1. Hey man, thanks again for taking the time to do this interview! To start could you tell everyone how long you’ve been writing for, what you write, and what crews you rep?
I’m an old man (fifty years old). Been writing on and off since I was 18 I think. Ive written “tooth” and “eat“ but starve is what I’ve been writing the longest and the most consistently for about ten years now. I primarily rep MSG out of Miami. Shout out to nerve/negro for putting me down. I also rep STP out of LA shout out to phero the freeway king.
2. There is some considerable overlap between the tattoo and graffiti community, which came first for you and how did you get introduced to the other?
Between graffiti and tattooing, graffiti definitely came first,, but sketching, drawing and being a black book nerd came before all of that, and still does really. I think murals first brought up the idea or the possibility that I could make a living as an artist and tattooing was the realization, but graffiti actually made me fall in love with art again after ten years of being a burnt-out tattoo artist / junky (13 years clean) graffiti saved me from sleepless detox nights, and reinvigorated my love for art including tattooing.
3. Your character work is very multi-faceted between realistic and cartoon styles, what exactly drew you to that? Do you ever find yourself being the “character guy” during productions?
Character work is how I make up for my lack of hand styles ! Ha! It’s a healthy distraction from how weak my letters could be sometimes. I fucking love letters though! And I really respect the fools that can really do them, and I’m always willing to step up to the challenge of doing them correctly. I’m ok with being a “character guy” so long as I’m not also the “background guy too” HA! Shout out to Oz and HIERO forever the background guys cuz you’re so much better at them than me. I love portraits and characters and figuring em out and I find it hilarious when letter guys say they can’t paint characters, yes you can!
4. You said you’ve been writing on and off for a while, when exactly did you start taking painting seriously and what do you think caused that?
I’ve always taken art/painting seriously mostly because I was always blessed with being around great artists who took their shit serious and if I were to ever hold my own with or against them I knew I had to take it serious. Also I think I’ve always known that art was my one thing, the one thing that I could speak confidently about and once that’s established for anyone I think you have no choice but to take it seriously.
6. Tooth, eat, and starve all have very similar connotations. How exactly did you land on starve?
Ha! I have an affinity towards food I guess, primarily starve came about tho, like most cliches, because of a woman,, I was dating a girl with an eating disorder,, she never ate but was always “starving”. We were at lunch and she repeated the word starve and I wrote it down in some sort of horror movie font and that was it, it’s taken on different meanings tho, mostly as a form of humility. In hindsight, I probably should’ve just stuck to a good letter combination scheme instead of a theme and made things easier for myself. but, I haven’t run into anyone who writes the same thing, so there.
7. Your work has a lot of blood, guts, and gore in it. What exactly draws you to this aesthetic?
The blood and guts thing Is a direct response to all the street art festival bullshit where everyone’s always painting a pretty girls face surrounded by flowers and calligraphy. Why’s everything gotta be seem goddamned pretty?? That’s not the fucking world I live in. I mean pretty women’s portraits are cool and all and there’s definitely room for that. But if there’s room for that there’s gotta be room for me…I think there’s a statistic showing that horror movies have been the most popular when things in society have been the most fucked up, this has been a great year for horror movies so far.
8. Has that caused you any trouble before dealing with approvals or complaints from the city/local Karens?
Definitely!! And not just from Karens but from other “graffiti artists”! They’re like “ oh I don’t paint devil imagery or death.” You know who you are. Curators can also be horrible, they think they know what the public wants to see.. what’s funny is I did an “art battle” with the homey oz, wherein the crowd voted on which of the six teams competing won. Like viewers choice type shit. I painted this apple with a bite missing out of it with like all kinds of blood and guts spilling out of it, like really graphic and visceral. The other teams painted a hibiscus and parrots and all other kinds of crowd-friendly tropical shit, and this was for a downtown st Pete shine fest type crowd, plenty of potential for “ karenism”. Oz and I were like “there’s no fucking way we are gonna win!” But WE DID WIN! Just goes to show you that these experts can’t call it.
9. I’m seeing tons of collaborating and going in together on schemes with other artists, Who’s your favorite artist you’ve collaborated with?
My favorite part of graffiti is painting and collaborating with the crew or other artists. Talking shit and joking around while painting… @worx_of_oz who I really respect, and I paint really well together,,, the homey @ceser87 and I really hit it off and killed it a few times,, @guscutty is aight 
. @hoxxoh and I surprisingly really mesh well and it’s sick watching him work,, @heiroveiga is probably the dude I’ve collaborated with the most, we are the odd couple , P.I.G., Partners in Grime. I’ll paint with anyone tho, I’d rather paint with someone who’s just fucking cool and a good person than someone who instagram has deemed a good a painter.
10. What advice would you give to younger writers/artists coming up?
Best advice I can give to a younger writer is to continually be creative. Even if graffiti doesn’t end up being your thing keep producing. Don’t fall into trends always strive to be as original as possible and never, ever, take advice from another writer.
11. Appreciate the time you’ve taken to do this interview, any shout-outs you’d live to give to finish this off? Also, where can people find/support your work?
Shout out to my crews MSG and STP, shout out to the homies Chnk, doper, quake, my boy Esben/koins. The brother sadis, omek, Robus, the homey Digital and soda. My boy near holding it down in Denver,,And the whole stigmaink squad tatting em up in Tampa fl. You can find me there if you wanna get tattooed and follow me on IG @unknownknowitall
