Mark Wirth, better known as Purple Mark, is a

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

resident who has become locally known, especially around the

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

neighborhood where he lives, for his colorful attire and his equally colorful dyed hair and beard. He has been quoted as saying, "So many people are against color, so many people are afraid to live."

Description

Purple Mark usually dresses and dyes his hair, beard and other hair on his body, such as on his eyebrows and arm-hair, in accord with the cycle of the seasons: blue and purple in the winter, then the weather warms up green, yellow, and orange, then red in the autumn before cycling back to his winter colors. The process of applying the dye takes about four hours when he changes color, with two hours every two weeks for touch-up for "vibrancy." He also attempts to eat and drink along a similar pattern of color. By his own account, the name "Purple Mark" predates his colorful self-presentation, dating back to when he was hit by a purple streak of lightning on

Mount Sneffels Mount Sneffels is the List of Colorado mountain ranges, highest summit of the Sneffels Range in the Rocky Mountains of North America. The Topographic prominence, prominent fourteener is located in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness of Uncompahgre N ...

in Colorado at age 11. He moved to Seattle in 1985. He has said he was first influenced to dye his hair by the wild styles he saw around

Pike Place Market Pike Place Market is a public market in Seattle, Washington, United States. It opened on August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States. Overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront on Pu ...

, but soon went well beyond the street fashion of the time to develop his unique look. On another occasion he explained his rainbow tones as originally springing from observation of the sun's rays coming through his eyelids: "Your vision attempts to correct this color to white, and some hair had fallen across my eyes, so when I opened them, my hair appeared bright green. I thought to myself: 'I'm gonna do that.'" From 1994 to at least 2007, he worked in the Ballard neighborhood in what was basically an

assembly line An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in seq ...

job at motor oil and fuel additives company

Bardahl Bardahl is a brand of petroleum oil additives, lubricants and gasoline additives for motor vehicles and internal combustion engines made by Bardahl Manufacturing Corporation in Seattle, Washington. Ole Bardahl Bardahl Oil Company was founded ...

. Most of his wardrobe is purchased second-hand or made by himself. Also available as
Advanced Style: Seattle's Purple Mark
' on the site of ''The Stranger'', dated October 10, 2012. He brings a variety of techniques to making his own outfits, ranging from dying human-hair wigs to metalsmithing, in which he has a degree.

References

{{Reflist People from Seattle American fashion Street fashion Living people Year of birth missing (living people)

Description

See also

References