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Cliff Raven makes me so proud to be from Chicago! Just the other day I read online that Pat Fish was one of Cliff’s last students and that blew my mind because when getting my very first tattoo back in 2008 (at Family Tattoo in Chicago when they used to be on Belmont about a mile north of where Chicago Tattoo Co. is these days) Pat was the main thing going online for Tattoo healing information and I followed her advice to a T and still do to this day! Makes so much sense that Pat with all her loving care and online innovation is downstream of Cliff.

I’ve been meaning to look more into Cliff Raven, so I’m glad you made this video. I never knew that he apprenticed under Phil Sparrow just like Ed Hardy.

Stellar work as usual! I can’t get enough, thanks again

Man, I hears his name before but am now eternally grateful you taught me so much about him.
What a legend.
Very nice to see all kinds of people all walks of life play a role in this art so many of us cherish so much 😢👏🏽

Another great episode....Cliff was super talented and a big piece of the American tattooing DNA

You’re doing good work here for the tattoo community and tattoo history !

Awesome video! Not a lot of info on Cliff Raven, but what's there is very informative. Keep them coming! 😄

great work!

Excellent history. I had a vague knowledge of Raven but there was a lot here I didn't know.

Awesome info! Keep it up dude!

Met Cliff at His Bookstore a few years before he passed....nice guy👍🏼

Hey Amigo ......thank you for your work.....very nice tattooer this Mr. RAVEN....liked 😊......see you sunday

You should do an episode on Zeke Owens, he was doing Japanese work around the same time as Sailor Jerry. But Zeke didn’t like the clientele that wanted large Japanese work. So he left CA and the whole scene there to Tattoo Marines in Jacksonville NC where he tattooed until he couldn’t. He another guy that should be as well known as Ed Hardy and that generation of tattooers. Without Zeke Ed never woulda met and learned from Jerry. Unfortunately a lot of giants from the past get overlooked. We know Jerry but not so much about Charlie Barr

I had a tattoo done at Chicago Tattoo Company in 1976 (?). It was a re do of a tattoo Dennis Dwyer had ruined in Tucson in 1975. Cliff was at the shop at the time but was busy that day. Buddy “Mac” McFall ( Cliffs partner and friend at the time) fixed up this little butterfly that Dwyer had scratched on me and left a big scar on my upper arm . I think I was Dennis’ second client in Tucson. Mac McFall, a Native American was also one of those tattooers that lived in the backround like cliff. One other thing was I had heard Cliff was the official tattooer for the motorcycle club The Chicago Outlaws. Not sure if that fact or mythology. Nice video.

Hell yeah!!!

The cross over of tattoo and lgbtq history is really fascinating!!

I’m sort of obsessed with Phil Sparrow who taught him to tattoo and I’m hoping to find someone who knew Phil or even one tattooed by him to do one for me. I’m basically following in his footstep accidentally and I’m halfway through his biography (Secret Historian).

I only knew Cliff Raven when I lived in 29 Palms and frequented his used book store.
He was a very smart man, and kind. He told me to NOT get a tattoo, b/c I was a nice girl.
I listened. I used to call his boyfriend his brother.  I didn't know he was gay!
Rest in peace Cliff.

Hey, love a Cliff tribute, but just a heads up that some of your info is a little off. Renslow was already involved with Raven by the late 1950s and was the one who introduced him to Sparrow. RENSLOW learned tattooing from Sparrow, then RENSLOW taught it to Raven and Orejudos ((pronounced Or-ay-hoo-doe) who lost interest quickly). Renslow and Raven worked together in the burger joint/penny arcade/tattoo spot, which wasn't in Chicago; it was in Rantoul, Illinois by an air force base. In 1963, when the tattoo law in Illinois changed, Sparrow, Renslow, and Raven teamed up to tattoo at a shop in Milwaukee. This is probably where Sparrow would've been sharing about Japanese tattooing. Then Sparrow went west and Raven opened the Old Town Tattoo Studio in the storefront below where Renslow, Renslow's mom, Orejudos, Orejudos's brother (Gilbert! :), Raven, and another guy lived. Renslow and Orejudos ran a photo business on the second floor, then living quarters were split between the third floor and a coach house in the back, which also had a dungeon in the basement.

Living together wasn't exactly about helping one another circumvent homophobic obstacles to running "legitimate" businesses. It was cheap, and they very much saw each other as chosen family. Plus, Raven, Renslow, and Orejudos were key figures in hosting and facilitating an elaborate BDSM network, which tattooing fit into nicely. Prior to the law change, shops were often located easy access from naval/military/etc bases. As Raven adjusted his business model to rely less on servicemen and more on gay clientele, it makes sense he would remain close to where word of mouth would lead a high volume of specifically tattoo-curious gay men: his and his family's house.