Somethin’s Tellin’ Me There Is a Whole Nother World.

A tattoo on Jess for her grandmother.

An older gentleman named Orlando walked into the shop  today and picked this Rogers design off the wall, all jokes aside, within 1 minute of being in the door. Put it on his forearm, told me he will be back, paid and left. Best guy.

Met a Crown Heights local with some really nice Tony P. work.

Half The Math, Double The Myth…

A butterfly on Bryan. I have done a number of larger tattoos on him recently that I am sitting on for an article on the shop coming out in a tattoo publication in Spring.

Recently, my friend Craig and I noticed that the legendary NYC graffiti anomaly PRAY had scratched her moniker into every vertical rung of the front window lattices of the tattoo shop. I was surprised to see them in the area of the shop. In classic style, they were about waist height as they appeared throughout Manhattan and shelters throughout the boroughs.

This is one of the more legible scribes I had photographed.

And here is a article and photograph from the website of my friend Zephyr.

…P * R * A * Y…

“New York City is a land of lost souls. I remember before “political correctness” when we referred to some homeless woman as a ’shopping bag lady’. Such women (barely) survived in the shadows of our (suppsedly) cosmopolitan city. PRAY was one such individual. She is, in my opinion, the most prolific graffiti writer ever.

Over the course of 4 or 5 decades, PRAY has painstakingly scratched small, somewhat obscure inscriptions reading “Obey God“, “Go to church“, and often “PRAY” into glass, plastic, and metal surfaces throughout the city.

To simply call her “prolific” would be an insult to her productivity, an enormous understatement.  In New York City her scrathiti was everywhere.  In the 1970’s, at the height of her productivity, New York probably had more PRAY tags than residents.

Ironically, there is a strong chance you’ve never noticed her handiwork. That is because her messages are often subliminal.  They exist below the surface, literally and figuratively, but if you look in the right places  you will find them… And when you do you will realize  just how ubiquitous they are. PRAY’s trademark is commonly found scratched into the lower coin box section of public payphones. She often hit the vertical edge-runners of storefront roll down gates. The pillars of subway stations were also fair game to her.

I first became aware of her work in the early 1970’s. Her consistency was impressive, her volume mind-boggling.  I discovered that many of my peers were aware of PRAY too. (Of note is Craig Castleman’s 1982 book ‘Getting Up‘  in which the artist Bama speaks at length about PRAY)

In 1978 I had my first encounter with PRAY. I was hanging out on the counter of West 86th St.  with a few of my RTW homies. Across the avenue I saw an elderly woman slowly dip into a doorway on the east side of the avenue.  For reasons I cannot explain, I immediately knew that it was PRAY. I ran across the street and as I approached her I saw that she had a rolled up newspaper in her  left hand. She used it to cover the activity she was doing with her right hand.  Her right hand was busy and her hands were gnarled from years of etching her graffiti into hard surfaces.

The top joint of her right index finger was wrapped in tape and her scratching tool was simply a dry-wall screw, also wrapped in tape. Her hands were black from the silt of NYC. She was disheveled, greasy looking, and appeared to have been clearly living on the streets for a long time. She was an elderly woman but possibly younger than she appeared. She was the living definition of  ”a hard life”.

I came up behind her, I was awe-struck and I said “Oh wow! You’re PRAY?!”. Not a bright move. I startled her and she scurried away.

I looked where she had stood , and sure enough, she had left her imprint.  Since I had startled her she had only left her P-R and first stroke of her A.  I felt terrible. I had panicked the queen in “mid-etch” mode and caused her to leave her work unfinished.

In 1982 I was doing cel animation at an office in Times Square.  Times Square was really sleazy back then: an ongoing parade of hustlers, hookers, addicts, and eccentric characters.  It was great!

I saw PRAY in Times Square a few times during this period.  On a couple occasions I actually followed her for a while.  No one ever noticed or paid attention to her. She was dirty and forgotten: invisible. She moved at the pace of a sloth. She’d pick through garbage cans as she passed, but I never saw her actually take anything after them.  I would follow at a safe distance, not wanting to repeat my mistake from a few years earlier.  Sure enough, I’d get to see her do her thing. She moved slow but her scratchiti was very fast. PRAY is without question the all-time queen of graffiti. No one did as much. No one ever will.

Four years later, April 1986, I was sitting in Washington Square Park with a photographer friend. Lo and behold there was PRAY sitting directly across from us, perusing the newspaper.  My friend was able to snap a photo of her. At that moment, history was made when the mysterious figure of PRAY was captured on film.

Over the years, I’ve discussed PRAY with countless people. People who were both familiar with her work and those who were not.  I have written this out of my unique respect for this odd woman.  She seemed singularly fixated on scratching PRAY everywhere she went.  How or why she became so obsessed with this practice we will never know. Currently, no concrete facts about her personal life are known.

Among people familiar with her work, rumors abound. One common rumor was that she had a son with whom she collaborated.  My research has found nothing to support this.  It is also commonly assumed that a large group of people were responsible for these markings.  I reject this premise outright. Let’s give credit where it is due. PRAY worked alone. Of course we can assume PRAY produced some copy-cats, but I fully believe these obscure marking still found on the streets of New York City were done by one individual. PRAY. The queen of graffiti.

“Heavy Style.”

Tony, Tony, and Freddie (RIP). Brooklyn.

Small Pharoah’s horses filler on Bryan’s leg.

 

Mel Brooks’ The Critic.

The Original Death & Burial Of Cock Robin

A large tiger with log on the thigh of Minneapolis tattooer John Henry.

Girl on the beach. Bi-cep of Reid.

Sleeping Ruby on Aiden. This is the start of a sleeve. I have a lot of plans for this arm.

Walter Potter**************

Here is an image of victorian taxidermist Walter Potter’s “Original Death & Burial Of Cock Robin.”  Having found myself on a trail of aviaries and victorian cases has been alot like discovering the history of tattooing, one step at a time, only getting more exciting as you sink further into past. For me, the aesthetics of what I look for in my work and hobbies are very similar.

“All human creation progresses towards simplification…and ’simplification’ is refinement.”

- Edmond Dantes, Count of Monte Cristo

( I have been wanting to use that for a while.)

 

Although the author of this website may not agree with me, there is a brief history of Potter’s work and an excellent visual resource HERE.

Horace Ridler

The Great Omi on Craig. While doing this tattoo I wondered if George Burchett was pissed off he had to do a bodysuit of tribal.

Goodbye.

A ship on Jude.

Jan Svankmejar shorts entitled: “Food”. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The were, believe it or not, made in 1992. He is one of my favorite animators.

Trust No Man…

This is an original drawing I obtained a few years ago. This was mailed from Folsom State Prison sometime in the mid 1980’s. It is completely rendered with a ballpoint Papermate pen. The black is incredibly solid and you can see in the light the indentations of a very systematic process.  A lot of time was spent on this. You can just feel it holding the paper. I also own the letter from the inmate to his wife which I have transcribed below. Enjoy.

For a larger version click HERE.

Mon. 10/20

Hi Hon,

Hey if possible could you send me a picture of you in that hat.(sic) I want a picture of you. No, no, I NEED to have a picture of you in that hat! You look great! Well again good luck on that job. Hope it works out for you. Don’t sweat visits. I’m sure we’ll work something out. Here is that picture. Take good care of it. Don’t let it get dirty or lost! I love you. Bye for now.

All my love, John oxoxox

Things to look for (symbol) This means TRUST NO MAN!

The hand is left handed and holding a papermate pen. A rat hanging from a dudes neck. H-D logo. 3 demons behind girl in keyhole.

It’s Only Lines…

Symbols.  I asked if these were dangerous to me, he said he didn’t think so. Good enough. Haha. They look neat regardless if my soul is screwed. I am not dabbling!

Herby! On Brian.

This song and video are still perfect. NIN & Mark Romanek.

The prints of this are finally on their way.  I Taking orders now. They are limited to 50, 18 x 24, heavy stock, etc etc. Just a great quality reproduction.

$100 plus $15 shipping within the US. Paypal: kultofdeth@hotmail.com

 

THANK YOU!