Back in the early '90s, I found my people. My punk rock family. My own personal group of weirdos and misfits. Some of us wore the uniform of leather jacket, shocked out hair, big black boots. Some of us had long hair, flannel shirts and sneakers. Some wore Fred Perry shirts, blue jeans and Docs. I myself was trying to find my personal style at the time. I went through dozens of terrible fashion choices. For some reason, I loved baggy jeans, bowling shirts, and black and white camouflage shorts. Looking back at those photos from time to time makes me cringe. Fashion in punk, and in life, is a way of expressing one's self, no matter how ridiculous one might look. I understand my choices back then and I begrudgingly accept them because at the time I was exploring my identity within my scene. And when I walked down the street with my green hair, camo shorts, and cut off Black Flag shirt and got yelled at and called a "f*****" by the public, I wore it as a badge of honor. If I could piss off one single "normie" every day, make them feel as uncomfortable as they always made me feel growing up, then my fashion choices that day did their intended job! I was being a great example of an upstanding punk in my community! I was doing something good in my world!
But there was always something I could not wrap my head around. One lingering question that always confused me.
HOW IN THE LOVE OF FUCK COULD A PUNK AFFORD A LEATHER JACKET????
Seriously. My friends were all super broke. We worked in dish pits for shit wages, raided couch cushions for spare change, and took up collections for beer money. Where did the money come from to buy a (at the time) $180 leather jacket?? They were so cool looking. The Ramones wore them. The most punk of the punks each owned one. These pricks were constantly getting evicted for not having rent money. From what I saw all of their money went to drugs, alcohol, and local shows. SO HOW DID THEY AFFORD THAT LEATHER JACKET??? Crap! Now that I'm thinking about it, most of my friends are covered in tattoos. TATTOOS ARE FREAKING EXPENSIVE!! I had a good paying job in my early 20s and I could never afford a leather jacket, much less a sleeve or two full of tattoos! It boggles my mind! I once asked someone how they scored their jacket, and the answer was a thrift store. I religiously checked all the local thrift stores in Grand Rapids MI for two years straight. Zero leather jackets. Zero Doc Martens. ZERO. There is no way that the 100 kids in little Grand Rapids MI all acquired their leathers from thrift stores. It's statistically impossible. I asked the same about tattoos. Most of my female friends were smart and would date a tattoo artist for a bit and just get free tattoos by being a "girlfriend". That doesn't explain how the rest of these turds got sleeves so quickly.
Am I mad about it? I mean, obviously a little. I'm probably just jealous that they had these things and I didn't. I would have rocked the fuck out of the leather jacket look. To this day, I only have 7 tattoos. One was done in a professional shop. The rest are a combination of stick n pokes, underground tattoo rigs, and one tattoo gun an old roomie ordered. I love them. I want more. But I'm a broke ass punk. I finally did get my leather jacket a few years ago. I was working merch at a club and someone left there's behind. Truth be told, now that I have the jacket, I rarely wear it. It's all bulky and not really my style. You can't always get what you want, but sometimes you're shown that you never really needed it.
I still want all the tattoos...
Oh shit! That's how you pricks got a leather jacket! YOU STOLE IT! Well played you little punk thieves, well played.
