STAYING ANCHORED: AN INTERVIEW WITH TATTOO ARTIST NIKKO HURTADO

A renowned artist who has travelled all over the world and tattooed countless celebrities, Nikko Hurtado manages to stay humble. We find out how.

Premier: Black Anchor Collective: Can you define what it is, its purpose, history, inspiration etc?

Nikko Hurtado: When I was about fourteen years old, one of my buddies that I grew up with was in foster care and he was trying to convince me to get a tattoo of three dots on my finger and I never did it. I thought my mom would be mad. When I first started tattooing, I started at Art Junkies. Later, I was working at Ignition and my buddy from when I was fourteen came to see me. He wanted to say he was proud of me and congratulate me because we had been best friends. And that was it, he left. The next week, he died. There were ten guys I worked with and we all got together to get matching tattoos. We each got a black anchor. It was to commemorate my friend and the fact that we were all at places in our life that we were happy. Anchors hold you down, are heavy, and it has a lot to do with paying respects to traditional tattooing. When I opened Black Anchor, I wanted it to be about family and friendship. 

P: Hesperia, CA is the first place that you opened your own tattoo shop. Why that location? How were you able to garner mainstream notoriety in spite (or because of) such a remote location?

NH: I grew up in the San Fernando Valley. My parents divorced and my mom came to Hesperia so I was back and forth between there and the valley pretty much my whole life. Around the time I got the black anchor tattoo, my life kind of blew up. I was on LA Ink and Tattoo Wars on the Discovery Channel. I was traveling a lot and super busy so when I opened my shop it was kind of out of necessity. I just found a spot and opened up. It was near my house and I utilized MySpace [social media] to showcase my work. I would send my work to magazines too. I was really lucky that I was traveling a lot at the time and it just helped push my work out there. I used to teach a lot around the world and give seminars and put out DVDs that taught the technique of what I do. 

It’s about consistency and hard work too. Word of mouth is a big part of it. If you’re not doing your best on a hundred percent of your work, [what’s the point?] Even if I’m not going to showcase everything I do, I put that extra bit of love and effort in order to make that tattoo the best for that person. Even if it’s simple or not my favorite work, I always make sure to do my very best. I won’t do it if I can’t do my very best and I feel like that has contributed to my work and my career. There’s a certain amount of respect you’ve got to give a person and I think that energy comes back to me. 

P: Which celebrities/notable individuals have traveled to Hesperia to be tattooed by you? Who was your most memorable client and why?

NH: The Game, Jenna Jameson, Guillermo Diaz from Half Baked. I’ve had a bunch of people, [so many] I can’t even remember. My favorite celebrity client is definitely The Rock. He was the coolest guy, just a real down to earth person. Really respectful. It was so cool chatting it up with him. He’s just a good guy. I was already a fan of his but it’s rare that I meet somebody and become an even bigger fan. I’ve seriously listened to his words after and he’s inspired me way more since then. He walks the walk. He’s practicing what he preaches and it’s really cool. 

P: What — if any — notable differences have you found between working in Hesperia versus working on Melrose?

NH: There’s major differences between Hesperia and Melrose. Hesperia really allows me to hone in and focus on what I do. There’s less distraction. For instance, if I’m tattooing, it’s rare that someone would just stop in to say “hello”. If I’m in Los Angeles, there’s a bigger chance that people will find out when I’m working and come in just to say “hi” or catch me outside. So there’s more distraction. Food-wise, LA takes the cake. The food in Los Angeles is amazing so getting to tattoo there, there’s a lot of food option. 

It’s definitely my two personalities. Hesperia lets me get away from the chaos and lets me focus on things whereas Los Angeles is definitely the outgoing part of me where I get to have a little bit of a taste of a different life for a few days a week. 

P: In an oversaturated market, how do you stand out on social media?

NH: With social media, I don’t really know. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to stand out. I guess there’s some rules I follow. I always try my best on my work. When I photograph it, I photograph with three different cameras. I have a special tattoo camera, a Sony camera, and my iPhone. I make a disciplined plan that I take photos with all three [cameras] of every single tattoo I finish. I try to shoot different kinds of content whether it’s a photo of the tattoo, my client, an angled photo, etc. With social media, I don’t know if I’m very good at it. I try to do my best at it. I try to look at what newcomers are doing and what’s trending. I’m never opposed to learning a new trick. Recently, I’ve been sharing videos of myself doing details. I took that inspiration from seeing someone else who was doing something similar. I never think that I know it all ever. I just pay attention to what the younger generation is doing. I try to surround myself with younger artists. I’m almost forty and the guys I work with are in their twenties and thirties. I asked an older mentor how he keeps from getting burnt out and he said he surrounds himself with younger tattoo artists. They aren’t grumpy and jaded. They’re still excited. I try to surround myself with positive, motivated people and I think that shows on social media. I’m not opposed to trying new apps like Tik Tok either. I think it’s good to get out of your comfort zone.

P: Why do you think mainstream popular culture has accepted and elevated you as a tattoo artist and trendsetter? 

I started doing pop culture tattoos early on and I’ve been getting asked for that. I’ve been very fortunate. I’m in my own world and I think I’m on the outside. I’ve met a lot of people and done a lot of stuff and I’m very grateful. It’s just hard work and I think that people can tell I work a lot and that I work hard and give my best and love what I do. I think when you do that, it shines through. I never did any of this to get recognition or well known. I just wanted the respect of my peers. It’s all survival, though you know? I do my best to survive and provide for my family. When people are passionate and love what they do, it’s like a gravitational pull towards me and we shine together. I think sometimes your energy field links up with other energy fields that are similar. 

I mean, who wants to spend time with a jerk who thinks they know it all? I used to roll into Hot Topic because my sister worked there. All the people that worked with her just thought they were cooler than you. When I first started doing art, I was about sixteen or seventeen. My buddy and I went down to Melrose and the artist was such a jerk and I remember thinking ‘I never want to be that guy. I’d never treat someone like that.’ I’m just doing a tattoo and I try to keep it in the reality of things. 

I meet guys who do similar work to me and they just do it because they want to be famous. And I just don’t know what that means. This thing with fame and the addiction to fame is something just don’t get. I’ve met so many celebrities and some of them I haven’t tattooed and sometimes it was because the energy was off, and I just wasn’t into it. I don’t always have to tattoo somebody or showcase that I know this person. I try to really think that through. If I post a photo with somebody, it’s because I’m a really big fan or they’re just really awesome. It isn’t about their clout. 

P: As a Southern California native and a Laker fan, what was your experience like tattooing Vanessa Bryant, widow of the late Kobe Bryant? Was it cathartic in any way?

NH: That’s the one question that I won’t answer out of respect to the Bryant family. The only thing I’ll say is that I’m super grateful that I was asked to do the tattoo. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the family and I’ll just keep it at that. 

P: How has the pandemic affected your work? 

NH: The pandemic has been the toughest thing I’ve had to face in business in nearly twenty years of tattooing. I was shut down. I’ve been open twenty-eight weeks out of a fifty-seven-week year. I’ve had to pay a hundred percent of the rent for a fifty-two-week year and it’s been a humbling experience. With that being said, it’s also been a great year. I’ve made a lot of moves and decisions to do new things I’m working on. I’ve had a lot more time at home and with my family because [before] I had been traveling a lot. I’m enjoying doing things I haven’t done in twenty years like working on cars, manual labor, construction. The manual labor and hard work and pride in it is something I really enjoy. On my days off, sometimes instead of doing art, I’ll do construction or yard cleaning or fix up some of the properties I own. Yesterday, I was pulling weeds all day and throwing a bunch of stuff away at the dump. I’m up to about ten tons in of trash that I’ve gotten rid of from demolition work. Its oddly satisfying, the switching of gears. I’ve really been enjoying tattooing more recently too, finding myself falling in love with it and doing my best. It’s becoming even more of a passion. I’ve been really, really in love with it. It hasn’t all been bad. Financially, it’s been harder but life-wise the quality is better. 

P: Given your rumored long waiting list, how does an “average Joe” get an appointment with you?

NH: Just ask for something cool. You want a Princess Leia? I’m down. I only book out three months at a time, so try. Send me a photo and you never know what I’m going to pick and what’s going to excite me. I just kind of pick it by the person that’s sending it, their excitement in their email, what they want to get, and that’s it. Ninety nine percent of my clients are everyday people. Those are the people that are excited about and saving up for the tattoo. I’ve had some clients for ten plus years. I tattoo normal everyday people every day. I work five days a week tattooing, eight hour days. I tattoo as many people as I can get in. if it’s not within your budget or something different than what you’re looking for, I’m also always happy to give referrals which is part of why I opened my shop. 

P: What does the future look like for Black Anchor Collective and Nikko Hurtado?

NH: The future for Black Anchor is keeping up my businesses and the shops. I own a company called Anchor and a business called Vegan Blue for skincare. I have two new businesses I can’t really talk about yet but they’ll be coming out in 2021. The down time has given me the ability to start working on businesses for the last six months to get them off the ground. Things that if we get shut down again, I could still do. A lot of the stuff I do is tattoo-based but eventually I’ll start going more, product-wise, into the mainstream. And continue to do my best at tattoos.