COMMUNITY
Maricopa’s Pediatric Dental Specialist Where We Treasure Your Children’s Smile!
Other business owners in Maricopa noticed the city’s goth-ification since the pandemic. Take Nick Sanchez, tattoo artist and owner of Redemption Tattoo on North Maricopa Road Sanchez was a teen in Mesa in the 1990s, a time when tattoos of skulls and scythes came from homemade tattoo machines in “the hood,” and were a far cry from the mainstream. “I like goth, dude,” he said. “It’s like a popular fad now, all of a sudden. Especially with younger kids. Even the parents of those younger kids.” Sanchez did many of Manzer’s tattoos, and they cover her like a second skin. She’s got bats, skulls and even a ghost holding a butcher’s knife on her shoulder. “The foundation of the goth world is the macabre — everything that is death, spooky, freakish or taboo to society in some way,” she “Outcast” implies a sort of avant-garde counterculture. Why, in just the last three years, have so many reported goths made their ingress to the normie world? “There is political unrest, and that's where a lot of the punk sounds come from,” Manzer said. “Metal sounds come from that anger toward society and how we treat each other. You’ll see a lot more black. You’ll see a lot more spikes.” This timeline seems universal — Maricopa isn’t far behind the Valley, where the Arizona Goth Society held the state’s first goth festival in Mesa just last year. On Oct. 28, they’ll gather in Maricopa for an organized ghost hunt. In 1974, English novelist Angela Carter posited, “We live in gothic times.” Think Vietnam, Watergate and the Oil Crisis. But the '70s were mere prologue to the tumultuous early '20s, marked by profound political turmoil in the U.S. and a once-in-a- century pandemic claiming millions of lives. The pandemic brought fear, claustrophobia and isolation. It’s a perfect storm for a goth resurgence. said. “It’s that outcast thing.” We live in gothic times After all, the Arizona Goth Society was created directly “in response to the pandemic,” according to its founders. When you see goth people in Maricopa doing goth things, don’t misunderstand them — although they’re used to it. Being misunderstood is kind of their whole schtick. Well, part of it, at least. “We’re not scary or horrible people in any way,” Manzer said. “Even if we are angry, we are outcasts, we are alternative. We’re the nicest people you’ll ever meet.”
“I feel like I’m a staple part of the Maricopa community,” Manzer said. “I really built roots in this community." And yet, in a way, she’s putting her genuine self on display for the very first time. That’s so metal
Manzer spent much of her career in education, working stints at Santa Cruz Elementary School and Leading Edge Academy. Brad Turnbow used to work in education, too, at Maricopa High School and Legacy Traditional School. Until he gave it up one day in 2016, changed his name to SpellXCaster and became a goth guitarist instead. “I started making music in Maricopa,” Turnbow said. He found his muse juxtaposing the quiet, sunlit countryside with music both loud and dark.
Above: Gothic art lines the walls of Redemption Tattoo. Left: A Cut Above Handmade sells this unique tumbler enveloped in bloody newspaper clippings depicting serial killers' crimes. Right: This zombie getup is everyday apparel for Maricopa's goth queen.
That outcast thing Emily Bauman-Heieie opened A Cut Above Handmade on a whim during the coronavirus pandemic. The shop on John Wayne Parkway sells such items as bloody newspaper clippings of serial killers. “Everything is horror themed all year long,” Bauman-Heieie said. “Back when Maricopa was a small town, I don’t think it would have sold. Today, there is a community out here in Maricopa that loves what I do.”
Without music, there is no goth
scene, Manzer said.
In the cradle of small towns like Maricopa, a sort of rural-meets- metal scene crops up — the rise
(520) 316-6111
21300 N. John Wayne Pkwy. Unit 117
of gothic cowboys. Take, for instance, the Las Vegas metal band Falling in Reverse and their unapologetically conservative, anti-woke anthem "Zombified” released last year.
“I went to that mysterious place in my mind as I ran through the cornfields,” he said. “It’s like escaping to a dark new world.”
TreasuredSmilesChildrensDentistry.com
SERVICE & REPAIR • HEATING & HVAC • RO SYSTEMS • WATER HEATERS • WATER SOFTENERS • GAS LINES • PLUMBING REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE
Arizona’s Low-Cost Legal Services Provider
OUR SERVICES: • Estate Planning (Wills & Trusts)
• Family Law (Divorce, Custody, Child Support) • Probate, Guardianships & Conservatorships • Business & Non-Profit (501c3) Formation • Deed & Title Work • Eviction Actions & Judgment Collection • Small Claims & Justice Court Proceedings
LOCAL FAMILY
OWNED & OPERATED
We offer GOLD and PLATINUM Service Contracts CALL TODAY FOR A FREE ESTIMATE 602-920-6000 WE WARRANTY OUR LABOR FOR 1 FULL YEAR AZ ROC #309317 & 329362 WWW.KOOLINEPLUMBING.COM
(520) 450-1715 GloverCourtSolutions.com
41704 W. Smith Enke Rd. Suite 100 Open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday – Saturday
InMaricopa.com | October 2023
52
October 2023 | InMaricopa.com
53
Powered by FlippingBook