademark aesthetic of punk rock bands, motorcycle gangs, or Hollywood pirates, it was the visual motif of Christian monks. For centuries, monks would go into their cells and kneel on prayer benches with three items spread before them: a portion of Scripture, a candle (to read said Scripture), and a skull. Not a skull bought on Etsy, as mine is, but a real one—likely from a previous denizen of the monastery: “my old roommate, Brother Makarios.”
