By Christina Toimela
Erotic boutique She Said’s staff and friends staged a raunchy flash mob on Tuesday (20 November) in protest at the painting over of a mural.
The burlesque mural by graffiti artist Req featured a semi-naked woman wearing nipple tassels and holding a fan.
The store was forced to paint over it after complaints from two local residents.
Nic Ramsey, the owner of the shop, said: “She Said erotic boutique is all about making women feel confident about being a women. We have no intention to offend.”
She was surprised that people had a problem with the image in such a liberal city as Brighton.
Ms Ramsey pointed out that she had displayed a similar photograph in the same place for five years without complaints.
About 20 of the store’s staff and friends took their tops off in front of the painting to reveal nipple tassels underneath.
Ramsey then painted over the mural which had been on the wall of the shop in Ship Street for about a month.
Req, the graffiti artist behind the mural, was not surprised that the neighbours found the art offensive, but said that he couldn’t remove it himself.
“You don’t destroy your own artwork. It has to be someone else,” he said.
A photograph of the mural will be on display from Thursday 29 November in the newly rebranded shop in Ship Street Gardens.
Just like the complaints, this is just a shameless publicity stunt and shouldn’t be treated as anything else.
Shame that they were forced to cover it and I suspect only due to a prudish few who complained. I’d like to think that the majority of Brightonions would have no problem with such murals in these circumstances.
One lives in hope – come on Brighton!