Is there any way of removing the message icons?

[Sgt. PAM]

Just wondering, they offend me.

[Buster's Uncle]

Probably - I doubt they work in some of the themes.  Go to your profile>Look and Layout> hit 'change' and look around>try them until you have something that you like and doesn't show the icons...

We're going to have to fix a lot on all these new themes, but I'll look into leaving off icons in whatever you choose if you're the only one using it; and the fixing isn't going to happen real fast, anyway...