I haven't done anything with my site in 7 years so I don't even know if blogging is still a thing, mainly because I hate staring at a computer after having stared at one for hours during the day, but the time feels right to update this now. The last time I interviewed anyone was on July 25th 2015, I know this because I was also getting a tattoo done at the same time. And yes it looks just as good now as it does then....all I said with this one was that I wanted an owl with an old timey looking clock. The rest was all Spirit.
(this is an unedited, crappy cell phone pic, from July 25th 2015)
My write up can be found in the Fall 2015 edition of Revamp , which to my knowledge was the last one. I also took all of the pictures on my real camera and they are all pretty unedited, no Lightroom or anything like that.(I have to note that TATTOO is spelled incorrectly, yes it has always bothered me, and no I was not responsible for that). I also took the photos of Soda City Cirque and shared them with the lovely mind behind that before including them, so I am sure I had intentions on interviewing her for a future article that never happened.
(OK so yes I just played around with this one in Lightroom and had to put it here because really, is that what the average person thinks of when they think of South Carolina)?
My intro to this article is: "Spiryt first considered becoming a tattoo artist while living in New York City in the early 2000's. He is originally from South Carolina and has also been active in Columbia's poetry scene since the Bayou, a space the predates the infamous Red Tub. Many of the artists that used to gather at State Street's old haunt have shaped Columbia's emergence as the South's new hot spot".
This process and final result is 2nd only the interview I got to do with Piggy D of Rob Zombie 5 years prior, not only in how pleased I am with the result, but in the amount of time I spent researching, developing questions, transcribing, turning and interview into something that reads like an article which I struggled with, and then returning to take pictures.
I will never forget how jumpy this lady getting tattooed was. She worked in construction so I was talking to her about how bada** I thought that was and how my job of inspecting fire extinguishers and what not was not something many females did. I was mainly just trying to distract her hoping the ink would wind up where it was supposed to.
The end of my article mentions The Session Live, which Spiryt hosted and where I saw one of my all time favorite live musicians, Royce Lovett , who went on to be on a very recent season of The Voice.
"Write It On The Wall"
Spirit has since won the Best Tattoo Artist in Columbia, SC by readers of The Free Times in 2018.
And can be contacted at Tattoos by Spirit : Custom Tattoo Artist and on Instagram at tattoosbyspirit .
***It has seemed like an eternity since July 2015, when the Confederate Flag was removed from the statehouse grounds in Columbia, SC, on July 10th to be exact. I feel like I am living in a bad dream, that one day I hope everyone wakes up from. I still remember some of the other things we talked about while I was getting this tattoo, how I thought someone was smart enough to know that if he said something outlandish it would keep his name in the news cycle and sadly that would be enough for the average person to remember. However, I truly felt that change was just around the corner, that history would finally be taught differently. Other states were starting to remove symbols and I just couldn't see how hateful rhetoric would get far after the Charleston Church Shooting. Now much of what should have never happened, but was starting to be reversed then is happening now. Maybe like everyone that has been reserving their energy for the past 4 years, just hoping to be get thru these years are finally saying enough is enough. I know I moved home to PA because I could not shake the feeling that things were going to get worse before they got better. I do fear that the rhetoric is indeed worse this time and the minions are more loyal.***
My other article for Revamp was on the Music Farm Columbia but it is only partial for some reason. I did forget about Trae Judy talking about his experience with James Brown and that he has South Carolina roots. Mr. Judy invited me to show and I selected a solo show by Gill Landry of Old Crow Medicine Show who is probably best known for the single,"Wagon Wheel", which Darius Rucker, also of South Carolina and Hootie and the Blowfish fame, later covered as a country artist.
* My original intent with mentioning this is because Gill Landry has been giving some good lessons on what it should mean to be a white man in America on his Instagram page.
