People using video game character creators to make real-world people is nothing new. As character creators get better, people are making nearly 1:1 recreations of celebrities, characters from other games, and digital versions of themselves. That is normally all well and good, but now NBA 2K26 players have started recreating Charlie Kirk, the right-wing commentator who was assassinated at Utah Valley University earlier this month, and they’re using the basketball game’s tattoo options to add, well, another detail to the recreation.
If you didn’t know, Kirk was fatally shot in the neck when he was assassinated, and footage of the moment has been circulating on social media since the day it happened. A lot of the online jokes regarding the event reference anything from the bullet’s placement to the irony of his final words being about gun violence. AI mockups of gunpla models depicting Kirk at the moment the bullet struck him spread online, prompting Bandai Namco to condemn them.
Enter NBA 2K26. The game’s character creator has neck tattoo options, some of which look like blood drips and splatters when colored red, and now some players are putting those tattoos on their recreations of Kirk and taking these custom characters online. Some have even uploaded tutorials on how to remake Kirk’s likeness, including a red neck tattoo.
Some of these recreations are meant to be supportive of Kirk, while others are clearly not so. I guess that’s just the end result of character creators getting as good as they have and people using them to make real humans and going that extra step for the meme.
Kirk’s death has been a major talking point on all sides of popular culture since he was shot on September 10. The event has become a catalyst for reviving old, debunked talking points about the connection between video games and real-world violence. Additionally, comments made by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel stating that the right was trying to “score points” off of the killing led to his show being temporarily taken off the air following pressure from the FCC. President Donald Trump has threatened to sue ABC for putting the show back on the air.
