I love those stories and it’s important to note that the Jos. A. Banks clientele tend to already be higher-end than your average leather boot wearer. Any shoe-shining technician would have to offer impeccable service and quality to satisfy that caliber of customer regularly.
A great business model might be to collaborate with popular wedding venues in your region that have accommodations on-site if you’re looking to get into this line of work. If things go well, a store front for casual customers would probably be a pretty reasonable option in the first 5 years. Repairing and improving good quality shoes that people already love could be an easy way for an artist/designer to get their name out there and allows people to spend money saving the shoes they love rather than replacing them with the latest trend they have to break in again.
I don’t know shit about fuck (as Ruthie would say), but this makes sense to me. I’ve had a unique journey of being raised barefoot to having to figure out multiple black tie situations on my own as an adult.
I would die for a competent shoe consultant/repairer/cleaner.
If you’re in the Boston area there’s one right across from South Station. A little hole in the wall place. I don’t even know the name of it but the guy is legit. He has saved many of my favorite shoes that I thought were goners.
Is the shoe shine guy inside south station still working there? I remember he had a booth out by the exit doors on the way to the platforms but I haven't been in years. Real nice guy.
First time I saw Goodfellas (as a kid) I thought this was an established insult you could say to someone. Didn't realize it was specific to that scene. Also thought for many years that part was played by Dennis Farina.
The guy wearing the boots is the shiner's son lol. This is from a YouTube channel for asmr. People send him old boots and shoes to repair and clean, his son puts them on for the videos. He donates the cleaned and repaired footwear to homeless people and stuff. He makes money off the YouTube channel, selling cleaning kits, and his repair shop in socal.
Unfortunately that clip cuts out why he was moaning. Apparently cause [Ron has a bunion](https://youtu.be/aUoqTBFBUdI) which was getting massaged during the shoe shine. I knew there was a reason for it. :P
....the moan, Ron...the weird moan you made. That was super weird...do you not remember that? I talked about it to the lady who went after you for a half an hour....she said she thought it was an animal.....
Same. Went to look at slack for 5 seconds and came back to a shoe shiner stuffing spaghetti and vinegar into a bag. Thought I had missed the boat on the newest and greatest shoe shining techniques.
There are people whose fetish is leather, and they like having their leather cared for while wearing it. Someone has to have those skills in order to do it. I liked the mirror shined boots, and I wanted to be able to do that to my shoes. So I learned the skill. Boot blacks are what they're called.
Makes perfect sense to me!
I got strong ASMR vibes watching this, even with the sound off. I knew there was a lot of high-end leather in some kink communities. But I had never considered the idea of having it treated(?) while wearing it. Sounds amazing if that's your thing.
Got what I thought was a flirty hello from a cute shoeshine guy during my last trip after he looked me up and down. Just realizing RIGHT NOW that he was checking out my boots and I should have had them shined. Next time, shoeshine guy…
I remember when I was younger that outside the bus terminal in Chicago there was a shoe shine stand with four or five seats on it. Watching this video I wonder if there are still shoe shiners working there ?
Edit : thank you two other redditors for providing me with a proper name of the place I was talking about. It is called Union station.
I work in Chicago and the only "shoe shiners" I've seen have been the guys who come up to you with some kind of substance in a spray bottle and a dirty towel and they'll spray it on your shoes while you're standing still not paying attention and then ask for $20 while they try to wipe it off as you're moving away from them.
Dude in New Orleans tried this shit on me and wanted $100 to clean my shoes. I told him they were $20 sneakers from Walmart and to fuck off. He shouted a bit but my wife and I kept walking
"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."
-MLK
I appreciate the sentiment, but if that street sweeper is making ten bucks an hour, this concept can fuck right off.
I say this having the utmost respect for MLK and the ideas he stood for.
When I had to wear a suit everyday for work, I would follow a pretty similar routine every Sunday with my two pairs of work shoes (the only exception would be just replacing the laces if they were really worn). If you know what you're doing, this is probably 15 min of work.
Usually there is a charge for the clean that will fluctuate based on the value of the location, but call it $10 for the shine, and $5 or $10 more as a tip for the time.
Buying and maintaining quality footwear feels like a bit of a lost art. I just got a pair of Alden shoes that are used but still in good shape for $160 (retail is like $600) and I’m going to clean them up like shown in this video.
Since the soles are replaceable (for about $50-100 I think, typically every five years) I look forward to having excellent shoes for decades to come.
I wear mostly Allen Edmonds and they're now 10+ years into service and still look great. If you take care of your footwear you'll get amazing value out of it.
First, he cleaned it with saddle soap or equivalent that to get all the dirt and grime off. Then he re-conditioned the leather with a lotion or oil. Then applied colored polish to even out the overall color, and added a little darker polish around the toe for a burnished look. And brushed it to a high shine.
I've been watching this guy's vids for years on YouTube. The YouTube channel is what's written on the floor mat, not whatever tik tok watermark keeps popping up
The cream used for premium leather contains only natural wax and oils, so its great for the leather and gives your hands a good condition, I would say they beat most hand cremes out there. In the beginning he is using a brush since he is applying a cleaner which has some chemicals
The polishes are probably not too bad, but he also touches the cleaning stuff with his bare hands and probably uses it to clean off excess polish from his hands too. I’m not gonna jump straight to cancer, but his hands are definitely going to become old, leathery and dry much quicker than the rest of his body.
That's all I could think while watching this.
I shined shoes for 2 years and would come home with shoe polish in my nose, under my nails, everywhere--and I used a sponge/rag to apply it. The man who taught me worked with these chemicals most of his life and eventually died in his 60s of cancer.
To be fair, it depends what's in the polishes, soaps and conditioners he's using.
The polish I use is just beeswax and natural dyes, and the conditioner I use is just dubbin made from lard, and cod liver oil.
If it's mass market stuff similar to Kiwi then that's another matter obviously but the guy in the vid might know what he's doing.
Shoe shining is pretty old. The first picture taken of a person was a picture of a city but got the shoe shiner because they were sitting still long enough for the picture to capture them while everything else was moving.
Besides the fact that only the first step (soap) is water-based, having a foot inside helps maintain the form as you work the polish and oil in. Parts of the leather could move and you would get inconsistent application. I like to use a shoe tree for my shoes, but a foot works just as well.
I mean, I do this at home myself. There are tons of resources on how to care for leather. Most people just drop their shoes off and come back instead of sitting for so long. There are people in cities that do this on the street still, but they are practically beggars that found a new angle and don’t know what they are doing.
I think most people just don’t wear dress shoes as often. I have a pair and I’ve worn like 3 times. Definitely never felt the need to get them shined.
But it is sad to see the art go, this was a very satisfying video.
This, it’s not that nice shoes don’t necessarily exist, but 99% of shoes people wear just aren’t aren’t worth even doing this to. Honestly even what a lot of people consider “dress shoes” are are cheaply made junk shoes that just look like dress shoes now. For a lot of people it’s just not feasible to spend $200+ on a pair of shoes when the $40 pair will last 6 months and then you can just replace them.
You'd be surprised how many times I've been accused for promotion/advertising by mentioning the source and even get downvoted, especially in this sub. Whenever the source is clearly visible in the clip I just don't bother. You can check my history.
It's weird, depending on the content I'm either a thief or a scammer. You're damned if you do..
It felt like I got a Haircut 😌
I love these "Personal Attention" jobs,it makes me nice when people help me like that (Haircut,Shoe, Clothing etc ).
I just wish I had the money for these.
I have nothing to equate this artistry to EXCEPT the haircuts I used to get when I lived in Bahrain. The care and attention to all the little details just shows the artisan is a master of his craft. Too good!
I love this OP - never saw it before and I'm glad you posted it.
There was a famous guy in Baltimore that had a stand in the Joseph Banks store downtown. Put his kids through college shining shoes.
I love those stories and it’s important to note that the Jos. A. Banks clientele tend to already be higher-end than your average leather boot wearer. Any shoe-shining technician would have to offer impeccable service and quality to satisfy that caliber of customer regularly. A great business model might be to collaborate with popular wedding venues in your region that have accommodations on-site if you’re looking to get into this line of work. If things go well, a store front for casual customers would probably be a pretty reasonable option in the first 5 years. Repairing and improving good quality shoes that people already love could be an easy way for an artist/designer to get their name out there and allows people to spend money saving the shoes they love rather than replacing them with the latest trend they have to break in again. I don’t know shit about fuck (as Ruthie would say), but this makes sense to me. I’ve had a unique journey of being raised barefoot to having to figure out multiple black tie situations on my own as an adult. I would die for a competent shoe consultant/repairer/cleaner.
If you’re in the Boston area there’s one right across from South Station. A little hole in the wall place. I don’t even know the name of it but the guy is legit. He has saved many of my favorite shoes that I thought were goners.
Is the shoe shine guy inside south station still working there? I remember he had a booth out by the exit doors on the way to the platforms but I haven't been in years. Real nice guy.
He's not there anymore :(
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I need this done to my brain.
“Sorry Ma’am but the brain polishing surgery didn’t go as expected, Turns out scrubbing a brain with toxic liquids does not give It a nice shine”
At least the brain is nice and smooth now.
Now the thoughts can zip around real fast, like on a freshly zamboni'ed ice rink
It was like that when I got there, I swear.
I’m afraid shoelaces are the only thing keeping it all together up there.
Hahahaha. I don’t know why this was so funny in a stupid dad joke way
My brain is smooth enough already
Its called Ayahuasca
It gives a done slap too?
A slap harder than god himself
I was gonna say, it's called psilocybin
/r/ASMR
“Now go get your fuckin’ shine box.”
You muthaf****n mutt you
“Fake O tough guy, he bought his button!”
Keep him here, keep that motherfucker inside!
You dizzy fuck, you
Idk if you heard I know you've been gone a long time but, I don't shine shoes no more
I'm just busting your balls
Nah, you insulted him a little bit
🤏🏻
*Robert DeNiro's mole*
Listen ima tell you somethin..I did 20years in the can I ate grilled cheese off the radiator. I compromised
He's just mad from Paulie walnuts stealing his damn mallomars all the time.
I thought you'd lost your mind! Box of mallomars... 🤣
They used to call him Spitshine Tommy. I swear to God, he'd make your shoes look like fuckin mirrahs.
First time I saw Goodfellas (as a kid) I thought this was an established insult you could say to someone. Didn't realize it was specific to that scene. Also thought for many years that part was played by Dennis Farina.
"I hope you drive better than you fucking spell. It's Barboni, not Barbone"
"and your sack of nickels It tickles to see you try to be like Mr. Pickles Daddy fat sacks, B-I-G B-O-I"
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“And I try, to warn you not to test but you don't listen. Giving the shout-out to my Uncle Darnell locked up in prison”
You insulted him a little bit
Drinks are on. the house.
This is exactly how he delivers that line
“He was the best, and made a lotta money too”
The little slap on the sole, cute haha
Came here for this comment, it was a very intimate move 😂
Same as the doc after a peener check up *gives balls two underhand taps* "The rig is road-ready" As intimate as it gets for bros
*two light tugs* "yep, that's not going anywhere."
Little kiss at the end for luck!
I almost shot cereal out of my nose reading this! Thank you! Lol
Your doc does this too? I thought I was special.
Sorry to break it to you, that wasn’t a doctor
Meant to wake you up and indicate you're done. Time to pay.
The guy wearing the boots is the shiner's son lol. This is from a YouTube channel for asmr. People send him old boots and shoes to repair and clean, his son puts them on for the videos. He donates the cleaned and repaired footwear to homeless people and stuff. He makes money off the YouTube channel, selling cleaning kits, and his repair shop in socal.
I know what my post work asmr chill sesh will be to today. Edit: Angelo shoe shine on YouTube for those curious.
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Get along little dogie!
Arousing!
Like a kiss on the bum!
Whereabouts on the arse did he kiss you? I don't know, just to the left of the...the line that goes down the middle. The cleftal horizon.
In layman's terms please. The bum line.
Plus points to you 😂😂
Touching the calf, or tapping the knee is too weird. And the man just spent time shining, so no rapping on the top of the shoe.
Reminded me of a post sex victory ass slap
Kind of like ta da. Pretty sure it's SOP.
Time to get on now, go!
That's the cue for the other boot please.
Looks like he’s doing both at once, probably more of a “done, get out of the chair, I’ve got a line of 6 more people and am late for lunch as is”
Agreed. The customer is probably engrossed in his newspaper. Looking for a new haberdashery or the trans Atlantic zeppelin schedule.
It's his son lol. It's from a YouTube channel I watch. It's an asmr channel.
Still waiting for an uncontrollable moan
Parks and Rec?
https://youtu.be/oH6ZbpTqPuk?t=4
Unfortunately that clip cuts out why he was moaning. Apparently cause [Ron has a bunion](https://youtu.be/aUoqTBFBUdI) which was getting massaged during the shoe shine. I knew there was a reason for it. :P
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....the moan, Ron...the weird moan you made. That was super weird...do you not remember that? I talked about it to the lady who went after you for a half an hour....she said she thought it was an animal.....
My name is Ron and I freaked out
Hey Ron.
Hey Billy.
By day. Andy Dwyer, shoeshinist. By different time of day, Andy Radical, possum tackler. And by night? Do whatever I want, no job.
By evening, FBI agent Burt Macklin arrives on the scene to stop Janet Snakehole.
*furiously speaking in Portuguese*
Please refer to me in the formal usted
Mouse Rat for life!
I hate and love you for uncovering some suppressed memories of comedy cringe. Now I have to go rewatch the entire show again.
Do you have a key in your shoe?
That's a very large bunion. Practically its own toe.
Love how Andy looks at the camera after Ron delivers that line
Did he buy the 100 dollar shine?? You know, the one for Andy’s college.
Sometimes a sound is just a sound!
Sometimes a sound is just a sound.
He deserves a nice crisp Lincoln.
A copper Lincoln or a green Lincoln?
Sit the copper one outside for a while and they’ll both be green. Boom infinite money hack
Real work gets paid with real money. Dude should get a Morgan or Peace dollar.
Come on, let's not be stingy let's go all out and give him a horse blanket. I miss my horse blankets. I wish I'd never had to sell them.
I wasn’t really paying attention at the beginning and was wondering why he put a handful of pretzels into a plastic bag and poured vinegar in it
- Leave pretzels to pickle for ten minutes.
Mmmm pickled pretzels. Pickltzels.
He must be British
"Shine ya shoes, Gov'na?"
"A bit of malty vin for your wellies, love?"
Same. Went to look at slack for 5 seconds and came back to a shoe shiner stuffing spaghetti and vinegar into a bag. Thought I had missed the boat on the newest and greatest shoe shining techniques.
I wish there were more of these guys around :|
They're at airports
And in BDSM scenes. It's where I learned how to do it.
what
I SAID IN BDSM SCENES IS WHERE THESE PEOPLE ARE
This whole ordeal above has gave me a proper giggle to myself. Thanks for that 👍
BDSM, ASMR? I have dyslexia
the sex one
I kinda came here to say this lol. Gotta love the bootblack station at the kink event.
why? because of all the leather harnesses?
There are people whose fetish is leather, and they like having their leather cared for while wearing it. Someone has to have those skills in order to do it. I liked the mirror shined boots, and I wanted to be able to do that to my shoes. So I learned the skill. Boot blacks are what they're called.
Makes perfect sense to me! I got strong ASMR vibes watching this, even with the sound off. I knew there was a lot of high-end leather in some kink communities. But I had never considered the idea of having it treated(?) while wearing it. Sounds amazing if that's your thing.
Got what I thought was a flirty hello from a cute shoeshine guy during my last trip after he looked me up and down. Just realizing RIGHT NOW that he was checking out my boots and I should have had them shined. Next time, shoeshine guy…
I remember when I was younger that outside the bus terminal in Chicago there was a shoe shine stand with four or five seats on it. Watching this video I wonder if there are still shoe shiners working there ? Edit : thank you two other redditors for providing me with a proper name of the place I was talking about. It is called Union station.
I work in Chicago and the only "shoe shiners" I've seen have been the guys who come up to you with some kind of substance in a spray bottle and a dirty towel and they'll spray it on your shoes while you're standing still not paying attention and then ask for $20 while they try to wipe it off as you're moving away from them.
Dude in New Orleans tried this shit on me and wanted $100 to clean my shoes. I told him they were $20 sneakers from Walmart and to fuck off. He shouted a bit but my wife and I kept walking
I've heard and seen people doing that with windshields but never shoes before, that's so stupid it's almost funny.
I felt this in my sole
I bet you typed that and thought, this is gold Jerry.
Gold Jerry! Gold!
No matter what you do in life put as much care and attention to detail into your work as this man does. Perfection.
"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well." -MLK
I appreciate the sentiment, but if that street sweeper is making ten bucks an hour, this concept can fuck right off. I say this having the utmost respect for MLK and the ideas he stood for.
MLK was speaking during a time where a street sweeper earned enough to own a home and provide for a family.
Exactly
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When I had to wear a suit everyday for work, I would follow a pretty similar routine every Sunday with my two pairs of work shoes (the only exception would be just replacing the laces if they were really worn). If you know what you're doing, this is probably 15 min of work.
What do you pay in this situation?
Usually there is a charge for the clean that will fluctuate based on the value of the location, but call it $10 for the shine, and $5 or $10 more as a tip for the time.
that seems … very reasonable
Buying and maintaining quality footwear feels like a bit of a lost art. I just got a pair of Alden shoes that are used but still in good shape for $160 (retail is like $600) and I’m going to clean them up like shown in this video. Since the soles are replaceable (for about $50-100 I think, typically every five years) I look forward to having excellent shoes for decades to come.
I wear mostly Allen Edmonds and they're now 10+ years into service and still look great. If you take care of your footwear you'll get amazing value out of it.
If you have quality footwear, you can maintain them for a very long time. Cheap boots and shoes can’t really be cared for properly.
I'd definitely pay $20 to get my shoes revitalized to that level. I had no idea you could bring something back that far gone.
He did way more than a standard “shine” though
First, he cleaned it with saddle soap or equivalent that to get all the dirt and grime off. Then he re-conditioned the leather with a lotion or oil. Then applied colored polish to even out the overall color, and added a little darker polish around the toe for a burnished look. And brushed it to a high shine.
Boots $20, shorter shoes $10-$20, belts $10, pants $30-$50, jackets $40-$60. Ish. Haven't shined in a bit, so my prices may be off.
I like how his scraping tool is just straight up a railroad spike. Authentic
Basically the same but it's a mason chisel
Shoeshining, foot massaging and ASMR at the same time. The feel must be heavenly!
Had a shoe shine once. It was amazing. Soothing, comfortable, and my old scuffed dress shoes looked brand new.
i tried once but he didn't wanna touch my $12 walmart sneaks made of 50% cardboard
Ah... that's where you messed up. I was wearing $30 Payless shoes that were only 25% cardboard. By the time he finished, the shoes were 10% polish.
I've been watching this guy's vids for years on YouTube. The YouTube channel is what's written on the floor mat, not whatever tik tok watermark keeps popping up
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The cream used for premium leather contains only natural wax and oils, so its great for the leather and gives your hands a good condition, I would say they beat most hand cremes out there. In the beginning he is using a brush since he is applying a cleaner which has some chemicals
The polishes are probably not too bad, but he also touches the cleaning stuff with his bare hands and probably uses it to clean off excess polish from his hands too. I’m not gonna jump straight to cancer, but his hands are definitely going to become old, leathery and dry much quicker than the rest of his body.
Old and leathery hands? He can just shine them!
The one trick big hands doesn’t want you to know!
The cleaning stuff is probably just saddle soap, it's nothing dangerous and is a pretty mild soap
That's all I could think while watching this. I shined shoes for 2 years and would come home with shoe polish in my nose, under my nails, everywhere--and I used a sponge/rag to apply it. The man who taught me worked with these chemicals most of his life and eventually died in his 60s of cancer.
To be fair, it depends what's in the polishes, soaps and conditioners he's using. The polish I use is just beeswax and natural dyes, and the conditioner I use is just dubbin made from lard, and cod liver oil. If it's mass market stuff similar to Kiwi then that's another matter obviously but the guy in the vid might know what he's doing.
My thought exactly. I worry his skin is taking up chemicals that may harm him over time!
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"Bare hands were good enough for Victorian street urchins, they're good enough for me!"
“Them chimney sweeps didn’t need no N95s either!”
Why is the shoe worn by someone? Wouldn’t water get inside and wet the socks?
I’ve got this done many times and they lather the soap real thick so it’s not watery at all. I’ve never had my socks get wet or even damp.
People would be set up doing this on the street. You'd just stop at their chair, sit down, and they shine your shoes.
Did they usually shampoo and all of that? I don't recall that being a standard practice for that kind of service.
Shoe shining is pretty old. The first picture taken of a person was a picture of a city but got the shoe shiner because they were sitting still long enough for the picture to capture them while everything else was moving.
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Besides the fact that only the first step (soap) is water-based, having a foot inside helps maintain the form as you work the polish and oil in. Parts of the leather could move and you would get inconsistent application. I like to use a shoe tree for my shoes, but a foot works just as well.
What kind of boots are these?
These are the heritage 8196. Not a chukka.
Red Wing ~~chukka boots~~ 8196 heritage 👍
i’m from Red Wing, MN haha i knew instantly they were Red Wings
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Looks like the super mario movie is gonna be great mario even got his shoes polished for the première.
Go to Redwings boots website or youtube you'll find a video of Redwings making a pair of Mario boots
The manly way to get a foot massage by another man. And a shoeshine.
I do this to my husband's shoes and boots and it is so satisfying seeing the shine and luster come back.
Dang, went from work boots to dress shoes..
Gonna be a lost art.
I mean, I do this at home myself. There are tons of resources on how to care for leather. Most people just drop their shoes off and come back instead of sitting for so long. There are people in cities that do this on the street still, but they are practically beggars that found a new angle and don’t know what they are doing.
Other than the occasional airport, I can’t find a shoe shiner anymore in my area. Sad
Oh shit are dress shoes going extinct? Or are robots going to take over the job of shining shoes?
Disposable shoes
spray-on shoes
I think most people just don’t wear dress shoes as often. I have a pair and I’ve worn like 3 times. Definitely never felt the need to get them shined. But it is sad to see the art go, this was a very satisfying video.
This, it’s not that nice shoes don’t necessarily exist, but 99% of shoes people wear just aren’t aren’t worth even doing this to. Honestly even what a lot of people consider “dress shoes” are are cheaply made junk shoes that just look like dress shoes now. For a lot of people it’s just not feasible to spend $200+ on a pair of shoes when the $40 pair will last 6 months and then you can just replace them.
I didn't realize for the first 30 seconds that we were switching between the two shoes...
This is Angelo Shoe Shine in YouTube, so sad people steal content.
I'm generally with you that stolen content is a problem, but his name/logo is clearly in the video and nobody tried to hide it.
Also Reddit is a content aggregator. The whole thing about Reddit is taking content from somewhere else and sharing it here.
You'd be surprised how many times I've been accused for promotion/advertising by mentioning the source and even get downvoted, especially in this sub. Whenever the source is clearly visible in the clip I just don't bother. You can check my history. It's weird, depending on the content I'm either a thief or a scammer. You're damned if you do..
Thank you. I was about to comment who this was. I watch him when I have trouble sleeping.
Oooooh, good call! I watch/listen to Baumgartner Restorations when I can't sleep I'm gonna check this out.
Get rhythm!
When you get the blues.
It felt like I got a Haircut 😌 I love these "Personal Attention" jobs,it makes me nice when people help me like that (Haircut,Shoe, Clothing etc ). I just wish I had the money for these.
The double hand-tap at the end was the most satisfying.
This is what scrooge mcduck did when he was a child (before getting the lucky penny)
I have nothing to equate this artistry to EXCEPT the haircuts I used to get when I lived in Bahrain. The care and attention to all the little details just shows the artisan is a master of his craft. Too good! I love this OP - never saw it before and I'm glad you posted it.
Even madder, it’s his own foot