Hollywood Sign is Transformed on New Year’s Day

 On New Year’s Day at around 3 a.m., an artist who goes by the name Zach “JesusHands” Fernandez used tarps to change the Hollywood Sign to say “Hollyweed.” With the help of his former wife, he was hoping to make people laugh. Fernandez claims that it came from ‘love and a certain peace from within.’

The Hollywood sign was vandalized to read "Hollyweed" https://t.co/agUgsXU0IG pic.twitter.com/mEFWOToygb

— billboard (@billboard) January 3, 2017

Fernandez shares in an article from DailyMail, “It was honestly just a work of art, but it becomes so much more because of people’s interpretations of it. Pot art. That’s what it is.”

The legalization of marijuana in California was most likely one of the reasons Fernandez chose to change the sign.

Fernandez has not yet been officially named as a suspect by the police. The police have said that the culprit might have to face a misdemeanor trespassing charge when caught.

“I can’t believe nobody did this sooner. It was probably a joint operation though,” says junior Mickey Carney.

Fernandez used two white tarps and two tarps with a heart and a peace sign on them to turn the two “O”s in Hollywood to “e”s. This is not the first time this has happened to the Hollywood sign. On New Year’s Day in 1976, Daniel Finegood, a Cal State Northridge student, did it as a project for his art class. He received an “A” on the project.

Fernandez also shares, “I felt his [Finegood’s] message speak to me and it felt like that message needed to be shared.”

Within days of the Hollywood sign being changed it became a meme. People have now been joking about changing the Hollywood sign to fit their own purposes.

lol they changed the hollywood sign pic.twitter.com/UdU8kOQm7m

— alex FEAR-lin ?? (@thefurlinator) January 1, 2017

A similar prank has taken place in the Tampa neighborhood of Carrollwood where the sign was changed to say “Carrollhood”.

“A few years ago, around my sophomore year,  the Carrollwood sign was changed to say ‘Carrollhood’. As a joke I’ve always called from Waters to Linebaugh ‘Carrollhood’. There’s one sign that shows you’re in the Carrollwood area and someone duct taped an H over the W. It got taken down a few days later, I don’t know by who, and then it showed up again a few days after that. Since then everyone refers to Carrollwood as ‘Carrollhood’,” says senior Lindsay Calka.

The Hollyweed sign has kicked off 2017 on a humorous note, and perhaps set the tone for other hijinks and pranksters.