Words and photos by Streets Dept Lead Contributor Eric Dale.

Welcome to our fourth entry in the periodic series we call “Upstairs At TMom’s!”

Tattooed Mom, the restaurant and bar that’s been a [counter]cultural fixture on South Street for 25 years now, is widely known as Philly’s officially unofficial museum of street art. That’s because the entire upstairs is filled—FILLED—with graffiti and street art. Not just from local artists, but also from artists around the world, who make it a point to stop at “TMom’s” when they pass through Philly.

Mom’s recently hosted another Thirsty Walls gathering for artists, and I stopped by to capture it! This time, Tattooed Mom donated a portion of all food and drink sales from the evening to the Ginger Arts Center, a youth arts and community center in Chinatown that will be opening on June 1st, 2024. TMom’s also provided a table for members of the groups that founded the Center (Students for the Preservation of Chinatown and Asian Americans United) to fundraise during Thirsty Walls and to continue building opposition to the proposed 76ers arena.

Many of the usual suspects were there drawing on stickers, boards, and the walls, of course. A few who I managed to snap photos of include Gloopy Goblin, Melt, and Queer on Paper, who pasted up some pieces and also threw a ton of stickers down onto the pool table, where anyone is free to take whatever catches their eye.

Painting (like, with a brush) directly onto the walls has become quite a thing at Thirsty Walls, and this time around, I met TRIP painting some of his signature mushrooms in the front corner.

I also met Mason, a 12-year old who’s been drawing characters for years and got into stickers last summer. He appeared to be having a great time meeting some of the sticker artists whose work he’s surely seen on the streets!

The loss of As Above So Below is still reverberating throughout the community. I saw Botanical Funk put up this incredible sticker homage to Paco, who he said was one of his heroes.

These photos barely scratch the surface of all that goes on at TMom’s during Thirsty Walls. Hopefully I’ll see you at the next one! Until then, gather round whatever serves as the sticker table in your life.

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