![]() ![]() In 2014, 9Mag opened its doors catering to a select clientele of followers. I’ve been doing it ever since.” That family tragedy that gripped the Chicago news headlines for months involved the murder of his sister Nova and her baby daughter, both who were killed by her ex-boyfriend. I said I probably had never kept a promise on anything I’ve done so let me stick to doing this. ![]() He recollects, “I asked my sister to give me the money to get it she said only if I would do it ‘the right way.’ She died a week later and I promised her I would do this. Determined to try his hand at tattooing, Henry borrowed the money from his sister to purchase a tattoo kit. I wanted to do something with my God-given ability and he gave me the notion to do tattoos.”īoth men found themselves at a crossroads with deep choices to make. That led me to doing something after I got a felony and it was hard to get a job-a stable job to take care of my family. Before that I was on a rocky path committing burglaries and other crime. That’s what I was doing for a certain period of time for about five years. “It was a point at my life where I wanted to design clothes and shoes back in the day. I didn’t teach myself, I had a mentor who showed me how to become skilled. “Even before I started to tattoo, it wasn’t that many known Black tattoo artists. While taking different odd jobs here and there, he entered a field that he rarely saw people who looked like him work in. His life began to shift, spending time inside the confines of the correctional system-he was determined not to succumb back to that life. He was sent off to serve time at the DeKalb County Jail. Johnson graduated from Calumet High School and went on to attend Northern Illinois but soon found himself in trouble with the law. Watching Johnson until the wee hours of the night, Henry studied him and listened to his stories of how he got started. People who was tatting in the beginning were very confident,” he said. Van at that point was very cocky about it. Having lost his job, Henry was struggling to make end’s meet and did not want to fall into the bad habits of the streets. Some of the people were coming and saying, ‘My man Van did this.’” ![]() Henry said, “He was the only one tattooing in that area. He would come into the barbershop where clients could get tattoos. Everybody used to go at that point Van was tattooing for a month.”įinding refuge in tattooing, Johnson had found a legitimate way to provide for his family. Van and I came up on the same side and would meet up at the same barber shop on 86th and Hermitage. It was either go back to robbing, selling drugs or do something different. In 2008, I had just been laid off from my last job as a train conductor from Union Pacific. One of the few Black tattoo artists making house calls, Johnson set up a temporary booth at the barbershop, working non-stop on neighborhood clients while Henry observed in fascination. The longest running reality show based in Chicago, the show debuted its third season in early July.īoth Henry and Johnson have been long-time friends sharing a bond that began when the two connected through the art of tattooing at a favorite barbershop hangout. Henry is the owner of 9Mag, a popular tattoo boutique in the Pilsen neighborhood, and shares the spotlight with his co-workers casted in VH1’s hit reality series “Black Ink Chicago.” The streets of Chicago are no joke when you are in “survival mode.” No one knows this better than South Side natives Ryan Henry and Van Johnson. “Black Ink Chicago” stars, Ryan Henry and Van Johnson. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |