Many believe that the infamous “Penis Man” graffiti artist who tagged dozens of spots in Arizona was brought to heavy-handed justice by Tempe police on Thursday. But containing the spirit of Penis Man will be much harder than anyone would have expected.
According to the Phoenix New Times, a man named Dustin Shomer posted on Facebook Saturday morning that he was arrested in his Phoenix condo by a SWAT team.
“They raided my condo and vehicle and swarmed my entire complex in west Phoenix with 25 heavily armed SWAT officers, and pointed a silenced assault rifle in my face,” he wrote.
He was booked on 16 counts of aggravated criminal damage, eight counts of criminal damage and one count of criminal trespassing, all related to incidents where he spray-painted “Penis Man” on various buildings and objects.
But is Shomer the Penis Man? The one that’s been tagging spots across the state for two months and captured nationwide attention? Shomer says no, he’s just a follower who did a few of the taggings.
“I’m not the original,” Shomer told the Phoenix New Times on Monday. “There are hundreds of copycats with very distinctively different handwriting.”
Shomer said that he heard some people in a Tempe bar talking about the “real,” seemingly phantom-like Penis Man and got inspired to do some of his own.
“I thought it was a good message,” he explained.
He doesn’t seem to be the only Penis Disciple. As documented by the Twitter account Penis Man Fans, at least one new tag has been spotted since Shomer’s arrest.
“Penis Man is neither man nor woman, you nor me,” Shomer wrote on Facebook. “We are ALL Penis Man.”
