Outlaw Tagger Goes Corporate

With clients like Universal Studios, and Nike, Mister Cartoon still has street cred. In fact, that’s what makes the 39-year-old graffiti artist, tattoo artist, fashion designer, and car customizer such a sought-after corporate image maker, the Los Angeles Times reports. Cartoon’s designs—which mix Chicano gang culture and Japanimation—can impart nearly anything with counterculture cool.

Cartoon lost interest in illegal tagging after he was arrested at 17. Since then, he’s bounced around between gigs, eventually rising to superstar status with tattoos on the likes of Eminem and 50 Cent. The corporate work on films like Fast & Furious has actually grown his cult following. “The mainstream is coming around to his aesthetic, not the other way around,” said a producer making a biopic about him. “He’s still hard-core. He’s a gatekeeper to that world.”