Ditology is the brainchild of an Italian illustrator and artist working under the pseudonym »Dito Von Tease«. His blog features photo-manipulated portraits of famous people and famous characters on fingers. Read why he started the project and why he choose Dito Von Tease as his name.

I started this project around three years ago. I did not want to show my real self on Facebook and so I decided to create an avatar. My wish to somewhat be disguised in the online life made me think about peoples real and fictive social identities. That basically then resulted in Dito von Tease.

Why the name? In Italian there is a saying “hide myself behind my finger” (trad. “nascondermi dietro un dito”): it’s a metaphor to indicate a not-very-effectively hiding place! So, first of all, I used this metaphor to say we all try to hide ourselves behind an image of us we create. That’s my finger: the changing masks everybody wears in playing life. Especially famous people. In fact “il Dito” in Italian means “the Finger”.

My complete nickname is Dito Von Tease, directly inspired by Dita Von Teese, the famous burlesque dancer, an expert in disguises.