Ben – Street Portrait

I was standing on Yonge Street south of Dundas, looking north to see if the World Naked Bike Riders were coming (see my previous post) when a guy stepped to the curb and caught my interest. He was a big guy, maybe six foot three, with a beard and, underneath it and wrapping around his head, a series of tattoos. Following my personal theory that “scary-looking” dudes are sometimes lonelier than the rest of us precisely because they are “scary-looking” and are therefore dying to talk to people, I asked if he’d mind me taking some shots. Once again, my theory seems to have been validated. He smiled. His face opened up. We started to talk. His name is Ben. The tattoos on his face and head are a work in progress. A friend of his is doing it and has said that once all the pieces are in place, he’ll go over everything once more for free. He had just hitch-hiked from Brockville, stopping along the way in small towns to panhandle and do graffiti. He showed me some of his work on a little point-and-shoot he carries with him. From what I could tell, he does mostly bubble letters. I suggested he go under the Bloor Street bridges over Rosedale Valley Road. I was there yesterday and the city has painted over all the graffiti creating a fresh canvas in need of new work. Does that make me a bad person? Mea culpa. Actually, I don’t care. I guess that makes me an indifferent person.