Show off your love for unique and uncommon animals with this playful “I’m an Uncommon Animal” Tarantula Hawk design! When someone asks, “What uncommon animal are you?” you can proudly answer, “A tarantula hawk!” Did you know the tarantula hawk has one of the most painful stings in the insect world? Or that it hunts tarantulas, paralysing them to feed its young? This fascinating creature is the perfect conversation starter! Available on t-shirts, kids’ clothing, stickers, and tote bags, this design is ideal for animal lovers who enjoy standing out and celebrating the weird and wonderful creatures of the world. Whether you’re a fan of insects, quirky animals, or just love showing off your unique style, this design is a must-have addition to your collection.
What makes a good leader?
Now… let’s talk leadership.
Because if you strip away the LinkedIn fluff, motivational posters, and “we’re a family here” nonsense, what actually Makes a good leader?
In the old-school sense of the word, a leader — or boss — often functioned a bit like a tarantula hawk. Not evil. Just… efficient. Sting the worker. Paralyse them with deadlines, mortgages, and the gentle threat of unemployment. Keep them alive just enough to barely sustain them, their kids, their lifestyle, their promise of retirement. Brutal? Yes. Accurate? Also yes.
The tarantula hawk doesn’t kill the tarantula. It immobilises it. Keeps it alive. Just unable to escape.
Which, honestly, feels like a pretty good metaphor for modern work culture.
You’re not dead, you’re just too exhausted, time-poor, and financially stressed to escape the system. You give your best years, your best ideas, your best energy… to someone else’s dream. Someone else’s nest. Someone else’s kids.
And we’ve been told this is “normal.” That this is what leadership looks like.
A good leader for a thriving artist isn’t someone who paralyses you.
It’s someone, or something that unlocks you.
Sometimes that leader is you.
Sometimes leadership isn’t about commanding others, it’s about refusing to live paralysed. It’s about choosing a different ecosystem. One where your creativity feeds your family. Where your energy goes into building something that doesn’t sting you every morning at 7am.
Working for yourself as a full-time artist isn’t just a career choice — it’s a jailbreak.
Not an easy one. Not a clean one. But a real one.
You build your own weird, wonderful, messy ecosystem.
And if you’re going to wear an insect on your chest, let it be one that reminds you:
You’re not here to be food.
You’re here to fly.
Kids Book Illustrator Andy C Marshall 