Mattress with Bedbugs Art, on corner of St. Marks Place and 2nd. Ave., originally uploaded by zokuga.

Saw this a few days ago on St. Marks and sent it out to EV Grieve, who was kind enough to link to the Flickr. Curbed NY and ScoutMob (who didn’t credit EVG or me, but I’ll let it pass, because of their yummy deals) also posted the photo. You can’t underestimate our fascination with bedbugs…New York has been under terror alert with the news that some of our greatest American icons, Victoria Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch, have succumbed to the evil bugs.

I blame the heightened fear on this well-written, terrifying New York magazine piece by Marshall Sella…I didn’t even know bedbugs were that bad until I read this. Now I will never sleep outside of my hyperbaric chamber again.

Update: The WSJ profiles the artist, a “Samuel Mark“