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Ralph Spangler stands outsidethe new home of Ralph’s Hungry Eye Tattoo, 112 S. Ninth St. He’s
been giving tattoos in Lincoln for 20 years.
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By Ted Taylor
5emor Reporter
Despite an intimidating llrsl im
pression, Ralph Spangler could be
described as a gentle giant.
The giant part is easy to sec.
My guess is t hat he t ips the scales at
moie than 200 pounds. He has a red
beard that would give the members of
ZZ Top a run for their money, and lie's
got more than 30 tattoos.
Gentle? Not so much.
The man makes a living tempo
rarily hurting people by putting per
manent designs on various parts of the
body.
But have a seat in his downtown
tattoo parlor and the gentle part comes
out as you find out he means no harm
with his needles and ink.
He’s just a big, fuzzy, chess-play
ing teddy bear — with a soft-spoken
voice to match.
I letter known as plain ol ’ Ralph, the
owner of Ralph’s Hungry Eye Tattoo
has been giving tattoos to people in
downtown Lincoln for more than 20
years, and he’s loved every minute of
it.
Hut by averaging only live tattoos a
day, starting at S25, Ralph admits that
lie’s not rich.
' W e do make a pretty good living at
it though, as a matter of fact,” he said.
And it also doesn’t lake much time
to see that the burly man doesn’t do his
job for the money.
‘i just love doing tattoos,” he said.
"But he reiterated the
parlor's motto: Wo
drunks, drugs or
assholes'— a doctrine
followed by most tattoo
parlors around the
country. ”
The fact that Ralph isnol rich, how
ever, led himtomovehisstudio around
the corner to 112 S. Ninth St. — a
move that cut his rent in half to S275 a
month.
The old location at 905 O St. was
also the home of the Shoestring Art
Gallery, a small studio for area artists
to display their work.
But Ralph says the new home, still
messy from the move two months ago,
worksjust line.
The two-story parlor is much
smaller, but still features three gum
ball machines, cable TV, a eucalyptus
plant anil pages and pages of tattoo
ideas, but as Ralph says, “the possi
bilities are endless.”
“About a third of the people come
in with their own designs,” he said.
Ralph doesn’t hold the fort down
alone.
Rod Creamer, a tattooist for 10
years, has been assisting the city’s
body art legend for the last two.
“I’ve worked wilh other taltooists,”
Creamer said. “Bui Ralph’s been the
best. He’s the oldest in the stale.”
He agreed that Ralph was a very
intimidating figure to look at, “but
once you get to know him, you realize
he'sjust a good guy.”
Creamer, who has 11 tattoos ofhis
own, was quick to show off a photo
album wilh hundreds of tattoos he has
given over the years.
But lie reiterated the parlor’s motto:
“No drunks, drugs or assholes” — a
doctrine followed by most tattoo par
lors around the country.
Ralph’s Hungry Eye won’t give tat
toos to people who are obviously in
toxicated or using drugs.
“They bleed too much,” he said.
“But we’ve had people try to convince
us that they weren’t drunk.”
Creamer also agreed that the money
was pretty good — and said he had
days when he took home almost $ 1,000.
“But usually it’s more like S100 or
so,” he said.
And despite recent fears that tat
toos are a quick and easy way to catch
the HIV virus, business keeps on boom
ing.
“People arc showing more con
cern,” Ralph said. “But we just tell
them that we use new needles each
lime and completely sterilize our equip
ment.
“We wear rubber gloves now loo,”
he said. “Whereas 20 years ago, we
didn’t even think about’that.”
A Hungry Eye patron tries to pick a ds
Phot a
Matt I
In less than 10 minutes, Raty