The owner of a Colorado tattoo shop painted a mural of varying male genitalia on his business’ roof to get revenge against the neighboring apartment complex amid their ongoing battle over parking spaces.
David Brown, the proprietor of Fallen Heroes Tattoo & Piercing in Colorado Springs, said that he was driven to create the lewd artwork after the apartment complex towed customers’ cars.
Earlier this month, he posted a video on Instagram in which he showed himself painting obscene imagery on the roof of the tattoo shop.
‘A new apartment complex just opened up next door to the shop,’ Brown narrated.
‘They’ve been towing all of our customers’ vehicles along with other customers from nearby businesses, we tried to play fair, but now we’ll fight back with a d*** mural.’
Viewers of the display have applauded Brown’s move, showing support with messages such as ‘well played,’ and ‘let us know when they waive the white flag.’
But the residents of the neighboring five-story complex were less enthusiastic – with many denouncing the mural as obscene.
‘It was disturbing,’ one tenant told KKTV. ‘I don’t have kids or anything. I’m 40 years old.
‘But even just me as an adult – I don’t want to look out my window. I have a beautiful view of downtown since I’m on the east side.’
Other residents criticized the mural as ‘disgusting,’ and complained about having to see it every day.
Brown countered that the pictures were ‘very cartoonish’ and not ‘graphic’ or ‘realistic.’
The simmering feud between the tattoo shop and the new apartment complex began several months ago when issues related to parking first started.
The heart of the dispute lies in the narrow alley that runs between the two buildings.
All of the spaces in the alley belong to the apartment complex and are permit parking only – even those spaces that are directly beside the tattoo shop.
The owners of the complex put a sign in front of their building notifying drivers that the spots in the alley are private parking.
The tattoo shop itself has no similar warnings, as Brown doesn’t want any signs standing in front of the mural on the side of his store.
Instead, employees try to notify customers about the parking situation, but because of the way their store operates, they don’t always have the chance.
As a result, over the past four months, 30 to 40 of the tattoo shop’s customers have had their cars towed, according to Brown.
This has touched off a bitter turf-war between the two buildings.
In a statement to KKTV, a representative of the management company that owns the apartment complex highlighted that the alley’s parking belonged to them.
‘It’s important to note that the parking lot between Fallen Heroes and 532 is private property, owned by 532, and is reserved for permit parking for its residents.
‘The neighboring building does not have legal access to this lot.’
In response, Brown argued that the complex wasn’t doing enough to prevent the rampant towing.
‘I can understand the confusion of people parking right next to the building. It would make sense to me, the spots look like they are part of the building.
‘With no lettering in the spots or anything like that. I can’t fault anybody that would accidentally park there for either location.’
Brown claimed that the situation cold be resolved if the apartment complex would mark the parking spaces in the alley with paint.
‘If the spots were labeled individually, I think we would have zero issue.’
However, as of right now, it seems like neither party is interested in making peace.
For his part, Brown remains proud of his controversial mural.
‘It was a point that we made. We make our points with pens and pencils.’