![]() “We're always in service to tattooers,” Smith says. They're not in the business to become incredibly wealthy and famous they're looking to help tattooers in as many ways as possible. These days, Sullen is one of the most recognizable names in the ever-growing tattoo industry, and while some tattooers may complain about brands capitalizing on tattooing's new mainstream market appeal, Smith and Hanna believe they're going about everything the right way. “The sacrifices you have to make just to create a living, breathing business, we wouldn't be able to recreate it. “If your heart's not in it, you won't find success,” Smith says. There was a lot of uncertainty, but we always knew we'd succeed.” We were driving around throwing up stickers in the middle of the night, things like that. We didn't have the money that some people had, but not everyone was willing to grind like we were. “We knew that anything that required extra effort, that's where we'd succeed. “We always knew we would succeed,” Hanna says. Smith's experience as a tattoo artist made the switch seem like a natural progression, and although it took a few more years of grinding day and night before the brand really caught on, the co-owners never doubted that they'd be successful in their new industry. So we started doing tattoo conventions and really found our audience, but it was years before we realized this is where we belong.” “We tried bringing the tattoo aesthetic to the beach culture, but it didn't fit. “I was always drawn to surf graphics and branding because it was the illustrated creative artwork out of the SoCal beach culture, but I always responded better to things that were darker and more moody,” Smith says. We were hustling t-shirts as much as we could.”Īfter years of struggling to make a name in the logo-based world of surf and skate apparel, Hanna and fellow co-owner (and 20-year veteran tattooer) Ryan Smith realized they should try moving into a relatively unclaimed market, the world of tattoo-themed clothing. “We had about 30 athletes, and we were at every skatepark, surf contest, parties, anything we could to get our name out there. “We were pushing action sports for a while,” says Jeremy Hanna, co-owner of Sullen. A handful of artistically designed skateboards and surfboards are still scattered around the Sullen Art Collective headquarters in Los Alamitos, but that's the only remaining sign of the origin of the 14-year-old tattoo-based lifestyle company.
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