Career
After attending Indiana University and receiving a Bachelor in Fine Arts, Cliff took on part-time contract work in print and graphic arts for Chicago’s Spiegel retail stores amongst other projects. Cliff gave himself his first tattoo and later received tattoos from the legendary Philosophy Sparrow and soon found himself immersed in the tattoo subculture. After some part time work as a tattoo artist in an arcade Cliff went on to open the Cliff Raven Tattoo Studio which is now known as Chicago Tattoo and Piercing Company.
Cliff also founded Chicago Tattoo Supply and ran it out of his shop.
To this day Chicago Tattoo and Piercing Company is the oldest continuously running Tattoo Studio in Chicago and has some of Cliff’s original flash still hanging on the walls. Cliff subsequently swapped his interest in the Chicago operations for a full ownership of the West coast operations.
While in Hollywood, Cliff had various Hollywood clientele, and he tattooed iconic celebrities such as Cher, Ringo Starr and many others The Cliff Raven Studio was one of only six studios featured in the 1982 publication The Rock Star Tattoo Encyclopedia, by Patricia Steur, who stated, "In other words - this is one of THE places throughout the world where it"s worth going to get a tattoo."
Throughout his career, Cliff mentored other prominent tattoo artists such as Pat Fish, Larry "Bone$" Haddick, Robert Benedetti, Robert"Mad Dog" Roberts and Greg James, amongst others
Cliff was unusual in that he was an openly gay man in a profession that, at the time, was strongly homophobic.
In 1985, Cliff semi-retired from tattooing and moved to 29 Palms, California. There he wrote editorial cartoons for the Hi-Desert Star and ran a used/rare bookstore, Raven"s Books, until his death in 2001. While retired, he infrequently continued to tattoo a select group of long-term clients who sought him out although he was largely withdrawn from the world of tattooing.
His legacy lives on at The Chicago Tattoo Company, 1017 West
Belmont Avenue in Chicago, one block west of the original location.