The Kids At The Squat
the photos of Mikey Mayhem, NSFW Press
Editor’s note: I first became aware of Mikey Mayhem’s photojournalism through the message board, now defunct, at Supercult.com, the seminal website of Chase Lisbon. Mikey was part of the whole “CFFC” art-posse there. ~Rob
“Last two from Boston summer 1988, I forget the name of the girl with the long hair, the dark haired one went by the name dolphin. I remember I asked once how come she was always so much cleaner than every one else at the squat and she admitted that she snuck home to her folks in Medfield for regular showers. Then she told me she would make out with me if i kept her secret. Then we made out.”
“I spent the summer of 1988 at the Boston Museum school summer arts program. Well, actually, I spent it hanging out with and photographing the punk kids who hung in Cambridge, Harvard Square to be exact. Many of them were runaways living in the streets or the squat, sort of proto-crust punks. It was a great experience to see that coming from Florida. It was a whole different scene. Drugs and violence and terrible punk shows. I don’t remember as much as I’d like, it all becomes sort of a blur 20+ years later. But I remember this scene pretty clearly: the girl and Charlie, the little kid, were in some kind of fight. I don’t know about what but it got heated. Charlie was a little knucklehead who lived at the squat with his older brother was like 2 years older and maybe 14.”
“The other photo with the dark haired girl, her name was Gillian and she was the one in charge. She took the money and her dude carried the stuff. Mostly acid, weed and pills or at least that’s all they sold on the street. At the squat it was all about the heroin. Gillian was the first person to shoot me up. I didn’t like it to much and I got real sick. She told me that happens to everyone the first time. I liked it a lot more the second and third times.”
About the first photo: “It’s a pretty good shot. It won me a national scholastic gold key senior year…”
What was the national scholarship gold key award? Was that a Maryland or Massachusetts prize of money for college or something?
“National gold key is like the highest regional level prize in high school arts no money but you get a certificate and little fake gold key.”