It’s been years since I’ve cracked open a copy of Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions, but it’s a book I still think about today. Sure, you can count me among the legions of fans who claim him as an influence. But every time I see an asterisk, I still think of his doodle of an asshole, because even at my age, I am also “programmed” to “perform childishly.”
And while designer Zipeng Zhu of Dazzle Studio says that the asterisk in Asset, a new skincare brand for anal irritation he co-founded alongside Chad O’Connell, doesn’t share any DNA with the Vonnegut asshole, he does at least admit that it’s a clever brand device and a good, subtle representation for a butthole.