A Mission District tattoo parlor was graffitied for the second time on Monday night after activists charged on social media that the tattoo shop was owned by “racist, right-wing, xenophobic, anti-immigrant Trump supporters” and asserted that its logo contains a swastika.
Ben Volt and Matt Brown, the owners of the Form8 tattoo shop at 3049 22nd St. on the corner with Shotwell Street, emphatically denied these claims on Tuesday. Brown noted that his assistant is a black woman.
“Some of the people I love the most are of all different races and nationalities,” said Brown, who lives in East Oakland.
Volt said he is devastated by the allegations.
“I would never try to associate myself with something hateful,” said Volt, who has lived in the Mission for 16 years. “We mostly mind our own business and focus on our art.”
At the crux of the controversy is Volt’s boyfriend, Johnny Wilk.
Keep Hoods Yours — also known as KHY, a San Francisco-based graffiti crew that organizes against gentrification and racism — called out Form8 in an Instagram posts on Friday, but made it clear that no one connected to their Instagram account had anything to do with the graffiti.
The account posted photos from Wilk’s Instagram account that showed support for presidential candidate Donald Trump and were harshly critical of his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
One of Wilk’s posts featured an image of Clinton with a Hitler moustache and the word “Hitlary” above it, while another featured a lawn sign reading “Hillary for Prison 2016.” Some of his posts had the hashtags #crookedhillary and #isshedeadyet.
Yet another post featured the Theodore Roosevelt quote: “Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or to leave the country.”
Wilk was working part-time for Form8, which opened six months ago, but was let go after his Instagram posts were revealed by Keep Hoods Yours, according to Volt. It is unclear when Wilk made the initial posts.
“John’s a good guy, but he didn’t realize the power of social media,” Volt said, “and his strong opinions are not represented by the rest of us.”
Along with the posts from Wilk’s account, Keep Hoods Yours also posted about the tattoo shop on Friday, making allegations that the shop owners were “anti-immigrant Trump supporters” and saying their logo contained a swastika.
That same Friday, after the Instagram posts from Keep Hoods Yours, the outside of the tattoo shop was tagged with gold spray paint that read “Fuck Trump” and “KHY.”
Later that day, Keep Hoods Yours posted photos of the vandalism on Instagram with the caption “we’ll gladly repost documentation of anyone challenging them or calling them out.”
Keep Hoods Yours said in a direct message to Mission Local that “no one involved in managing this account had anything to with [the graffiti]” and that the account received a picture of the graffiti in a message.
The shop’s exterior was tagged again on Monday night with black squiggles and the words “Fuck you.”
The radical graffiti crew has also taken issue with Form8’s logo, which Volt said is “the number 8 turned four times and woven together” inside of a cross. It’s an apolitical mandala, he explained, and represents the kind of bold-lined, geometric work that his artists do.
Brown said that he saw the resemblance to a swastika only after Keep Hoods Yours posted about the logo.
“Now that I look at the sign I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh. I can see,’” he said. Brown said Form8 plans to change its emblem as soon as possible.
Volt said fewer customers have walked into the shop since the social media blitz against the business, and that he’s received several angry messages on Facebook.
A few people have also called out the parlor on Twitter. One user, @marymad, tweeted a recent tattoo of “Thor’s hammer” on a Form8 customer’s chest.
“Thor’s Hammer is also a Nazi/white supremacist symbol,” she wrote. “A tattoo artist doesn’t know that?”
Volt said that the customer was Jewish, and that his tattoo was an homage to his Nordic roots.
As police took reports on the vandalism at around noon on Tuesday, the building’s former tenant, Derek Song, happened to pass by and snapped some photos of the spray paint. He said he never got tagged when his business, the art gallery Park Life, inhabited the space.
Song said he assumed the vandalism was an act of anti-gentrification activism. He said he doesn’t see a swastika in Form8’s logo.
“Just looks like a cross to me,” he said.
I know both of them, and they actually are both pretty terrible people.
Why should anyone pay attention to the blathering of graffiti artists (I’m looking at you KHY)
http://i.imgur.com/kBelOSc.jpg
What is this terrible title? What Trump ties?
A bunch of criminals allege that this business supports Trump because the owner hates, oops I mean, his boyfriend hates Hillary, as if hating one Hillary MUST mean you support Trump. How stupid is that, and how dumb to fall into that trap and let these criminals control the message.
I expected more MissionLocal.
I live upstairs, and have known Ben and Matt for over a year. They are awesome neighbors and don’t have a drop of hate for anybody. People shouldn’t be so quick to judge and vent their anger without knowing the facts. Try talking instead.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the best motivation I’ve seen to vote for Trump.
Gee! U mean the owners of the shop have no first amendment rights? The ” activist ” sound like home grown Nazis to me -what’s next book burnings?
No First Amendment rights were violated here. You don’t know what 1A is.
Totally true. The government wasn’t infringing on their rights.
These people are simply the victim of criminals.
Exactly, criminals supported by people like Chris — who has an obvious aversion to opposing ideas.
Sadly, this is so typical of San Francisco. People here can tolerate anything or anybody except someone who actually holds a different opinion Yeah, Yeah, I know, you think these guys are racist or sexist or whatever. But you think anybody who has a different opinion is racist or sexist or whatever. That is the essence of political correctness — attempting to suppress dissenting opinions by declaring them all racist or sexist or whatever. Ironically, the reaction against PC intolerance is one of the major reasons that a blowhard like Trump is so successful. People are just happy that someone is pushing back.
This is typical for the progressive M.O. — free speech, unless it’s something they don’t agree with. How about the police investigating KHY for vandalism and threats – how hard could it be to ID them by instagram IP address, or other nord obvious means? Or do the police only investigate “hate crimes” unless their against certain people?
“free speech, unless it’s something they don’t agree with”
No, dingleberry, Nazi stuff, hate speech, bigotry — a proper society tears all that nonsense down.
“how hard could it be to ID them by instagram IP address”
No, dingleberry, that’s not a thing that exists.
“Or do the police only investigate “hate crimes” unless their against certain people?”
Vandalism in response to hate speech is not a hate crime. See my first comment. Dingleberry.
Just to be clear, these guys are required by law to remove the graffiti or the city will do it and fine them.
It seems you are saying it’s okay to force people (by defacing the property they are responsible for) to pay because they hold views (which, ironically they don’t) for views you don’t agree with?
As an aside, this is why vigilantism sucks. Fucking with someone because of something their boyfriend said.
@Chris: you know calling someone a “dingleberry” tells us more about your ability to sustain a rational argument than anything about the OP.
Your post reveals the totalitarian mindset of so many “progressives” in SF (and elsewhere). If you think some view is racist, sexist, whatever, then you think you have the right to violently suppress that view. It is very convenient for you that you also believe that anything outside the narrow corridor of PC view, is in fact racist, sexist or whatever. So you have a justification for intimidating and harassing opposing viewpoints. And certainly you never have to bother your pretty little head considering any arguments that might support an opposing view.
Your complete lack of self awareness coupled with an absurd sense of moral superiority is outstanding. Fortunately, the First Amendment exists precisely to protect us (i.e. the vast majority of Americans) from close-minded, violent, and oppressive individuals like you.
First, they came for the tattoo artists….
Chris calling people dingleberry is hate speech. You obviously hate gay people and tattoo artists to be defending these pussy little bitch ass graffiti “artists”.
ANother note, graffiti is NEVER art. It’s spraypainting cursive at best. Just because someone calls themselves an artist, doesn’t mean they create art. Unless you consider 4th grade qualify pictures art. In that case, the mission district is full of Picasso’s.