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Spider Murphy's Tattoo

1006 Lincoln Avenue, San Rafael, California

1006 Lincoln Avenue, San Rafael, California

Spider Murphy's Tattoo is a classic American traditional shop in San Rafael, California, founded by Theo Mindell in 1996 and known for wall-to-wall hand-drawn flash.

Archive Note

Mindell, from San Francisco, located the shop north of the city at 1006 Lincoln Avenue to prioritize craft over the big-city scene, and hung it wall to wall with framed flash he drew and signed, developing a personal traditional register drawing on Freemasonry and occult motifs. The shop is a genuine hub rather than a one-person studio, and a documented roster of Bay Area traditional tattooers has worked or contributed flash there, including Bryan Randolph, Matt Howse (a resident roughly 2006 to 2014), Stuart Cripwell, Laurent Trelaun, Paul Anthony Dobleman, and Heather Bailey. Mindell trained Cripwell and Trelaun, and the shop's flash has been published in books and prints and carried in the Museum of Modern Art bookstore in New York. It remains active.

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