Meet Clynt Costley | Professional Body Art Practitioner and Multifaceted Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Clynt Costley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Clynt, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I have been an artist since as far back as I can remember. Over the years the creative process has been instrumental in my mental health as I have been fortunate to uncover the therapeutic benefits of being a creator. Choosing a career that allows me to exercise and exploit my creative side was strategic from an early age though I never knew what these choices had in store. When my father passed away I was only fifteen and this is when I began the search for what I would call my career. He always seemed to struggle to make ends meet and the financial stresses he wrestled led me to understand I wanted a fulfilling job that paid in happiness. I was always different from the people around me in that I wished to be myself and to remain a fully expressive example of character and personality rather than conform to the expectations of others. I knew right away I wanted to work in an environment that allowed me to showcase my natural characteristics and talents. My peers all thought I was crazy and my superiors all thought I was rebellious. In actuality, I was just a creator longing for a medium of self expression. While I did practice many types of art along the way I still had no idea what being a creator was doing for me psychologically. It was not until I began to have children later in life that I realized what a great healing modality the creative process can be for unpacking old, buried trauma. None the less, choosing my career in body art at the tender age of fifteen may have very well been an accident, but one I have never regretted. A family business introduced to me by an Uncle and a Brother. I would say that I was practically groomed for it by the two of them. None the less, as I began to realize what a career in the creative realm was doing for me therapeutically I noticed something even more important. It was the great privilege I would have in helping others on their healing journey through commemorative tattooing and solidifying certain milestones for my clients using tattoos as a personal monument or permanent reminder. However, I knew I would benefit from expanding my creative endeavors in more directions and for more reason than simply a career choice. I became a multifaceted creator embarking on a journey that would see me write poetry, screenplays, books and music, teach myself to play guitar, oil paint and airbrush as well as take up filmmaking, fashion, woodworking and carpentry. I believe that inside of everyone there is a creator and it is our job to project and produce our ideas into a physical form in order to constantly shape reality. As a career, the creative path has been a remarkable choice and a privilege, but as a person creativity is what keeps me alive.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Today we have been open for over a decade and we have maintained a five star rating throughout. We truly define the new age of body art by enhancing the practice to a professional level and maintaining a high quality procedure and establishment. Our main goals are to inform and educate the body art collectors. An idea that has been frowned upon in the past. Our model has and always will be professional integrity. This has not been an easy idea to spread throughout the industry as we have constantly experienced degradation and ridicule from most other studios and artists that we have tried to help and/or educate. The industry as a whole has an “if it isn’t broke don’t fix it” attitude. I have found that many things in our industry are in fact broken and some things have been broken for a while putting everyone involved in the process at risk. A huge emphasis is put on the visual expectation of the tattoo and very little attention has been given to the surgical nature of the procedure. We at ACU believe the most important part of the procedure is sterility and hygienics, followed closely by customer service. We have spent over a decade teaching the collectors and our apprentices these ideas and training the apprentices to be more aware and careful with their procedure as the future practitioners of the body art industry. What we want the world to know about Alterity Collectors Union is that we are among those in Texas that spearheaded the demand and expectations of raised standards in the body art profession. We believe the body art experience can be done safely and professionally without compromising the exciting nature of it all. We maintain that the collectors hold the key. With collectors becoming more and more educated on what to expect and where to expect it from, they can begin to decide where to spend their dollar and ultimately create a safer standard practice the world over by choosing who to employ.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If I were the host of an exciting adventurous weekend I would take my guests to a few different places that I have found to be inviting and satisfactory. First I’d start by treating them to brunch at one of my favorite local establishments, First watch. The food is farm to table, the atmosphere is always clean and inviting and the service has always been above standard. Afterwards we would cruise on over to the Colony and spend most of our day with the folks at the amazing World Springs. It is a day spa that boasts massage therapies, saunas, cold plunges, natural mineral springs that mimic the world over and an in house bar and cafe. After that we would make our way to one of the local areas that showcase art and exhibition: Bishop arts district, Deep Ellum, or Lower Greenville Avenue, to check out some live music, great dining and other sorts of flash entertainment. As an art lover, I would make a stop at the DMA or Dallas Conservatory to check out the exhibits and show some support to artists that are making their impression on the art scene. Some of our other dinner plans may include Glorias on the Harbor, Mi Dia from scratch Mexican Kitchen in Plano and Chef Rodman’s Common Table in Mckinney.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are many people in my life that I can look back on and find simple, impactful things to appreciate. A high school councilor’s kindness and compassion for young people and his ability to talk me off the ledge, or early employers that gave me some of my first real opportunities to thrive and follow my choices to success. Friends and family who have helped me understand my value by appreciating and strengthening our relationships and people that I thought were friends and family who helped me realize my shortcomings and vulnerabilities. There are many great books that I have read that have helped me understand the true power of human consciousness, such as The Kybalion by The Three Initiates and Spirit Hacking by the great Shaman Durek, or the more fundamental information about self worth and the dissection of human accomplishment from the skillfully written book Mastery by Robert Greene. On behalf of my own establishment, I would like to personally thank and appreciate my many collectors. I have been a dedicated body art practitioner for twenty-five years and I owe a great deal of my success to the people who have believed in me whole heartedly and trusted me as their choice in permanent tattooing along the way. I have worked across Texas at some premier studios and I have traveled to many more throughout the nation. I always found it amazing and refreshing to know that a majority of my collectors would follow me from one studio to another, sometimes crossing the state or even state lines to stay committed. In opening my own studio I found that it was the collectors that chose our establishment and truly absorbed the new, cutting edge information that we teach, who kept our studio open and thriving and who continue to help us raise the professional standards of the body art industry today. Thank you to everyone that calls ACU Tattoo your home.

Website: https://alteritycu.com

Instagram: acu_tattoo

Facebook: Alterity Collectors Union

Image Credits
Clynt Costley
Dana Ashley
Jasmine Costley
Soliz Images