So, I for the life of me could not get Jon Clue to answer any of my questions, he is very difficult and likes to be impossible. Last night, my friend Dakota and I took a cab to Jon Clue's apartment/tattoo studio/ bachelor pad in Bushwick for her appointment to get her FIRST tattoo. Which happens to be a rain forest sleeve. O__O
We get there, Jon is finishing editing the drawing of the outline (because we complained about a phallic flower and ball-like protrusion), and then I begin to try to sneak in questions about how he began as an artist and how he refers to his art/tattoo style. I ask "Did you do art as a kid?", he just says "No." and laughs. I call him an asshole and tell him that its not for the blog that it's just me asking him.. he responds "You're creepy why are you interviewing me?" He likes to make me frustrated.
I ask him what he considers his art.. he answers "I don't consider it, I don't even think about it, you wont get any normal answers out of me." I told him that I didn't want normal answers, just for him to answer however he felt.. he rolls his eyes and I call him an asshole again. He likes it. He puts the stencil on Dakotas arm, here are two pictures of it, pre-tattoo.
Dakota is obviously really nervous and excited. She has NEVER had a tattoo before, she has had a lip ring that she got re-pierced once.. I hype her up, tell her she's tough and she can do it, and show her more pictures of Jon Clue's work. I explain to her how rare it is for someone to get their first tattoo drawn by an amazing artist. How rare it is to get a sleeve outline as a first tattoo. She is a crazy lady for doing this, her parents are going to be in SHOCK! She needs a couple of drinks and a cigarette and then the four hour tattoo session began. As Dakota is getting tattooed, I talk (a lot) and DJ awesome tunes and we all vibe, Jon keeps bitching about how he's jealous that he cant drink with us, I tell him to shut up and work ;)
Dakota handled it like a trooper. The middle of her arm around the elbow and tender area where the arm bends was the hardest. She laughs when the pain gets to be too much, she demands a couple of shots.Mizu is hanging out with us, hes being such a good kitty, for once, probably because he was kind of sleepy from just waking up from a nap..
And here it is! The outline of the flowers are red.. that isn't [all] blood.
We wrap it up in plastic wrap and tape it, I tell her how to take care of it (with antibacterial soap and aquaphor), and we go to a bar a couple of blocks away and meet up with Dakotas older cousin Anderina, who has been sending Dakota supportive and hilarious text messages the whole time, for example, "Aye mami! Dakota has bigger cojones than I do!".. after the bar we went home.
I have a video interview of the pre-tattoo jitters, but Im trying to figure out how to upload.. I can't save it because I don't have Pro, so ill figure it out and put it up soon!
Here is a link to Dakota's Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=517302701
