New Artists, Fresh Flash
Gifford Kasen
09/2025
New Artists, New Flash, time for a winter backpiece.
Welcoming a couple new tattooers to Logan Square
We're super excited to be welcoming a couple new artists to our team here at Logan Square Tattoo. It's been a little while since we've had a resident artist who's focus is American Traditional. Now we have not one but two! And not a moment too soon as we've been getting more and more requests for exactly this sort of work. So if you've been itching for that trad tat, wait no longer. Read below to get to know the newest members of our team!
Check out Temple Cantrell!
Temple comes to us via Savannah, Georgia where they have been honing their craft for the last ten years. They are excited to be branching out in chicago and reaching new audiences with their work.
Temple specializes in American traditional tattooing, appreciating its simplicity, readability, and timelessness. Without fixating on specific influencers, they draw inspiration from a broad range of sources, aiming to blend traditional sensibilities with modern touches. Influenced by cartoons and early illustrations, Temple's subject matter often includes flowers and animals. Their background in illustration and study at the Savannah College of Art and Design enhances their attention to detail, anatomy, and composition, creating a unique twist on traditional designs.
Be sure to check out their work on the website here, and give them a follow on their instagram.
Flash Tattoos by Temple
Temple is coming out of the gates strong with a handfull of killer backpiece designs. If you like big cats and solid traditional design, check these out!
Ok, maybe you're not quite ready for quite this big of an undertaking, that's understandable. Here's a few smaller designs as well, perfect for a single session piece to add to your collection!
Meet December
Meet our second new team member, December!
December comes to us from the Bay area. While slightly newer to tattooing, clocking in at three years under their belt, they already bring a strong sense of design and vision to their work. Rooted in a strong sense of american traditional tattooing, they bring their background in DIY spaces and artwork into their design process, giving a unique and personal twist to their style of tattooing.
December has been branching out into some larger work lately. While they still love doing walk ins and flash tattoos, they are passionate about starting some larger custom projects and pushing their style further. We can't wait to see where they go with it and are excited to be along for the ride! Be sure to check out their portfolio here, and give them a follow on instagram.
New Concepts from Gifford
To finish it off this month, I'd like to show off some new concepts and direction I'd like to start exploring in my tattoo work. I've been interested in the idea of portrait work and realism, mostly focusing on that subject matter in my fine art work, but I've never really pursued that sort of thing in tattooing.
over the last couple years I've been thinking about how I can start combining my love of life drawing with the experimental sci-fi subject matter I'm mostly known for in tattooing. So recently I've started drawing portraits, from photographs and life and then experimenting with adding some more abstract elements to them. I've been enjoying spending the time on developing these as mostly fully rendered drawings, and giving each piece a sort of attitude of it's own. While each work is based on an actual person, I'm not approaching them as lifelike replicas, which has given the freedom to use the reference model as information without being tethered to focusing solely on a faithful replication of a photograph or person.
I would really like the opportunity to start tattooing some work like this, either one of these pieces as is, or a similar work based on a clients input. Have a portrait tattoo you've been wanting to get and feeling like to want a more artistic twist to it? Let me know! I've drawn most of these in red pencil, with the intention that they will be tattooed as either black and grey or color pieces - the color option being open to client input. It could be natural skin tones or something a little weirder. As an incentive to get the ball rolling, I'll be offering any work like this as a full day session for my partial day session rate, until I've built up a small portfolio of finished pieces. PLease message me through our booking page or our email booking@logansquaretattoo.com for more information and a free consultations about designing and scheduling.
As always, thanks for reading and I hope to see some of you around in the studio soon!
-Gifford