'True Detective' creator Nic Pizzolatto shares inspiration for Reggie Ledoux's gas mask and jockstrap debut apearance

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nic Pizzolatto answered one of the biggest questions about his HBO series True Detective: What was the inspiration for Reggie Ledoux's debut appearance on the series?

When viewers were first introduced to Reggie Ledoux in HBO's thrilling drama True Detective, the third episode of the series was coming to an end and our main characters were in the interview segment of the story. Detective Hart was talking about gunfights and Cohle was talking about monsters, while a man covered in tattoos wearing only a jockstrap and gas mask walked across the screen with a machete. Reggie Ledoux left a mark on fans.

Now Pizzolatto has revealed the inspiration behind this debut look for Ledoux that really set the tone for the entire series.

"I can tell you where that came from. That was written very specifically, that he has that kind of gas mask on, and he's walking around with a jock strap and tattoos on," Pizzolatto said. "The jock strap and the tattoos, I couldn't think of anything more frightening than that coming at me through the woods. But the gas mask, I remember being inspired by Hieronymous Bosch's portraits of hell and a monstrous, fallen world and photographs of masks that plague doctors used to wear. Long needle noses. And some of those World War One gas masks. The point is that they're very unearthly. It makes human beings look more insect like. Those pointy masks are just really, really freaky. So I wanted a gas mask the recalled the proboscis of a mosquito."

So it looks like the Pizzolatto was incredibly intentional with the look of Ledoux. What do you think of Reggie's first appearance?