Meet Cal Bonner - A Tattoo Artist and a Painter - on The Day With Trae

Cal Bonner took interest in art at a young age. Fascinated by his friend's arts, he had to trace them as a form of practice. "My friend was a good artist; he drew, and I was tracing art," said Bonner.

His friend encouraged him to start drawing by himself. "He said you've got to draw something for real, and so he made me draw on the spot in front of him, and then that's when I learned that this is something different," Bonner said.

His career saw a new direction as a professional tattoo artist back in college. "My roommate saw what I was drawing, and he was like, people get stuff like this tattooed," Bonner said.

He bought into the idea of his friend and decided to hit the ground running after some research and support from his friend's baby's mother. "One of my friends' babies' mothers at the time sent me a hundred dollars to get my first tattoo machine, and I never looked back after that ever," stated Bonner.

After college, he decided to add paintings to his art after learning that paintings help with tattooing and shading. "Once I started painting, I started learning about shading, and I never took an art class, so I didn't know anything about shading and line work dots," Bonner said. "When I started painting, I started getting better at tattooing, so it was like a complementary theme for each of them, so I started painting more and more, and I just got better and better at tattooing."

Cal Bonner did a painting for Nipsey Hussle, whom he considers to be his hero, stating that his mixtapes helped him through school up until graduation. He met Nipsey Hussle earlier in Seattle during a tour, where he presented his painting to him but couldn't establish an actual conversation with him. Upon learning of Nipsey's return for a meet-and-greet, he decided to do a painting for him. "When I heard that he was coming back for a meet and greet, I was like, I've got to get another painting and actually have a conversation with him, so I painted this painting," said Bonner.

Cal is currently searching for a new location to put his art out.

You can find out more about Cal and see his work on his instagram @vision4rm_calb