It’s back to my tour of St. Mark’s Place, and the storefront, including neon, of Addiction Ink. I do not have a shot of this entire building, but I was surprised to learn while researching this post that it was completely torn down and rebuilt about 5-6 years ago. It looks like it has been there forever. Before that, it apparently lacked a Certificate of Occupancy and was inhabited by squatters, including an artist’s enclave, of sorts. I say “of sorts” because even sources sympathetic to them admit that the space saw more drinking and drug use than creative arts. In any event, the entire thing is quite controversial in some quarters, and they are none too happy about some of the tenants, even though an ashram, massage parlor and tattoo/piercing venue seem right in character with the rest of the street to me. I’m not even going to link because, well, conspiracies and anarchism aren’t my thing.