ARTIST
Jesse Brigden
Article by Samantha Boiani
Fourteen-year-old Jesse Brigden knew he
caught the tattooing bug after inking a friend
with homemade gear at his own kitchen table.
Twenty years later he has found a place to call
home at Victoria’s Incendiary Tattoos and says
he’s never looked back.
Jesse grew up surrounded by people covered in
ink which sparked his interest in the process.
“My biological father had a bunch of silly old
navy tattoos, a coke and rum over his nipples, a
hula girl on his arm that he could make dance.
For many years I wondered how it was done.”
Jesse started to explore his creative side as early
as high school, “I was always an artist, making
costumes and crafts, getting in trouble for
drawing in math class, so it was only natural
that I was drawn to tattooing.” Cartooning was
his first artistic love, prompting him to try his
hand at comic strips and animation but found
that it didn’t motivate him. “It was only after
the first bad homemade tattoo (of a spider web)
I did on a buddy that I knew where I belonged.”
The road to becoming a professional tattooist
isn’t easy. It took him eight years of searching
and bettering his skills before he found a mentor
in an old-school artist by the name of Lil’ Vic.
“It was a very karate kid style apprenticeship.
[He] re-molded my habits, smacked me when
I did wrong and made me work hard for this
honour.” Here, he found that tattooing is as
much about learning to work in a real shop and
paying your dues as it is about the art.
Jesse has seen a lot change in the industry
over the past twenty years and not just in
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technological improvements. Despite reality
TV shows making his craft look easy; he
believes they have also allowed the masses to
see that tattoos are beautiful and not just for
criminals and gangsters. Acceptance is more
common than ever, and Jesse has inked all types
of people from every walk of life. “I’ve tattooed
eighty plus-year-old ladies, bankers, cops, and
priests in the past few years. It’s almost strange
to think back to the 80’s and 90’s when people
had to sort of hide their ink.”
Today, Jesse prides himself on building clientele
that trust in his unique style and artistic license.
And he would rather turn down a quick buck
than let you leave with a bad tattoo. Inspired
by his love of cartoons, he has developed a
technique that he describes as bright, cute and
nerdy pen and ink. He believes he owes his
education to every shop he’s worked in and
every artist that encouraged and critiqued him.
“Every one of them taught me something in
some way or another. Never stop learning and
pushing yourself to improve in whatever you
like to do.”
In addition to his work at Incendiary Tattoos,
Jesse has also delved into machine building. In
the future, he’d like to continue to expand his
knowledge through travel and working with
other artists and builders, but says Victoria will
always be his home.