Clayton James was born in Sonoma County, California in 1981. Growing up on California’s northern coast gave him an appreciation of the outdoors and good food at a young age. When Clayton was in eighth grade his English teacher told him an inspirational quote “If you can find something that you truly love to do, that you can earn a loving at, you’ll never work a day in your life”.
Upon testing out of high school shortly after turning sixteen he worked a handful of jobs in construction and coffee shops still pondering that quote he couldn’t seem to get out of his head. When Clayton turned eighteen he was working at a coffee shop and that’s when he started getting tattooed regularly. Surviving on pastries from the coffee shop and one taco bell value meal a day, he saved all his money for the next tattoo.
Around this time Clayton developed insomnia and found that drawing was one of the few things that held his attention. Shortly before turning nineteen he found a shop willing to get him tattoo equipment and the butchery began. After a handful of disasters in friends he was given the opportunity to be involved with a shop in San Francisco. Working in San Francisco was an eye opening experience in more ways than one.
It was during this time that Clayton James began working with Khaljan. Being in San Francisco working with Khal helped Clayton begin to have a deeper understanding of what it means to be a tattooer.
The shop in San Francisco shut down after a year due to mismanagement. After bouncing around doing guest spots in Los Angeles and Santa Cruz he then decided to take a job in Santa Rosa to work with Khal again.
A year later Clayton left Santa Rosa and him and Khal began the journey of looking for a spot to open a shop. They soon found a place in Petaluma which they named the Electric Oni, where Clayton has been tattooing ever since.
These days when he is not at the Oni Clayton can be found painting, building tattoo machines or on the road in places like Santa Maria, California, Fairbanks, Alaska and Dallas, Texas.
