“His role model was PT Barnum,” Sprinkle said in a telephone interview, allowing him to use his apartment in New York for several years to make illegal tattoos. “He loved to show. He was definitely a provocateur.”
Spider did not win the court battle, but he and others eventually won the war. The city lifted the ban in 1997, but by then it had been widely ignored. (Police officers were said to be some of the best customers of illegal tattoo parlors.) And maintained parlors in Mount Vernon, NY, just outside the city limits, and later in Woodstock, NY and Connecticut. Spider tattooed thousands of people and published influential books such as “Pushing Ink: The FineArt of Tattooing” in 1979.
2017, New York History Association “New York with tattoos” It focused on his role. In the accompanying text, Spider said, “Incorporating modern tattoos into art galleries and auction houses, combining tattoos and conceptual art in works such as the” X-1000 “, adding a small X to 1,000 people, then 1,000 pieces. I have inked the X of. To one person. “
Sprinkle said Sprinkles often lived party life at her “Sprinkle Salon” rallies and wore many other hats, including the frontman of a band called the Electric Crutch. crutch.
“He really couldn’t play the guitar, but it made some sounds,” she said. She was often one of the band’s backup dancers, Webbolettes.
