Inked: Your line is heavily inspired by tattoos and the artists behind them, are you Inked yourself?

Black Market Art: Yes. I got my first tattoo in 1985 when I was 18. Most of my tattoos are traditional Americana or Japanese styles. I have tattoos from Rick Walters, Grime, Jack Rudy, Sid Stankovits, Bill Canales, Chuey Quintanar, Mr. Lucky, Adam Barton, Ben Grillo, Jake Underwood, Bucky Crispin, Ben Grillo and a few others.

Inked: Are there any other endeavors your company has taken or is taking part in?

Black Market Art: Two years ago we partnered with the 2nd Floor and opened a restaurant, bar and art gallery on Main Street in down town Huntington Beach. The restaurant shows cases our canvas, metal, wood, velvet and acrylic art and customers can purchase the art right off the walls. Recently we provided all the art for the “Best Ink” TV Show.

Inked: With such an amazing array of art from various artists in your collection, you must have a lot of loyal customers. Any celebrities?

Black Market Art: Over the past 3 years we have been providing Slash with T-shirts. If you search Slash World Tour 2010 or 2011 you will find he is wearing our shirts in most of the clips. He has also worn our shirts on ABC and CNN Interviews and on the Comedy Central Charlie Sheen roast. We do not have a big marketing budget and have never paid Slash to wear the shirts. He just wears them because he loves the art.