April 24, 2017

Meet Gifford Kasen of Logan Square Tattoo

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gifford Kasen.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Gifford. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In 2014, I had reached a decade of my career in tattooing. I had worked in a handful of shops around the country, some better than others (some much better), but still felt like I hadn’t found the environment I wanted as a workspace and as a community. Around this time I had also been living in the Logan Square and surrounding areas for five or so years and saw a potential to build what I was looking for from the ground up. After consulting several local business owners about the area and my ideas, I decided to give it a try. I spent the summer of 2014 completely renovating the space that is now at 2352 Milwaukee ave, and Logan Square Tattoo opened that fall. From that point, it has been a growing organism that now includes a full-time collection of tattoo artists, each bringing a unique perspective to the media, as well as a handful of guest artists. We have regular curated gallery shows, working with local as well as national visual artists. And finally, we have partnered up with East Room to do a monthly tattoo popup that pairs local and national musicians with a rotating group of tattoo artists for an all-night event. The idea has always been to build a strong community of local and non-local artists, and we have seen the progression of that idea from day one.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Of course, there were struggles. This was my first business venture, so every step in the process of opening seemed daunting. However, if I were to do it again I would say the process was more or less straight forward. Being the sole proprietor without any investors did cause some financial constraints. Getting the permitting for our popup required months of emails and proving to the very diligent health department that it would be run professionally. And last but not least the whole idea depends upon a working relationship with an ever-changing cast of artists, who each have their own ideas and egos. Learning how to manage as well as encourage everyone without giving up too much of my own time is a constant process.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Well, we are a tattoo shop at our core. That is how the bills are paid and what brings people in. primarily we are a custom studio that is return client based. As the area and our reputation has grown we have seen a higher and higher demand for walk in tattoos, so we now attempt to accommodate that as best as possible as well. Our individual artists are what makes us stand out. Each person that works at Logan Square Tattoo has an individual and unique style. New clients are able to have a diversity of choices on who will be designing and applying their idea. Secondary to the tattoos is our commitment to displaying art from the tattoo and art community and we have regular gallery openings open to the public to showcase that.

What were you like growing up?
I’ve always been very active in art. I’ve drawn since I can remember. As a child, I would say I was pretty introverted so drawing came naturally to me as an individual activity. I was also very into reading and playing music, so creative pursuits took most of my time (as my poor grades could attest to).

Pricing: