A friend of mine sent me a post from Clandestine during the holidays for a fundraiser for kids (theirs was called "Toys for Tats" where ya picked up a $20 toy, and gave a $20 tip for a tattoo from a flash sheet that was designed by all the artists). The post was shared from Jordan's Instagram page (@goretaku) and as I looked at his other pieces - I knew I wanted to get tattooed by him.
Met the man during Toys for Tats, gave him the deposit, and a few weeks later, we banged out an utterly impressive piece that'll forever be immortalized on my forearm and holy SHIT am I proud to have it!
The piece itself stems from the top of my left wrist, all the way towards the bottom of my elbow.
Jordan can literally draw anything, but he mainly specializes in Anime tattoos and the character I now have on my arm (Bakugou from My Hero Academia) has been kind of a hot commodity towards the masses, as a lot of people are now getting him on their skin.. through conversation, Jordan found out that I love Vaporwave fashion (think 80's Miami-Vice colors with ambient-neon-magenta's and teal's etc etc) so he asked my opinion on changing the color scheme... and although I was a little skeptical at first, I was willing to see what he would bring to life... and when he showed me the color scheme from his tablet, I fell in love..
This piece is insanely original and the coloring is like the "garnish" on top during a menu-read that makes everyone happy when deciding on what food to order..
I can't thank Jordan enough! I'll post a photo of the work in a second.
Atmosphere of the shop:
I mean, it's like any other tattoo shop - filled with pieces of artwork that'll give you ideas in your head as you wait x-amount of hours while your tattoo is being done.
They all talk some good "mess" so be prepared for that and don't be afraid to chime in - all of their artists are really cool and are really welcoming.
Couple of key things to consider:
-it's a tattoo shop; be prepared to spend money. this tattoo shop has HEAVY-HITTERS on their team so do your research on pricing, and your tattoo, because I booked out Jordan for the day and it wasn't cheap and I cannot stress this enough - you really do get what you pay for... I know that gets thrown around a lot when it comes to the service industry but just remember that tattoos are forever... and being a service industry worker, myself, it's nice when people support your craft.
-be prepared for your artist to possibly change up a couple of things based off of what you want... your tattoo artist is there to listen to your needs but may put a little spin on a couple of things so don't be offended if that happens - Jordan took a couple of photos that I sent him and basically conjured up a piece and went to work on it... don't you want a tattoo that's customized, anyway? Not off some other dude/dudettes skin?
-tip at least 20% eh? It's 2020... 15% is cheap as all hell... remember, your artist is most likely working at a commission rate that can take up to half of their earnings - an extra couple of hundred dollars take home is nice at the end of the night, especially when they drew out your whole piece from scratch, and then spent like 7 hours on your skin. Don't be a dick, save your pennies and spend accordingly.
All in all, really dope experience, sorry for writing a damn novel but if this post helps at least one person, then I'm happy.
Go and give Jordan all of your money.
Hit him up on Instagram @goretaku - he's got specifics on deposits and his day rates and such. Give him a DM, he's like the nicest dude.
I'm definitely going back to give him more money! read more