Kiana McMillian, Owner Of Inkky From The “Screaming Cat" Meme, Lets The Proverbial Cat Out Of The Bag

t’s no secret that the internet is filled with pictures of cats. In 2015, CNN estimated that there were around 6.5 billion of them floating around the web. Every so often, however, one of these feline photos ascends into another realm, becoming immortalized in internet history by playing a keyboard, being yelled at or screaming in a meme. Portland-based artist Kiana McMillian is the owner of one such kitty legend. In the mid-2010s, her tuxedo cat Inkky became known to the internet as the “Screaming Cat” meme or “Yamato Cat” after screenshots were posted to Tumblr. In order to learn more about Inkky’s famous screaming photo, we interviewed Kiana to let the cat out of the bag once and for all.

Q: Hey there, Kiana. I’d like to start out by catching up on what you’re currently doing, and how life’s going with Inkky these days. Would you mind introducing yourself a bit for everyone?

A: I’m Kiana, aka Watery Day, and I’m a self-employed artist! I run a small fan-merch business in Portland, Oregon, and I travel to comic and anime conventions to sell in their expo halls. Right now, I’m more focused on my online store and personal projects, comics, commissions, etc. Inkky is doing great, she lives a simple and sleepy life.

Q: Tell us more about Inkky’s name, any significance it has, and how you came up with it?

A: I was 16 years old when I adopted Inkky, and I was very much in that kind of obnoxious art student mindset where everything I did had to be artsy. I thought she looked like a white kitty that had just gotten black ink dumped all over her. I know her name is technically misspelled, but I just think “Inkky” looks better than “Inky” for some reason.

Q: How old is Inkky currently? Can you tell us what kind of cat she’s like and more about her demeanor, behavior or any funny quirks?

A: Inkky is 11 years old, as of May 29th this year. She’s a huge diva, she’s so sassy and spoiled. She only drinks fresh, running water. She demands that I tuck her into bed and cover her with a blanket. She meows at me when I stay up too late because she likes to sleep in my desk chair. At first glance, she seems very aloof and unfriendly and she likes to be left alone a lot, but occasionally she’ll be very affectionate and sweet. She loves to sleep on my lap.

Q: Do you have any other pets, or is Inkky your only one? How does she get along with them?

A: I have another cat named Pepper. He is basically the complete opposite of her; he’s super playful and outgoing. Inkky used to hate him, but after about two years of being together, they’ve warmed up to sort of an older sister and bratty baby brother relationship. He still annoys her a lot, but lately, I’ve caught them cuddling or at least tolerating each other’s presence.

(Inkky and Pepper taking a cat nap.)

Q: What about some of her favorite things or ways to spend time? Anything peculiar Inkky loves or enjoys doing?

A: Inkky loves sleeping, mostly. She likes sleeping in the sun in the morning then she moves to my bed about noon to sleep under my blankets. She likes playing too, but I think she gets a little intimidated because Pepper always goes completely wild for toys and goes a little too hard for her, so she mostly watches. It’s always special when she lets loose and plays hard, too.

Q: So aside from Inkky’s current fame/life, can you give us the full backstory of how she came into your life?

A: I adopted Inkky very spontaneously. Out of nowhere, my mom was like, “One of my coworkers is selling her cat’s kittens, do you want one?” I think my reaction was, “Are you serious? Yes, of course.” So we go to this house and I enter a room filled with little 12-week-old kittens playing together. I pick up a few, but they’re all rowdy and wiggle away until I pick up one of the little tuxedos and she instantly climbs my shirt up to my shoulder and nestles into my neck. After a couple of minutes, she didn’t try to move away and I decided she was probably the one! That’s still her favorite way to be held, up on my shoulder.

(Inkky when she was a kitten.)

Q: In August 2015, you originally uploaded the photos of Inkky to Tumblr that were ultimately used in the meme, but could you elaborate more on that first post, why you did it, and sort of what you expected the outcome to be?

A: Inkky was in her bed and I was sort of flinging a string at her for some entertainment; she kind of half-heartedly wanted to play, but she just refused to get up, so each time I flung the string over, she would try to catch it in her mouth (you can actually see the string as a blurry white line in some of the original pictures). I was recording a video; each of the pictures I posted were frames in that video. Unfortunately, the video itself is lost. I might have deleted it at some point since I had no idea how much one of those images would take off. Honestly, I was just posting them because they were funny and I thought my followers on Tumblr would get a kick out of them, too.

Q: After that, about three days later, another Tumblr user photoshopped the face of the Crying Cat meme onto Inkky’s and then spread to other sites, such as 4chan, before becoming a meme format. Do you recall ever seeing that version early on in the pre-meme era?

A: Yeah, that was my friend who edited it! It was just an inside joke to start off. At that point, the only time I ever saw the edited picture was within my own circle of friends, it never even occurred to me that other people were taking the image and spreading it.

Q: So then in early 2017, the first “Screaming Cat” meme began circulating the internet and became a widespread meme format. Do you remember when you first stumbled upon one of these or who showed it to you? What was your initial reaction to seeing Inkky become a meme?

A: I first saw it on Twitter and it was so bizarre … I think someone was just using it as a reaction image. It was one edited to say “YAMERO!!!” at the bottom, but I was like, “This is someone I don’t even know, and they’re using my cat as a reaction picture? Where did they find it? Are they a friend of a friend and I just don’t know, do I have a connection with this person?” I was so confused. I think that’s when I did a Google image search of the picture and got a ton of results across the internet and realized that it had already gotten way bigger than I thought.

Q: During the heyday of Screaming Cat, how familiar were you with memes and internet culture? Was this specific meme sort of your first introduction to them?

A: I’m definitely not always up to date on the latest memes, but it’s kind of hard to make a living on the internet and not know some things just through osmosis. I already really liked the Crying Cat memes before Inkky blew up, so seeing her being added to the pantheon of the other meme cats was really wild. Whenever I saw her being grouped with other juicy-eyed cats I was like, “Wow, she’s really made it.”

Q: What about your family and friends? How did they respond to Inkky becoming a meme, and what did they make of it?

A: My friends reacted very similarly to me, we all thought it was funny and weird and kind of unbelievable. I don’t think my parents really got the scope of it. I showed my mom, but I think she probably just thought that it was just some of my friends and that’s it.

Q: All these years later, Inkky seems to have a bit of a following online, such as her Twitter account with over 22,000 followers. Did that come after the meme or before? What’s her fanbase like online?

A: The Twitter account was after the meme. I made it at the height of those parody, in-character cat accounts like Bilbo the cat, Peepee’s Playhouse, Curious Zelda, etc. It was just where I could post some cute and funny pictures of her and make silly, misspelled captions pretending like she wrote them. Her fans are really nice, they even sent her some birthday gifts last year. I stopped updating the Twitter account because I made it for fun and it was starting to feel like a bit of a chore, but I’m really grateful that a lot of people have followed my main Twitter for her, too!

Q: Have you capitalized on Inkky’s fame at all over the years? If so, in what ways?

A: I have a little bit. Since I sell my art and merchandise for a living, I’ve made two Inkky keychains, one in 2017 and one in 2019. I don’t mind if other independent artists want to make and sell stuff with her, but I wouldn’t want it to go further into mass production territory. At the end of the day, she’s just my kitty, I didn’t want to make a ton of money off her.

Q: Has the meme had any significant impact on your life in any way, or do you mostly just reflect on it as a one-off, random event that was more fun to be a part of?

A: A fair chunk of people have started following me and enjoying my art because they recognized the meme, and I’m really glad for that! It hasn’t really changed my life beyond that. Back when I was selling my Inkky keychains at conventions, it was a lot of fun to hear people comment about her, and then I’d say something like, “Oh, the screaming cat meme? Yeah, that’s actually my cat, her name is Inkky,” and watch them lose their minds. Also, every time I see a tuxedo cat in any particular media make that face, I can’t help but think, “Is this just a coincidence or are they making a reference … ?” I remember the Persona 5 anime did that, and recently my favorite manga Delicious in Dungeon did it, too.

(Tuxedo cats similar to Inkky in "Delicious In Dungeon," left, and "Persona 5," right.)

Q: Were you ever annoyed by the fact that Inkky’s face was sort of lost after it was photoshopped in the meme? What do you think Inkky would have to say about that?

A: No, not really! Maybe a little bit at the very beginning, but I got over it pretty fast. I think the main thing that’s annoyed me is when I tell someone that she’s my cat and they think I’m lying. She has this black spot on her chin and it’s not really that visible in the meme, so I’ve had people accuse me of trying to steal her cat clout because they thought the markings didn’t match up. As for Inkky, I don’t think she’d care. She thought she was famous long before the meme, anyway.

Q: Alright, so circling back to memes in general, do you particularly like or dislike them as a whole?

A: Memes are so broad and popular these days I don’t think I could make a sweeping statement about all of them. Some are really funny, good and wholesome, others are kind of embarrassing and stupid, or harmful. I’m really glad that at least, for the most part, the Inkky memes have been in the former category, at least from what I’ve seen.

Q: Specifically Screaming Cat memes, do you have any favorite versions or any you’ve personally made that you can share with us?

A: I haven’t made any, but I love it when people make video compilations with her in it. This is a more recent one that I really liked.

Q: In conclusion here, we’re curious what you think Inkky would like to say to all her fans out there, and how she would want to be remembered. Could you ask her for us?

A: I think Inkky would want everyone to know that she’s prettier, smarter and braver than her dumb, stinky, baby brother Pepper. I, on the other hand, would like to thank everyone for the support. Inkky is so special to me, and it’s really sweet to know that she’s special to so many other people, too.

Q: Thanks, Kiana. Any final word or additional info you’d like to add?

A: Follow me on Twitter and maybe check out my online store for some stuff I made! I’m not selling Inkky merchandise currently, but maybe you’ll find something else you like.

Kiana McMillian is a Portland-based artist and the owner of Inkky the cat. To find more of her artwork, visit her Twitter or website. You can also follow Inkky on Twitter to see even more cat pictures.