Cermele: Joey From The Dock

If you walk down 32nd Street towards NYC’s Penn Station around rush hour, you will find the curbs lined with vendors selling a multitude of wares. These feature DVDs of films still in theaters, cologne and perfume that has either fallen off a delivery truck or been mixed in a Bronx basement, and Rolex watches that sell two for five dollars. Every day I pass this bazar without ever paying much attention to the merchandise. But while walking home last night, a table caught my eye and for the first time in four years of working in the city I stopped to check it out.

The table belonged to a graffiti artist named Spin 183 who was creating custom hats. Call it an impulse buy, but for some reason I decided then and there that a new one-of-a-kind fishing hat created by my boy Spin was a must. So he broke out the oil pens and got busy right there on the street. He created for me what he refers to as “vanity plates for your head.”

Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking: the fish doesn’t look quite mean enough and kinda resembles a dolphin. But give my man a break. He drew it up in 10 minutes in the dark in 36-degree wind chills. Besides, once I splash it with a little fish blood, all the suckas ’round the Jersey Shore will recognize that I’m still Joey from the dock. Think about it…would you mess with a dude with a tear drop tattooed on his cheek? I wouldn’t. I think a dolphin splattered with a little bass blood will have the same effect. This hat will become legend.

Do you have any hats or T-shirts that have become your trademark on the water? You know, the ones the wife is dying to chuck but you never leave for a fishing trip without. Let’s see who can represent.