UNDRGRND Issue 7: "Scenes Collide: Part 2"

• Ventura, Calif.

• Published March 31st, 2023

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UNDRGRND Issue 7: "Scenes Collide: Part Two" welcomes the first ever tattoo artist to be featured on UNDRGRND's front cover. Ruben Esparza is a 29-year-old professional tattooist repping Ventura, Calif. as proud as anybody. The Ventura High graduate first began developing his talent for drawing and sketching as a child, a skill that later led to his full-time career in his 20s.

Now in 2023, and Esparza has tattooed a plethora of hip-hop notables, such as Trouble Kidd, LeoohhDaFool, Mind Off, PMF Adrian (RIP), and more. Perhaps most interesting, Esparza credits No Jumper / Soft White Underbelly's own Sharp (of NJ's "The Sharp Tank") with giving him his first real tattoo-break out in Vegas, a city where Esparza now splits his time in with The 805.

Aside from inking, Esparza is actually a talented rapper himself, with the hip-hop culture clearly in his DNA. I first ever met Esparza in a parking lot in Camarillo in mid-2021 due to our mutual relationship with UNDRGRND alumni Kado Khalil (Issue 1) and Knotti (Issue 3) who he knew from growing up. Esparza tells UNDRGRND that in his free time he enjoys fishing, riding his motorcycle, shooting pool, and hanging with his young family.