Chronic Ink Tattoos

For Ricky Fund, Chronic Ink Tattoo started with a simple phone call. "A friend of mine who was in the tattoo business called me up one day, told me he was leaving Toronto to go back to Asia. He had a tattoo studio at the time which was doing okay, and he asked me if I would be interested in purchasing it," Ricky recalls. Back then, Ricky had one or two tattoos, sure, but didn't really see it as a business opportunity. "I still decided to purchase it, and the deal was sealed the same day."

Quickly, Ricky realized he wanted to improve the work coming out of the studio, pushing him to start on a clean slate, with a new team. "Tristen Zhang was one of the first artists I brought in, and from very early on I knew he was very special. His mind is like a huge database. Every day he draws something new and completely different. Eventually, Tony Hu was also brought on board, and now it's the three of us leading the company, a team of around 20 artists."