Luxe Life Blog
Exclusive: Chester Bennington opens Club Tattoo at Planet Hollywood
Club Tattoo co-owners Chester Bennington and Thora Dowdell.
Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/www.erikkabikphoto.com
The salesman behind the counter showing body jewelry and the new line of fashions looks vaguely familiar. The man with the paintbrush and the laborer on his knees laying tile trigger more recognition. Yes, in fact, the guy with three job titles at the new Club Tattoo in Planet Hollywood’s Miracle Mile is none other than rock star Chester Bennington of Linkin Park!
He is not shy as an investor owner in pitching in to help out and do whatever duty calls. Rock group frontman Chester is partnered with Thora and Sean Dowdell in the lifestyle boutique, which is their fifth store. They opened the first one in Phoenix 14 years ago and expanded with three more in Arizona. The Las Vegas outpost, the most ambitious to date, has just been unveiled, and they plan to keep on going.
During construction of all the stores, and Vegas was no exception, Chester was on his hands and knees helping lay tile, and he happily helped paint walls. The very first day it opened, he was behind the counter selling merchandise as fast as he could!
I talked with the trio as our contributing photographer Erik Kabik shot this exclusive photo gallery for Vegas DeLuxe. Here’s our exclusive conversation:
Chester Bennington: Sean and Thora are the main people who run the shop and deal with all the dirty work. I get to hang out and look cool all day long. I’ve been promoted to VP in charge of sales!
Thora Dowdell: I caught him selling jewelry to some hottie in our store yesterday, so he works, as well.
CB: It is always funny because I come in and I automatically switch gears and go into Club Tattoo mode. I greet customers and try to get them to make the right decisions. I ask if I can help them find a size.
TD: I have actually taken photos of Chester offering a customer a bottle of water, and that truly is what makes Club Tattoo so special. He has been with us in the trenches. This morning and yesterday, he has been in the store, he feels our pain, he knows things operationally, things that are going on; he comes in and is passionate about it. Club Tattoo is not just a tattoo studio: It is a lifestyle. Because of the fashion, we embrace every walk of life. There is something for everyone at Club Tattoo. There was a gentleman yesterday who didn’t recognize who Chester was, and he became the salesman again. That shows that Club Tattoo is very well rounded and shows that is a part of this lifestyle.
Robin Leach: How did you all get hooked up? How did you decide what products and merchandise should go in the store?
Club Tattoo owners Thora and Steve Dowdell and Chester Bennington.
CB: Sean and I met when I was just getting into high school, and he was pretty close to getting out of high school. We started a band Grey Daze based out of Phoenix. We were in a band for probably six years during that time. We did well for ourselves. There was a really great club that we would play at all the time, and Sean decided he wanted to open the first Club Tattoo right next to it. That was the first one 14 years ago. Sean was solo at that time, and I was working at Burger King and riding my skateboard back then. But I laid the tile and did the painting, and that’s how it all started.
RL: Why did you wait so long to come to the No. 1 city in the world for tattoos?
CB: It’s a good question. We wanted to take things one step at a time. When you start up a business, you start shooting from the hip, you have to go through the trial and error in terms of the kinds of artists working for you, working out all of the kinks. They did a good job with the first location, and it became very successful, so they opened a second location. They asked me to be a partner in it, and I turned them down. I still kick myself in the ass now and then for that one.
But I joined as a partner for the third, fourth and now the fifth. It was five, six years ago we opened store No. 3 and about three years ago opened store No. 4. The plan when we started talking about opening the third store in Mesa, we had our sights on Las Vegas. We knew that we wanted to take our shops and make them internationally known and an incredible chain. We know that the world is a big place, so instead of putting stores up all over the world, why not just put a store in the place where everybody comes from all over the world.
Chester Bennington models a Vecel T-shirt sold at Club Tattoo.
TD: It took us three years to arrive in the Vegas market. We originally were trying to work something out with the Hard Rock, but we didn’t find our calling there. We signed a lease with the Cosmopolitan … we laugh about it now because they still haven’t opened … as we were working through that, we found the Miracle Mile was a better brand for us. Great amounts of traffic, and the patronage here is a good indication of who our clients are. We decided to come over and seize the opportunity here at Miracle Mile. It took us a year to build the store to the day, and it is fabulous. We have a beautiful store. We have talented artists working for us. We currently offer five tattoo stations and one private piercing room in our 3,500-square-foot store.
RL: Why is there such a popularity with tattoos, and since this city has one on every corner, do we have too many of them? Is there such a demand?
TD: There is not a tattoo studio or store in the United States that compares to Club Tattoo. We are a retail fashion boutique, as well as doing tattoos and piercings. We also have the largest collection of body jewelry ever. Nothing compares to our store. Las Vegas has 180 shops, but they are typical smoke shops that add in some tattooing.
Sean Dowdell: Why would they keep building casinos here? Because if the next one is better, it becomes the next hottest property. That is what we did. We did the hottest tattoo studio in the world. We did it in a hot property, and we did it as well as we could, so it won’t be touched for a long time. We have also been doing it for the last 14 years in Arizona, starting off with a modest shop that has grown into the premiere tattoo, body piercing and clothing store in our genre anywhere in the world. We really enjoy competition, but we pride ourselves on setting the bar for everybody else to try and follow.
Chester Bennington goes shirtless to show off his tats.
RL: When it comes to body jewelry, what is the most expensive and the least expensive?
TD: One of the most expensive pieces is a 14K gold diamond naval gem, which you can pretty much find on three out of five females in any given city. We have some handmade mother of pearl for ears that are ornate and organic. There are horns and cow bone and mother of pearl, things of that nature. The gold is the most expensive; we use real diamonds. They can run anywhere from $3,000 to $7,000 depending on what you have in it.
RL: People are spending that kind of money today on body jewelry?
SD: Surprisingly, there are many different kinds of people from many different financial backgrounds who not only get tattooed, but get pierced. The same woman who would walk into a jewelry store and spend $7,000 on a ring, if she has her bellybutton pierced, why would she not spend the same amount on quality to go there, as well?
RL: Has that become a modern-day engagement ring?
Club Tattoo in Planet Hollywood.
TD: No. The tattooing, however, on the ring fingers is a popular memento to that. As far as tattooing in these economic times, people prioritize tattooing a little different than they do other things in their lives. It is a permanent fixture, and your average tattoo is $300 to $800 to $1,000. Committing to that $800 tattoo is a little different than maybe having an $800 night on the town and eating and drinking. Prioritizing when someone is getting a permanent adornment to their body, they obviously know when they walk into Club Tattoo what they are paying for. We have price lines that cater to all different walks of life. We have people come in and want their ears pierced, too, or they’ll just buy $38 T-shirts or spend as much as $1,000 on a jacket. We have jewelers who make some really great jewelry that you can’t find anywhere else.
It is one of a kind. We have one designer who makes all of her jewelry by hand. The jacket that Chester is wearing today and our handbags, they are all one of a kind made especially for our store.
RL: Has Vegas become more rock over the past couple of years? I know you are going to say, “Come on, The Joint has been there for ages,” and “The Pearl at the Palms.” But are we suddenly getting more rock in Vegas than ever before?
CB: I think that when your choices have been for a band like Linkin Park, for example, The Joint was a great place to play. The Pearl is much bigger, but when you start playing arenas, there aren’t many choices here. There is the MGM, which is a huge pain, Thomas and Mack, and no one goes there anymore, so bands when given the choice to play Vegas or Phoenix, we would play Phoenix. I think that is the reason why a lot of these places have kicked up the ante in the places they are building. There are going to be some pretty amazing spots that can cater to 5,000 to 8,000 people, and Hard Rock is building an amazing room right now. There will be more options for bands to play in. I think that is something that has really shifted in a positive direction. Vegas, for locals, there are only so many times you will go see Cirque du Soleil, or do anything at all that is Vegas-esque. To drive more locals into the venues, they will have to do that.
Club Tattoo in Planet Hollywood.
RL: Is Linkin Park still out there on the road?
CB: We stopped touring as of last year, as we have been working on a new record. We are well ahead of the game in terms of preparation for the next album. I just finished a solo record. I have a band called Dead by Sunrise. We just finished the record, and we are looking at late summer, early fall for that.
RL: Is this Chester’s first visit to the Vegas Club Tattoo?
TD: Yes, his first visit to the finished store, but he was here through the building stages. We all got together and hired a great designer and architect to build the store. We chose all the merchandise together. I do the buying for the store. Chester and I are very much into fashion, and we are on the same page with what we like to represent Club Tattoo. We do intend on having a grand opening gala sometime in the summer after some of these other venues have had their time to launch. We don’t want to have a pool party when other things may interfere in this market. So sometime this summer, we will have a celebration that represents Club Tattoo. Every year we have an annual party for Club Tattoo.
SD: We have bands, professional skaters come out. We take over a bar and a parking lot. Our regular customers come out and get drunk and listen to good music. We intend to bring the parties to Vegas once we work out everything we need to work out.
Club Tattoo owners Thora and Steve Dowdell and Chester Bennington.
RL: Chester, do you have any tattoos? Where’s the most intimate one?
CB: I have many, many tattoos. I don’t have them anywhere it would be unspeakable. My back is covered, I am working on sleeves, I have some great tattoos on my legs. Our goal the entire time we have been in business is to lift the stigma that tattoos and body piercing had in the past. We did that by having a sketch artist work for us and the world’s best body piercer work for us. I think the fact that technique and the ink, the different types of needles we have today that weren’t available 30 years ago, really open up our artists to truly do works of art and masterpieces on people’s bodies. For a long time, it was uncool to have a tattoo.
I think more people are opening their minds to a tattoo, as well as I think there is a right of passage you go through when you get pierced or tattooed. It is painful, so there is dedication and commitment, and I think people are looking for something they can hold on to and commit to even if it hurts a little bit. I think the reality is that tattoos have become better; there are better artists. You can get a replica of the Mona Lisa on your back that is going to look exactly like the real thing. The possibilities are endless, and the interaction between the artist and client is special. We try to do all of this better than anyone else. We hope to turn tattooing into a popular, more acceptable form of art.
TD: The art of tattooing and body adornment is thousands and thousand of years old if you go back to early Egyptian times. I think it is artwork you can take with you your entire life and to the grave. In the 1800s, when you had a portrait commissioned for you, that is the way they immortalized art. In today’s world, you can get a portrait of that grandmother, or child, you can take that art with you. It is not going to get pawned or end up in a garage sale. It is art that you can take with you and wear proudly.
I am a woman running an empire. I can walk into a room and I feel beautiful and decorated even if I am in my sweats with no makeup. For me it is no different than doing my hair and makeup. I am adorned all the time. It makes me feel like I have a place to show that beauty and intelligence can walk together, and it doesn’t have to be abrasive or biker-ish.
CB: She has some of the most beautiful artwork I have seen anywhere.
RL: Then it’s time for you all to roll up your sleeves and take off your shirts for the camera!
Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.
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