The Man Behind The Ink

Mathew Clavijo, better known as ‘Ink’, has been making waves in the LA scene since

2024 with his brand Subcutaneous Ink . The brand is one part hosting shows, and one part

screen printing. Many know the name, but who is the accidental mascot?

Mathew began his journey when he was a kid. With money tight at home, he

started washing windows and selling drawings at school to help support his

family. Before Subcutaneous and too young to go to shows, a 14-year-old Matthew created

patches and shirts on his bedroom floor since he was unable to go buy them himself.

 “I had no ventilation. My lungs were having horrible effects from the chemicals,” said Clavijo. 

That didn't stop Matthew and only pushed him further to develop his setup and his craft. Inks

introduction to the scene wouldn't be until he started Subcutaneous, and by then he already had experience in screen printing, the next was shows.

The name “Ink” came from the band ‘Your Fragile Hands’ (which happens to be

Matthews favorite band of all time). Matthew dropped off an order of patches to the

band, to which they affectionately yelled “INK!” when they saw him. The name stuck.

After learning tips and tricks of the craft from ‘Juice’, ‘Lagrimas’, and Abe Garcia

from ‘Adex studios’, Matthew took what he learned and brought it home to

create his own DIY backyard studio which would become subcutaneous. While Juice &

Abe were “big helps” to Matthew, he wouldn’t quite describe them as his mentors. 

“My biggest mentor was failure.” said Mathew.

 Even if there was a minor imperfection that only he would notice in the product, Matthew used that as a way to improve each and every time. This same mentality is also used for the shows that he puts on, using each show as a way to learn, and improve people's experience attending.

"Criticism is our best friend,” said Mathew.

 An example being “Inkfest”, the first big subcutaneous show, that started for Matthews birthday. “We learned a lot from that show, especially large scale shows”. 

The first Inkfest was hosted in a friend's backyard that couldn't house the amount of people that

showed up, which resulted in the show getting shut down. From this, Subcutaneous

moved to hosting shows strictly at venues, most frequently being ‘The Bad Dog

Compound’, a DIY venue that simultaneously houses stray dogs and cats that are looking for a new home.

 “It was scary coming into a venue not knowing if we could pay for it”, 

but they figured it out through trial and error, and now Subcutaneous has a residency at “The

Bad Dog”, and even an apartment there to store equipment and handle all affairs.

Through all the ups and downs, subcutaneous has managed to turn into a brand that

works around the clock, with a screen printing business, regular shows, and over 20k

followers on Instagram. It's safe to say they are a powerhouse in the LA scene.

Its hard to believe that with all that Matthew has accomplished, and the work that

he puts in that he’s not even 18 at the time of our interview in August of 2026. Life

hasn't fully begun for him, yet he already has big plans and goals for the future. 

“I want to scale it as big as possible”. 

To name a few, Matthew looks to book the Hollywood Palladium (4,000 capacity), book mainstream artists, and most notably, host a DIY festival that is akin to Coachella, growing inkfest into that vision. These aspired goals come with wisdom from Matthew, “If you can dream it, you can see it. If you can see it, you can do it”.