What Is The "Blackbeard Writing" Meme From 'One Piece,' And Why Are People Recreating It On TikTok?

A One Piece fan art image showing character Blackbeard (aka Marshall D. Teach) writing on a map with a quill pen. It was created by artist jen-and-kris on DeviantArt in 2012 and only gained traction as a viral meme back in 2023. But by 2024, it had spread to TikTok.

Now, various photo slideshows are being made with the meme, and eventually, some people even recreated the image in real life. But what is the origin of the "Blackbeard writing" image, and how did it become such a funny meme trend? Here's everything you need to know.

What Is The Blackbeard Writing Meme?

The original piece of art was posted on DeviantArt on November 5th, 2012 by artist jen-and-kris. It depicted the One Piece character Blackbeard drawing/writing on a map with a quill pen, wearing many rings on his hand. The image (shown below) received over 32,000 views in the past 12 years.

How Did It Spread?

Initially, the image was shared on Amino Apps in 2017 and 2018, but it didn't become a meme until late 2023. The very first meme created using the image was posted by Redditor microwavedraptin to the /r/dndmemes subreddit on September 11th, 2023, making a joke about Dungeon Masters, and received over 13,000 upvotes (shown below).

The format started showing up on other websites, such as iFunny. On October 31st, 2023, user @BasedMasterChief posted a new version of the format, reading, "The white girl music dance party is essential to the plot I assure you," receiving over 2,800 smiles in six months (shown below, left). Another iteration was also posted on November 4th, 2023 by user @Dinosaur36 (shown below, right).

How Did The Meme Grow Viral On TikTok?

Going into 2024, the format spread on TikTok, initially starting with a slow fade-in video shared by @wvorld on April 6th, 2024, captioned "How I feel writing 'etc' in my essay after running of out examples," and gained over 700,000 plays in three weeks (shown below).

Eventually, people started to recreate the format in real life, with plenty of comments in each of the videos referencing the original Blackbeard writing image. On April 28th, user mike_literus690 posted a real-life version of the meme reading "When I'm having fun with my kids but I forget the divorce papers were due tonight," earning over 672,000 views in just one day (shown below).

Another iteration of the meme included a pencil-drawn recreation of the image, posted on the same day, with a caption reading, "You can't gamble again until you've signed the divorce papers," and received over 900,000 views in just one day alone (shown below).

For the full history of Blackbeard writing, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.