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

This snapshot I took of a bedbug-adorned mattress on St. Mark’s St. has an artist: Samuel Mark, who has apparently done several bedbug-inspired pieces. He was profiled in a Wall Street Journal blog:

M: You scavenge materials on the street. Are you concerned they have bedbugs?

M: I actually look at pieces before I touch them. I know what bedbugs look like. I had bedbugs in Brooklyn and I was in a place where they were in the whole building. They congregate in different places and come out at certain times. The times of night I write on these things is the time they are out. I look at all the creases. If I see any evidence of bedbugs on the thing, I do not touch it. And I wear rubber gloves.

h/t EV Grieve