Pasties Placed on Las Vegas Mural

In Las Vegas, a city known for quickie marriages, money loss, and barely clothed beauties, seemingly nothing is sacred now that a mural outside the Erotic Heritage Museum was forced to cover up painted nipples. The Ho-Down Mural Project’s portrait of two half-naked women violated the county sign code, prohibiting signs from showing female nipples. Though the museum’s curator obliged, covering up the exposed area with multiple pasties, she argues that the murals are not signs, but rather urban art and therefore, the code should not apply. Considering the infamous Strip essentially exists on the notion that sex sells, artists are fuming that the mentality used to increase tourism doesn’t apply in the creative realm as well under the law. The county, however, determined the murals were signs for the neighboring Déjà Vu nude club, which owns the building housing the Erotic Heritage Museum. “[They] represent Las Vegas culture, something that is unique as Las Vegas itself,” said Niki J. Sands, one of the artists of the now-censored mural. “I donated my time and talent to be a part of that culture.” Looks like what happens in Vegas, does not always stay there—at least not in its original form.