Penis Man

Penis Man also known as Dustin Shomer, 39, of Tempe, Arizona, is the man behind a viral string of graffiti. Back in 2020, he faced 33 charges including criminal damage, aggravated criminal damage and trespassing.

In the weeks leading up to Shomer's Jan. 23, 2020, arrest, photos of the graffiti in which the words "Penis Man" appeared to be spray-painted on buildings throughout Tempe were shared on various social media pages.

In a post on a downtown Tempe community Facebook group after his arrest, Shomer admitted he "spent the last 24 hours in Tempe and Phoenix police custody for spraying 'Penis Man.'" He said 25 SWAT officers raided his condo and vehicle in west Phoenix.

Backstory

Penis Man

In an interview last year with Phoenix New Times, Shomer described himself as a prolific copycat, not the original "Penis Man" tagger. Police confirmed that Shomer was not the only one scrawling the name on public and private buildings. But he was certainly the boldest.

The graffiti began turning up around town in November 2019, and especially in Tempe, home to Arizona State University. Social media users began posting photos of the vandalism, which led to a popular ABC15 News broadcast piece about the taggings that caused the Penis Man legend to grow.

Tempe police began actively looking for the suspect after he became much more active in January, spray-painting Tempe's City Hall, porta-potties at the Town Lake, ASU dorms, the large "A" on Hayden Butte, the historic Hayden Flour Mill, and various businesses. In Phoenix, he tagged a city of Phoenix building, a Curaleaf dispensary, and the Arizona Democratic Party headquarters.

Police hadn't caught Shomer red-handed, but they did claim to find paint that was still fresh and wet in his backpack. It seemed Shomer had taken his superhero status a bit far: Cops also found a pair of gloves in the condo, one with the letter "P" on it, the other with the letter "M."

Sentencing

Penis Man, who happens to also be a student of the Japanese language and other offbeat political ideas, was sentenced this week to three years of supervised probation and ordered to pay $8,000 in restitution for the damage. A deferred, four-month jail sentence will be erased from the sentence if he completes 500 hours of community service, according to the terms of a plea deal he signed in December.

Shomer didn't respond to messages seeking comment.