'Fire flowers don't always sit well'

After Mario picks up a fire flower, does he eat it or hold onto it? Also, does said flower allow him to spit fireballs or throw them?

The t-shirt design below makes me think the answers to the questions above are: 1) He holds onto it and 2) It allows him to throw them.

I bring that up because before I saw Dave Mercier's (aka MercWorks') design this morning I honestly thought Mario ate these strange little flowers and then spit fireballs at his enemies.

Anyway, if you like Mercier's design as much as I do, vote for it at threadless.com before the end of the day.