The Four Ingredients: Tattoos, Booze, Art, and Shoes
I found the flier on Discover Atlanta, looking up tattoo events. It had a galaxy background and white font and bold letters. The event named Tattoos, Booze, Art, and Shoes, said to be a “counterculture art event series and mural unveiling party”. Something about the flier felt familiar. It reminded me of a church flier, and though I am no longer religious in the slightest, that similarity had me reserving a ticket immediately.
The community that I had been reminded of by their flier is what Brian Glasper– CEO of A-Town Art Agency, and executive director of the B-Aware Foundation– along with his two business partners and friends set out to do. They wanted a way to bring the city of Atlanta back together two years of isolation. “We really just tried to figure out certain ingredients that bring people in?” Glasper told me. “And the ingredients was Tattoos, Booze, Art, and Shoes” he said, counting each word on his fingers, “That’s what bring people in.”
Glasper works to bring people in Atlanta together every day. Along with his business partner and friend, Rob Evans, they run the B-Aware Foundation which works to bring healthcare and entertainment together. They work to spread information across the city and make resources readily available for as many people as possible. They created many projects to bring positive influences on the city, their most recent being Affirmations Across Atlanta, done with A-Town Art Agency and the Fulton County Youth Commission, to create murals across the city. They have begun hosting events to fundraise for this project.
We pulled up to the on time and the parking lot of Best End Brewing Co. packed. The lights still on in the building. Stands were still being put together and items still being displayed. They were running on c.p. time, and I was relieved. Tattooing is an industry I knew that wasn’t created with me in mind and so I was hesitant. I had assumed that because it was a tattoo influenced event, my friends and I might be the only black people in the building. I had already decided to leave if that was going to the situation.
That wasn’t how that event was at all. I felt the familiarity I got from the flier again, the music and people reminding me of days when I was much younger. Inside the brewery, people were running around making last minute adjustments. Vendors were still laying out their product and artists setting up their stations for live painting sessions. Looking at the room you could easily see everyone, the space open but not empty.
First step in the door, a man almost shouted, “Make sure to enter the raffle,” he said before I could see any more of him than tied back ponytail. “Grand prize is a $250 tattoo sleeve”.
Josh Chavez became an event planner a decade ago after a long career as a stockbroker. He had become worn down with the adherence to the social construct that the career required. His friend, who has since passed, told Chavez to be happy. He found his friends and close community had no such expectations for him about his career, only that he was living for himself and what made him happy. “That power, that real community, like what we can do as one we can do as many,” Chavez told me. “B (Glasper), the architect and creator of Tattoos, Booze, Art, and Shoes. He’s been one of my best friends for the last 10 years.”
When Glasper came to him with the idea to fundraise for Affirmations Across Atlanta, he was ecstatic, and they pulled together every person and artist they knew up until the morning of the event to get it ready. Tattoo Artists, Rose God, partnered with Glasper for the event and would be doing the tattoo for the grand prize.
Kelly Freespirit, an artist managed by A-town, and was commissioned by Best End Brewing to do a mural that was to be unveiled the night of the event. Freespirit has known Glasper for a while also and of course was on board for the event and could be seen doing a live painting near the door. Her current color has been blue, the art pieces behind her booth all in blue making for beautiful monochrome animals. “I’m doing a mural of Ma’at, Egyptian goddess of balance, truth, order, harmony and I really want to display that.” The mural is going to be on the back of the Best End Brewing facing the Belt Line trail.
“Tonight, I’m going to be painting a pair of shoes,” she tells me as she sets up her canvas and three cups of paint — white, black and blue — “It’s not normally my style but you know, Tattoos, Booze, Art, and Shoes.”
Well into the night, the room was full of people perusing the booths, getting drinks from the bar and watching artists. A familiar smell I won’t mention had settled into the air outside. Nia Tyson had made their way to the bar coming back with a rum punch in an adorable glass cup. “It’s so cute, I want to take it home,” they said with a small hop in their step.
I went straight for the food outside. The event was catered by DMT — LA-style tacos in ATL — owned by Daniela Guevara. The pop-up looked amazing, and Guevara moved quickly throughout her stations. The smell of cooked beef hit me the second I came out, pulling me to her stand. I ordered the Ceviche Baja-style, looking for something cool and refreshing.
“Will that be all for you?” she asked me as I readied to pay. “Yeah, that’s it.” I responded. “The ceviche is cold,” she said before she started getting my order ready. I can only assume that this comment came after several people questioning why the ceviche was cold. “Okay,” I said confused about why I was being warned about a dish I already knew was cold. Either way, it was delicious and the way I ate mine made Tyson go up there themselves.
Best End Brewing Co. is right next to the Belt Line giving it a view of the trail. It has an apparently amazing pitcher plant garden that Daniel Foster, became the most excited I’d seen him the entire night. “Their very hard to maintain,” he explained after asking us to get some photos of them. “They take a long time to grow and I’m just surprised to see them.”
Back inside they were finally announcing the winner for the raffle. We pulled out the small pink tickets we were handed at the door upon admission to the event. The DJ started calling numbers. It felt like it was jumping around our numbers. They called the winners for the two smaller prizes — gifts from the event– before calling the grand prize. $250 tattoo sleeve.
“Four-zero-zero-eight-zero-six-three” the DJ called from the booth. We checked our tickets doubting our chances. Tyson said in a voice I almost couldn’t hear, “That’s me.”
They went up to get their voucher and the information for the artist. They had gushed about a piece they had been planning to get earlier in the night. “I can get the piece I wanted,” they said when they walked back. “I’m so happy.”
As it neared 2 a.m. and our batteries were running low, we made our way outside and were stopped by Chavez, for a photo in front of a slick red car parked out front. “I met him this morning right here,” Chavez said, motioning to man man dressed in a blazer. “I said, ‘man, I need a nice car for this event I’m doing.’ And that’s what I mean about the network and the community we’re trying to build here.”
“This is our first Tattoos, Booze, Art, and Shoes,” Evans told me. “But it will be an annual event. We want it to go across the country and bring in artist from every city.”
The goal of the event seemed more than achieved. The community they have built growing as the night went on. This was the first of many Tattoos, Booze, Art, and Shoes.
“Thank you for believing in us” — Glasper.
You can follow their Instagram here and donate to the B-Aware Foundation here.
