I'm Isaac Ortiz-Riendeau I'm a father of two beautiful girls and a loving husband, I've been tattooing since 2003. I grew up an artist with a strong inspiration from comic books! As a kid I dreamed of someday being a comic artist, but as I grew up I focused more on sports and girls! Haha my focus on art wasn't gone but wasn't as strong, I became obsessed with basketball and thru high school chased a scholarship to play in the big leagues. My last two years of high school were rough, with the loss of a friend and the breaking of my arm which ended my hoop dreams, I dove back into art! I continued to draw but also began to find an interest in low riders and custom cars. With college dreams gone, I entered the U.S. Army and did 4 years. When I got out, I got frustrated with life and lost my way. Found myself getting in trouble and going in and out of jail and finally landing myself in federal pen. This is where I discovered tattooing! I was about 23 and at rock bottom, being locked up it allowed me to clear my head and focus, on art and God. I got together with some guys that were doing mediocre tattoos on each other. I drew the designs and they tattooed them, at first I thought this was cool. As they continued to hack my drawings all up in an attempt to translate them to skin, I realized they had no idea what they were doing. When I got out of the pen I bought myself a tattoo kit, and that's where it began. My tattoos were terrible at first, I was straight trial and error. I scratched out of my house for nearly 3 yrs working factory jobs to support my family. In 2006 I was lucky enough to be taken under the wing of Tyre DuVernay of Aartistic Inc and given a very traditional apprenticship. He mentored me for 7 yrs before I ventured off to take over the world! Now you can find me in TN tattooing at Alter Ego Tattoo. I don't specialize in any one style I try to stay fluent and just continue to learn. I'm always looking to do guest spots to continue to educate myself as well as hitting the occasional tattoo convention. So check out my work and if you like what you see, then hit me up and let's make art!
