After fire destroyed their tattoo shop, Artistic Issues is back on its feet.
Rennick Clattenburg and his mentor, Aaron Kaizer, didn’t have insurance and lost their entire shop when a block of King Street buildings burned down in October.
But Clattenburg says thanks to thousands of dollars of donations, they’re tattooing again.
“For me personally, I couldn’t get over the amount of people that were helping us out and wanting to do as much for us as possible.”
Contributions came from across the province and the tattooing community and even a dance was held to help the two men out.
Clattenburg says even their new landlord pitched in and helped renovate their new space on King Street.
“The landlord was nice enough to have people come in and do it for us, cause usually Aaron (Kaizer) does the renovations, so it was nice that we had people to do it for us and help us out.”
The artists then had to order all of their equipment new and wait for it to ship in before tattooing again.
After a slow time around the holidays, Clattenburg says business is picking back up.
Clattenburg says he is thankful for all of the help they received from the local community and from the broader tattooing community.
The fire that destroyed their building, as well as several other businesses and apartment units, is still under investigation.
