just pick a random word and then end it with “boy.” I’d be like, “What’s up, Worm Boy?” Or, “What’s up, Dumpster Boy?” One morning he woke up, obviously still drunk from the night before, and looked like shit. I was like, “Damn, what’s up, Penis Boy?” And he looked me right in the eyes and just said, “Penis Man.” It was the funniest thing I’d ever heard at that point. And that’s all I said for weeks afterwards. Did Penis Man, um, grow from there? So me and my friend, we have drinking problems, and we’d walk to bars at night because neither of us had cars. We’d walk mostly through alleys. Like I said earlier, I was always interested in graffiti, I just never had a good name to write, but I’d always have paint markers on me at all times or at least try to. So me and this friend walked miles to bars and tag stuff throughout the way. After that one morning, I wrote Penis Man a couple of times. And that friend and another person who (wrote) graffiti both told me, “Oh, that’s funny. You should actually write that as your graffiti tag.” Did you have any background in street art or graffiti prior to that? No, not really. I mean, it just depends. I was a punk fan years ago. I do other kinds of art, too. I used to be a writer or a poet. When was your first-ever Penis Man tag? I believe it was in July 2019. It was in an alley behind the Circle K on Broadway and Hardy. People didn’t see it for weeks or months after- wards, right? I don’t know if anyone ever saw it. A lot in the beginning were just hidden, secret, personal ones. Just like maybe a bathroom stall, a pole, a fence post and an empty parking lot. These things were places where you would find yourself maybe if you were down and out, and then you’d look over and see those words. What was your reaction to the first coverage your tags got? Well, it started popping up on Facebook. It started taking off. I was a silent lurker just kinda watching. It was pretty lame, honestly. I got so wrapped up into it. I’d just spend so long just searching hashtags on Twitter, Facebook, looking to see who posted photos. I don’t even take photos of the ones I do anymore. I just do it and wait for someone to send me a photo or someone’s post. For example, someone sent me a Reddit post of a tag I did in Burbank, California. That was unexpected. I’d just stopped there to take a piss and just wrote it on a trash can. What was your reaction after copycat Penis Man graffiti started in the Valley? At first I didn’t mind. I thought it was funny when other people were tagging it. One thing I thought was annoying was people that would change it to try to be funny. Like, Penis Woman or Vagina Woman or Boner Guy, who turned out to be my roommate and he just kept it a secret from me for years. There was a kid in Portland, he might still write, and he DMed me on my Menispan (Instagram) account he was writing “Penis Girl” all over Portland. And I told him, “Yeah, go ahead, I guess.” Dunno if he still writes it, but the last I heard he’s all over Portland. I didn’t mind that. But there’s other people who you can tell they’re just getting into graffiti and they’re combining two words, like “Something Man” or whatever. Why do you just write the name Penis Man and nothing else? I don’t write (with) any graffiti style. I just write in plain letters. And that’s partially because I’m a fucking poser and not a real graffiti artist. It’s a conscious distinction because normies, they can’t read graffiti writing. They don’t know what it fucking says half the time. But if they just see plain letters, straight letters that just says Penis Man, they can read that and either think it’s funny or fucking stupid. But either way, they remember it and it gets their attention. Why did you take a break from being Penis Man for a few years? I actually took a pretty long break from graffiti for a while, aside from just little marker tags here and there, when I started dating the woman who I eventually married and just recently divorced. I also took a break because I focused on making a movie. I got into videog- raphy for about five years and was still doing it here and there, more so to stay Bulk trash items around Tempe that were tagged by Penis Man in July 2020. (Jack Maverik) Penis Man tagged this downtown Tempe construction dumpster in September. (Ethan Anonymous) Penis Man graffiti that popped up on a vacant Mill Avenue building in Tempe in April. The property is now home to Night Owl Pizza. (Matt Hinds) Penis Man hit this vacant convenience store near Cactus and Cave Creek roads. (Sara Roberts) Penis Man tagged a vacant gas station and convenience store in the Melrose District in August. (Jose Gonzalez) >> p 16
