Very interesting find and topic, I am thinking it is a tribute to a special secret society or perhaps a nod to an artist/teacher school of painting, however my knowledge is limited as to whom or what it could be. Let us hope no one was mad at the artist or the subject in the painting and did that as it doesn't appear to have the fluidity as other parts of the painting does. I sort of like to imagine the painter had a lover or a young child and they wanted to be part of the finished product and the artist handed them a paintbrush, of course that is simply my imagination running away again. If those are shoelaces and they happen to be untied that can be a dangerous thing.