Haight Street Habitat

photos by Brian Frank

Once the thriving center for free love and all things groovy, San Francisco’s famous Haight Street today feels more hipster than hippie. Amidst the overpriced thrift stores and numerous free-trade coffee options, trendy tourists will be thrilled to find there are roughly a half dozen tattoo shops on the street if they want to commemorate their trip with something a little sharper than a Golden Gate snow globe.

For the true ink connoisseurs Mom’s Body Shop is the only tattoo artist owned and operated shop on the street, and probably the most expensive.

Originally intended as a response to the egocentric custom shops and private studios popular in the late 90’s, proprietor Barnaby Williams envisioned Mom’s as an old-school street shop where anyone could walk in and get inked the same day. Today the shop caters to clients wanting custom work as well as designs picked from the wall.

Williams doesn’t remember who first thought of the name, but he knows plenty who would be willing to take the credit.

“Several people I know say they came up with the name in conversations with me and I’m not going to argue,” he says. “A bunch of us were talking about different ideas and the name Mom’s stuck in my head as a good one. You can’t fuck with mom.”

Mom’s Tattoo Shop was the culmination of one man’s quest for a place to call home, and a bunch of maxed out credit cards. In the process of opening his own shop, Williams left the neighboring shop he was working at to open his own because he wanted to do things differently. Evidently the staff felt the same way, as all of his co-workers jumped ship to follow him.

“We’re the only true tattoo shop on Haight,” Williams says. “There are other shops that have tattooers, but they are not a tattoo shop. We only do tattoos- we don’t sell bongs, we don’t have leather goods and we don’t have sunglasses. I don’t trust a gynecologist who sells tires. It doesn’t bode well when the driving force behind the shop is not tattooing, but making someone who’s not a tattooer money.”

“As an artist most of what I do is custom even if it is derivative.”

Williams has been working as a tattoo artist for about 15 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in fine art from San Francisco Art Institute. He says owning the shop is not so different than working in it, except when he needs to discipline the staff, which he prefers not to do.

“I am not a confrontational person when it comes down to stuff and I hate having to be the boss,” Williams says. “That’s one of the reasons why I only hire people with ten years experience. Having a mature crowd, even though sometimes older people can be just as idiotic as young people, has made it easier. I own a shop so I can have a place I want to work in, and I also only work with people I like”

The full time staff has a combination of experience that adds up to over 60 years. Other than the shop Williams formerly managed and mutinied, he says Mom’s has been at the Haight Street location in San Francisco longer than any of the other contenders.

“We opened in ’98 and it was a really good season to open up, really good economy. We were doing really well from the beginning,” Williams says. “Of course there weren’t six other tattoo shops on Haight Street back then. Now there are six other shops and they all suck. But I say that because I’m bitter. It’s my street I feel. I’ve been here longer than anyone else.”

After eight years on a street popular with tourists, partiers and gutter punks, Williams and the rest of the staff all have their stories.

Vaughn has been a resident piercer at Mom’s for three years. Even as a kid he was interested in body modification and would often read National Geographic, and not just for the boobs.

“Sometimes shock will cause you to get nauseous, and this girl didn’t exactly make it to the bathroom,” Vaughn says. “Well her vomit made it, but from five feet away. I’ve had people pass out and hit the floor and I wasn’t even piercing them, they were just watching me pierce their friend.”

“I had a girl try to convince me she was over the age of 18 because she could put her entire hand in her mouth,” Williams recalls with a laugh. “That was her validation, that only a girl over 18 could do that. And once I tattooed a girl’s butt and she was so turned on that she wanted to have sex with me right then. I said no and she basically got crazy in the middle of the shop”

The normal crazies like a guy in a pink unitard riding a unicycle into the shop aren’t the only benefits to working as a tattoo artist in San Francisco.

“San Francisco is Mecca, in the world of tattooing,” Williams says. “It goes through waves, but San Francisco has classically been known as the center of the universe. The availability to watch and learn from people just rocks my world. I’m satisfied that I do a good job and I do good work in a really competitive market, and that makes me a better tattooer on a regular basis.”



*originally published September 2006 RankMyTattoos.com

Straight From the Streets 3

Living in San Francisco has some definite advantages. Fantastic scenery, a community of Bohemian ideals, semi-reliable transportation and kickass Chinese food pretty much any time day or night. Unfortunately we also have to deal with being the fourth most expensive city in America, according to a 2005 study (though seriously who are they kidding, there is no way LA is more expensive.) But nevertheless, we are a city of creative movers and shakers, and an increase in rent only means we get to come up with some zany new ways to supplement our income. So c'mon, what's the craziest thing you've ever done to make a few extra bucks?

Sarah Levine: "My roommate and I were so desperate for money. So we had a keg part and promised everybody at the party that if we got $100 in the jar her and I would strip and run around the house. We went in the middle of the yard and stripped our clothes off. I ran halfway around the house and ran into a cop and ran back the other way and put my clothes back on and answered the door to the police officers fully clothed."

Tank: "I was a pimp. For further reference I don't recommend it to nobody, especially young women. If some mans talking about how he's going to give you big money and yada yada yada get away from that, it's not the way to go...I'm a changed pimp."

Eric Garrett: "I got paid $30 just to walk a broad back to her hotel room in Vegas, just to walk her back. I would've done it for free, but if you're going to give me $30 also, why the hell not?"

Douglas King: "A guy once paid me $40 to show him how to use an ATM, that's pretty cool."

Katherine Hill: "I'm a teacher and I know of a student who ate his own feces for $20, but he only got $10 out of the whole deal. He's 14, I heard it through the rumor mill at school but it is true. Isn't that like the worst thing you've ever heard in your life?"

Chris Allen: "I hooked up with a chick on a bet one time. I only made $20 and I was a little bit disappointed after it all because like, I sold myself for so little. But you know what, $20 to hook up with a chick? I come out on top."

Erika Oblak & Melissa Buitiago: "I didn't make any money but on my friend's 21st birthday, her car got towed and we showed our boobs to get the car back."

Aaron Munar: "I sold my porn collection to a magazine shop for $12."

Erica McVride: "I used to take random stuff from my grandma's house when I was a kid, like buttons and shoelaces. [I] put them in Dixie cups and people would buy them from me. I think people felt sorry for me."

*originally published May 2006 [X]press Magazine

She Works Hard For Her Money

It's 9:30 on Saturday night and Castro's Metro Bar isn't busy yet. The tables along the wall are all full, but there is still plenty of room to walk through the bar. In an hour or so the place will be packed and patrons will have to force their way through sweaty strangers to make it across the room. A corner table is occupied by a large group of friends, laughing heavily and leaning in close to hear each other over the steady beat of 1980s dance music. Their dark corner is suddenly illuminated by flashing lights as the group looks around startled, trying to find the source of the violation.

Standing in their midst is Sadaisha Shimmers, a vision of gaudy fabulousness. The lights adorning her neck, fingers and head are bouncing off dozens of blue and white rhinestones attached to her face. Clad in fishnets and a black and white one-piece bathing suit, Shimmers disrupts the intimate conversation before she even reaches the table.

"Hi, I'm Sadaisha, Peachy's Puffs' first drag queen. I"ve got something to suck, something to blow, something to chew and not just on me but on my lovely tray. Candy, cigars, cigarettes, vibrating cock rings...all the necessities."

Peachy's Puffs Cigarette & Candy Girls are known on sight by anyone accustomed to frequenting San Francisco's clubs and bars. Started in the 1980s by the original Puff Peachy D'Ambrogio, Puffs provide a uniquely San Francisco service. They're the ones dressed like flight attendants and bellboys trying to convince you to buy a candy bar or pack of cigarettes from their tray for a whole lot more than you would pay at the corner liquor store.

The sky is just beginning to fade from inky black to early morning gray, but there is already a crowd gathered and lined up eager to enter their favorite house of worship, the Endup's Sunday morning "church." Emily Fihn, 25, saunters to the front. She manages to gracefully hug the doorman despite the 20-pound tray hanging around her neck and is immediately waved past the velvet rope. Though it's 7:30 a.m. the club is bumping as if it were still Saturday night, and for most of the crowd it still is.

Fihn works every Sunday morning from 6 a.m. to noon at the Endup. This is usually preceded by a Saturday night stint lasting sometimes until 4 in the morning.

"There are days when I'm just dead on my feet," she says. "But I love my End-Up shift. It's mostly regulars that I see every week, who will only buy from me, even though the bar sells cigarettes cheaper."

That kind of customer loyalty is key when every product is ridiculously overpriced.

Novelty items such as vibrating penis lighters and flashing pendant necklaces sell for around $15. But it's the prices of everyday essentials like candy and cigarettes that make customers gasp.

A candy bar off the tray will cost you $4, while cigarettes total in at a whopping $8 per pack. But before you attack the poor Puff carrying the tray all night, consider the source of this inflation.

The company sells the goods to them at a marked-up price; they in turn need to sell it on the streets for even more to turn a profit. On an average night a Puff can expect to bring in $250 for the company and $100 for herself, and that's after five hours of walking through the city in heels.

Shimmers considers the lofty price tag on items a part of the Peachy experience.

"People are not going to pay $4 if they're just buying the candy bar. They're paying for you and for the entertainment. Because we're selling ourselves, we're selling our charisma and our talent."

Puffs are encouraged to chat and flirt with every person in the bar, whatever it takes to make that dollar. Legend has it that Peachy herself would walk up to people, stick an unwrapped lollipop in their mouths and demand a full payment.

In fact the training video each newbie must watch includes lessons in makeup and mingling, among other things. Peachy's wants the Puffs to be seen as an image, a cartoon character.


"I usually hire girls who have some sort of acting experience, or have been on stage," says Peachy's Puffs manager Stephanie Simon. Once a Puff herself, Simon is now in charge of the office. Her duties now include networking with club owners and overseeing the employees. "It's not necessarily about looks, you have to have a certain personality to be able to do this kind of job."

It's Lizzey Solomon's first time. The office of Peachy's Puffs feels like the backstage of a hot play or even a strip club. Giddy laughter and banter clash loudly with the Madonna CD playing on the stereo. The Puffs stand along mirror lined walls fixing their hair and makeup while some sample new flashy outfits for everyone?s approval. The virgin Puff tries on costume after costume before deciding on a red, marching band inspired ensemble, complete with gold braiding and hat. She nervously counts the items in her tray, pausing every few minutes to watch the others or refresh her lipstick for the umpteenth time.

"I've only been in the city for four months so I had never heard of this before. I just found the ad on Craigslist," she says looking at her inventory list with a frown.

Before the shift starts exact inventory must be taken of every tray, and then again at the end of the night. The money each Puff brings in is tallied up against how many items they sold, then they receive their cut. Bonuses can be reached by selling a certain amount of one particular item such as 50 lollipops or 15 lighters. But on Solomon's maiden run she has more pressing concerns than pricing.

"I don't know how to go to the bathroom if I need to, I mean with this giant tray what do I do?"

While every Puff claims to love the job and gushes about how amazing it is that they get paid to go to clubs, the majority have only been working there for a few months. According to former Puff Yuen Chiang, not many can stick it out for long.

"It's a tough job. There are three types of girls that work there: the ones who anticipated a romanticized version of it, which is wearing cute outfits, meeting boys and being the center of attention, girly girls. Then there are the hard-core hipsters and rockers. I've seen only the more tough girls make it long here and they usually bitch and complain about life and Peachy's. Then there are the ones going through transitional phases and are desperate for work, like me."

Very few use Peachy's as a means of supporting themselves. Most have other jobs, student loans or parents willing to let them stay at home a few years longer. As one put it, "Puffing to pay the rent is very hard."

Most Puffs have a story of some harassment they have dealt with while on the job, whether it's people stealing from the trays, inappropriate drunken groping or just plain nastiness.

"This woman was buying a necklace and her brother kept telling her not to spend the $30," says Shimmers recalling the night of her worst incident to date. "When she gave me the money I put it in my cleavage, where I always keep the money. He snatched the necklace from her hands, threw it on my tray, reached in my shirt and pulled out the money. Then he spit in my face."

So why would anyone put herself through all this when she could easily make better money waiting tables or even stripping?

"With waitressing you're always getting drink orders and running back and forth. Here I get to drink and flirt and dance with boys all night and have fun," Shimmers explains. "I'll sit down with someone and have a drink with them, and chit chat with them for 20 minutes. But they're going to buy something when I walk away. You gotta have fun and have a personality, but in the back of your mind you always have to remember, "I'm here to sell something."

*originally published May 2006 [X]press Magazine

Straight From the Streets 2

Everyone gets a precious few years here on earth and then poof, we're gone forever. And while the debate continues to rage about what happens after we die, not many people are looking forward to finding out. Nobody likes to contemplate their own mortality, except maybe during those melodramatic teenage years full of "that would show 'em" suicide fantasies. But what if we took the whole subject just a little bit less seriously, and found humor in this depressing topic? We asked people on the streets of San Francisco how they thought they were going to bite the big one, and if there was a way to go laughing.

Julia Levya, 23: "The way I think I'm going to die is I'm going to be 90 and sky diving. The parachute (will) break and I'll smash into a million pieces with hip bones flying everywhere."

Michael Luong, 21: "Hopefully I see myself dying in my sleep; I don't want to be up for it. But if I died in a roller coaster crash that would be pretty funny."

Kristin Amber, 19: "I'll be pregnant and I'll crash in a car. All my life I've thought that would happen when I was 19...and I'm 19 now so I have the remainder of the year to fulfill that."

Glen Wilson, 32: "I see myself dying when I'm old and gray of natural causes. I hope not in a hail of bullets out here one day"

Vince Gaither, 43: "A friend of mine's brother had a car accident while he was getting head from his girlfriend. At that, uh...moment, he gunned the engine and ran into the back of a semi truck and chopped the top of his head off. But the girl lived. Her head was protected."

Charles Wagner, 30: "I think I'll die getting hit by a car, on my skateboard. But I'll be 50, bombing a hill in the Sunset and I'll just forget to time a light or something. Or my dreds will get caught (in the skateboard), That could happen."

Zeina Barkawi, 28: "I think I might die in a plane crash. I travel a lot and I think about that. Two psychics have told me I?m going to die when I'm 99. Hopefully it will be while I'm having sex, that would be pretty funny."

*originally published April 2006 [X]press Magazine

Everyone Has A Vice

Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It's been a really, really long time since my last confession. I have committed each of the seven deadly sins more times than I can count; wrath, pride, envy, gluttony, sloth, greed and lust. And just between us, I enjoyed every minute of it.

The Seven Deadly Sins were finalized into the vices that we know and love by Pope Gregory I in the late 6th century. Each sin had a corresponding virtue to counterbalance the nastiness. So if you were constantly green with envy and jonesing for your neighbor's stuff, be prepared to give up your worldly possessions to charity in hopes of making the Almighty happy.


Unfortunately, things that are bad for us are usually the most fun. I'm a sinner just like everyone else, possibly even more so. The following is my humble opinion of how the seven deadly sins are present in today's society.

Wrath: Disproportionate anger and feelings of revenge and hatred define wrath. Today we would just call that road rage. Anyone who has ever been cut off on the freeway by some idiot talking on a cell phone knows there is nothing disproportionate about wanting to take a baseball bat to the offender's car.

Pride: Pride consists of an "excessive love of self," and a belief that yes, you are in fact better than everyone else. In Medieval Times it was thought to be the worst sin of all because, in loving yourself to a perverted level, you loved God less. And what better example of placing yourself on a pedestal than the evil of Myspace? Millions of people have built themselves little digital shrines full of half-naked pictures taken in the bathroom mirror and completely self-indulgent blogs. Do they really think the rest of the world is waiting breathlessly to read their latest "all about me" survey?

Envy: Today envy can be seen as celebrity worship. MTV and VH1 are the leading offenders in this category. From "Cribs" to "The Fabulous Life of...", they've made bank exploiting our celebrity worship. Now we can sit at home all day long and wish we were the ones spending millions of dollars on dog clothes and private jets... instead of going out in the world and actually getting a job.

Gluttony: With 60 million super-sized individuals in America, I really don't think I have to explain the idea of gluttony. Though in this category I think stupidity should be added, particularly to those who sue fast food chains for making them fat. As far as I'm concerned, if our society needs a documentary to tell us it's unhealthy to eat fast food every day, we're all in trouble.

Sloth: Ah sloth, there's nothing better than kicking back and doing absolutely nothing all day. And reality TV has really helped us attain a new level of laziness. Why bother going outside, getting a job or having a relationship, when you can watch hundreds of other people do it? The Food Network is the same story; its entire appeal lies in watching other people cook amazing food then eat it themselves as we salivate. Come on, how many of you have actually taken notes then whipped up your very own cordon bleu complete with chocolate souffle?

Greed: The church defines greed as "a desire to gain more than one has need or use for, in money or power." Today all you need to do is look to the Donald himself as an example of seeking to gain more than any one person needs. I mean how rich is rich enough? With every gold-plated casino, apartment building and hotel, America's favorite hair club for men candidate taunts the rest of us with the fact that we will never be able to Trump his style.

Lust: Catholisism says lust is "obsessive, unlawful, or unnatural sexual desire, such as desiring sex with a person outside marriage or engaging in unnatural sexual appetites." Woohoo...sounds like a Friday night to me. Honestly considering how sexually permissive modern society is I'm having a hard time finding an of example of evil, lustful behavior. I'd say Paris Hilton, but was it just me or did she look really bored in that video? Lust really needs more passion. I'm going to go with the internet as a whole. The excess of websites trying to convince the public that it's alright for adults to have sex with children...and relatives, and animals, well it's pretty sickening.

*originally posted April 2006 [X]press Magazine
**photo by Ross Pearson

Straight From the Streets 1

We've all seen the documetaries and heard our teachers ramble on about counterculture groups challenging mainstream society. The beats, the hippies, the Black Panthers, the goths and punks were all groups that had important, revolutionary ideas...or at least some bitching fashion trends. But while we applaud their idealism and possibly even dream of being part of an anti-establishment movement ourselves, would that sort of thing really happen today? In a world of blogs, MySpace posts for all the world to see and companies like MTV and Hot Topic packaging and marketing cookie cutter "edge" for consumers worldwide, can a true counterculture movement happen in modern day society?

"I don't think it's possible for there to be a counterculture movement today because anything counterculture just becomes a trend, which then gets capitalized on. It'll just be in Vice magazine next month." [Greta Weiss, 20]

'Yes and no. Something like the internet makes (a counterculture movement) seem like it might be possible. But at the same time, with the internet, we're just overloaded with information. I don't see how it could be possible to organize that information and actually get people inspired." [Sarah Rogers, 26]

"Counterculture is actually fashionable right now, which is the opposite of something going against the grain, something adventurous and almost rebellious. In today's society, with this being a post-modern time, and with the strength of the media, everything is so reactionary. I'm very cynical about there being a counterculture; I just don't see it." [Ramone Cartwright, 29]

"I think it would take slightly-odder forms. Just like rock n' roll in the fifties. Elvis and all that was kind of a counterculture movement of black music, but then it turned into the Rolling Stones. Now the same things happened to punk. It seems like there are other bands out there that are just weird enough that mainstream folks don't like them." [Shadow Moyer, 32]

"I think there are still countercultures out there; they're maybe just a little bit more subtle. Movements that were revolutionary back then are commercialized these days. Punk is still a counterculture, but it's different than it was in the eighties. When something's new it's more underground, then, over time it gets grabbed by the mainstream." [Chad McClymonds, 20]

*originally published March 2006 [X]press magazine