Aug. 31—O’Neal Bunch can be seen doing all sorts of things around Muskogee.
He’s the guy with the green hair and goatee who wheels along on a motorized unicycle. He said he grew up skateboarding around the Oak Cliff area of Dallas.
“I’d jump off my front porch and skateboard, I had an entire city to explore,” he said. “Buses came by every 15 minutes, If got tired in that area, go skating somewhere else.”
He said his then-wife bought him an electric skateboard around 2015 when he started having knee problems. Then he discovered motorized unicycling.
“I saw parts of the state I never would have seen,” he said.
Bunch also can be seen tattooing at his shop on Gibson Street. He recalled drawing so much in elementary school, he got in trouble with the teachers.
“My dad had a console in the living room, one of those console stereos, I put in my bedroom,” he said. “I started grabbing albums and listening to them. I’d sit in my room, listen to music and draw. Parents encouraged this because it kept me off the streets. That part of Dallas got kind of dangerous.”
It took a while for Bunch to turn art into a career.
“Initially, I bounced around from one job to the other doing everything from plumbing, electrical, remodeling, painting, demolition,” he said. “I made furniture, delivered furniture. Nothing ever fit.”
Then a friend asked Bunch to tattoo him.
“I did my first tattoo and I was ‘whoa’, that was fun that was gratifying,” he said.
He began doing apprentice work at a shop in Dallas before striking out on his own.
Every month or so, Bunch also can be seen clipping brush or picking up trash along Muskogee parks and trails.
He recalled going with his sons near the trail that went under 32nd Street. He said he saw some vile graffiti along the tunnel and tried covering it with spray paint. Then police officers came by and told him to stop, even though it was a cool thing to do.
Bunch said he talked with Parks and Recreation Events Director Joel Everett, who arranged to have him and friends paint over the graffiti in the tunnel. He now makes cleaning trails a monthly mission.
He said one reason he goes to clean is to teach his sons, ages 13 and 11, “to do something to better your community without expecting something in return.”
From skateboard to unicycle
Bad knees got O’Neal Bunch into electric unicycling.
He said said it took about an hour to learn to ride one.
“It wears you out pretty quickly trying it,” he said. “But my boys picked it up in about 10 minutes.”
The unicycles balance like a bicycle, he said.
“Your feet, your knees, your hips all need to be in a straight line so your center of balance is correct,” he said, adding that novices tend to duck and weave to maintain balance.
Bunch said he has three electric unicycles. He said he takes one with narrow tires and an adjustable handle on short shopping trips.
“You can walk it around the store,” he said.
A 134-volt model is taken on larger trips and is better on streets.
“I’ve ridden in Chicago, all over Fort Worth,” he said. Bunch said his longest trip was 97 miles around Dallas and Fort Worth.
A third one has thick knobby off-road tires. He takes those on mountain bike trails. He said the coolest trail he’s biked was in Bentonville, Arkansas.
“When you get downtown and the Compton Gardens area,” he said. “It goes down past the art museum. You see deer out there chilling while you see the most amazing ramps and little features.”
Tattoos change over years
Bunch said he’s seen lots of changes in the 24 years he’s done tattoos.
“It used to be 80 percent of our clientele there in Oak Cliff was either drug dealers or bikers, gang members and stuff like that,” he said. “Now you have grandmothers coming in with their grandkids for matching tattoos.”
He said tattoo shows prompted changes over the past 10 to 15 years — from fringe to mainstream.
“I like to do lettering, I love to do black and gray floral stuff,” he said. “That’s what I seem to get the most requests for. People see it and say ‘I want one like that.’ Polynesian stuff is always fun, but it’s time consuming.”
He said a Polynesian tattoo can take 20 hours.
“But you’re not doing it all in one session.”
Bunch said he’s tattooed all over the body.
“I hate doing stomachs on skinny people. On fat people, it’s easy because their skin is so stretched out and tight. On skinny people, there’s so much give to the stomach. That and rib cages because it’s hard for the person to be still.”
Monthly cleaning at parks, trails
Bunch makes monthly trips to clean Muskogee trails and parks.
Bunch said he and his crew go out in the morning, when it is cool and work until around noon or 1 p.m. to get lunch.
“We’d bring clippers with us and trim any branch that’s over the trail,” he said. “We have super thick nitrile gloves, trash bags. My buddy will bring along a bike and a wagon so we can carry extra stuff.”
They’ve focused on south trails so far, but plan to go to Elliott Park and 32nd Street in early September.
“Sometimes you see bad stuff out there, syringes and stuff, but a lot of times it’s people throwing their drinking containers on the ground. Sometimes the unhomed will take a bag of trash, rip it open and sort through it to find something of value. We’d find a hunk of old clothes.”
The work never seems to end.
“It’s never done, you’re never satisfied,” he said. “That’s the whole thing. If we can get more people on board, maybe we can get it done.”
HOW DID YOU COME TO BE AN OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE?
“I moved up here with my ex because she had family here. That was in 2011. We ended up splitting up, but at that point, I had already grown to love Muskogee. It reminds me of Oak Cliff when I was a kid.”
WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT MUSKOGEE?
“The people, the bike trails, the sense of community. Whenever I go out riding, I have people yelling at me. Even some of the police will yell on their speakers ‘Hey, O’Neal.’ We actually do community bike rides and volunteer stuff in the community. And there are so many state parks around the area. Me and the boys go out to Sequoyah or Greenleaf.”
WHAT WOULD MAKE MUSKOGEE A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE?
“Foster a sense of community. Get people involved in their community. We do community clean-up days generally about once a month along the bike trails. If everybody did a little bit of community service, maybe we can change things in the town. Talking about a couple of hours every month.”
WHAT PERSON IN MUSKOGEE DO YOU ADMIRE MOST?
“Joel Everett, the things he’s done with Parks and Recreation. The Flower Power Bike Ride, I look forward to that every year.”
WHAT IS THE MOST MEMORABLE THING TO HAPPEN TO YOU IN MUSKOGEE?
“I’ve learned a lot here in Muskogee. I’ve grown a lot here in Muskogee.”
WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?
“Hang out with my boys and go to the state parks, go riding in Tulsa, the trails, Turkey Mountain.”
HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP MUSKOGEE IN 25 WORDS OR LESS?
“Muskogee is where my heart is. My family and my friends.”
Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
