“Beam me up, Jesus.”
That’s me. On the phone with Alligator Jesus. We had set a day and a time for our interview; now was that day and that time. I just had to get to his studio.
Easier said than done, even under relatively normal conditions. During a pandemic? Impossible. Like everyone else in the whole wild world, we’ve been told to stay home. And like everyone else in the whole wild world, we were doing as told. It hasn’t been easy; this doing what we’re told thing. In fact, it was pretty much a first for both of us. But we figured it was better than the alternative.
Still, there’s work to be done. And no cotton-picking pandemic is gonna stop me from doing it either. If his rather rash answering of the phone was any indication, Alligator Jesus felt the same way -- only more so.
“We’ve actually become much busier since Mayor Garcetti’s lockdown orders went into effect,” says Alligator Jesus. “And we were already mad busy. This though is another kind of crazy. Not just more and more orders, but an onslaught of DMs, emails, phone calls and texts to go with. People wanna know what’s what. It’s terrific! And terrifically challenging.”
I bet. Then again, Alligator Jesus has always been game for a challenge. Even as far back as high school, he was stepping into the fray. Then it was Insane Clown Posse, when a mild-mannered fanboy took it upon himself to create a website for his heroes and wound up hitting the road with the band. Since then it’s been about a billion other crazy cool things -- he co-created a Miami film fest (Borscht), tracked and killed some of the most formidable landmarks in the country (Urban Hunting), teamed with a Miami Booty Bass legend (Otto Von Schirach), and turned the pawn shop recovery of a stolen Takashi Murakami ring into a gallery directorship (Royal-T).
But it’s as Alligator Jesus that the man born David Tamargo is truly making his mark. And that means two things: grillz and bling. The bling sprang first. As far back as college in fact. Where the gifted craftsman created semi-precious one-offs for Miami’s burgeoning Underground. But the company itself wouldn’t become official till Murakami himself encouraged Tamargo to make the move.
That was in ‘13. Coincidentally the very same year he put grillz to some thugged-out barbers from Monrovia and a pair of Highland Park skater chicks. Alligator Jesus has been a thing ever since.
So have the grillz and the bling. Not to mention whomever’s behind them. Yes, it seems a pandemic shopping spree also entails kicking it with the craftsman, albeit from a safe social distance. People not only want to _buy_ Alligator Jesus; they also want to _befriend_ him. Considering most of Alligator Jesus’s fans consist of people who have their own fan base that’s begat some very impressive friendings.
Lately those friendings have included Ghostemane (who’ll be masked with Alligator Jesus on his next album cover), Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong (who’s doubled back for another set of custom grillz), Russian band LITTLE BIG (rings and grillz) and hotshot YouTuber Poppy (custom grillz please). The Alligator Jesus creed also includes such back-of-the-house frontmen as Ouija Macc from Insane Clown Posse’s Psychopathic Records (remember ICP and AJ go way way back) and Ramirez of G59 Records (SuicideBoy$ are also converts).
Of course more success means ever more pressure, pandemic be damned. And with his DTLA factory officially shuttered, AJ’s been forced to operate within some very unique parameters.
“Our Alligator Cave has been quarantined from day one,” says AJ. “But though we ended all public action, we’ve never fully shut down. We can’t. Some machinery actually needs regular maintenance. So we use the few maintenance hours to simultaneously knock out the things that can’t be done from home. Don’t worry though. We’ve actually taken all the social distancing orders to heart. And we’ve found ways to work within the rules.”
The bulk of AJ’s pandemic orders are met at his home studio, where he does his best to make each day echo those pre-pandemic days. “There’s Cuban coffee at sunrise, some meditation, and planning the orders in queue,” he explains. “Then it’s straight into the studio to execute, innovate and experiment. This goes until sundown, seven days a week. I tell you, we’re incredibly grateful to have maintained a back up studio.”
The one big difference is Saturday nights, which are now without his long-running stint at SoftLeather Club. The lack of after dark action has left a huge hole in Alligator Jesus’s social swirl; it’s also made it impossible to provide the brand’s much-heralded hands-on service.
Well, nearly impossible anyway. Being a hotshot creative means finding creative solutions to your problems, and here too Alligator Jesus has found a way to come through.
“We now mail out mold kits with instructions to make your own impressions for custom grillz,” says AJ. And if that doesn’t work, he and his skeleton crew have worked out a way to provide custom grillz via drive-by. Yes, drive-by.
“We’ve actually had LA locals drive up to a pre-arranged location and we take their mold while they wait in the car,” explains AJ. “It only takes 30 seconds. And we’re wearing full protective gear. In fact, we were inspired by seeing how the city handles their Covid-19 drive-thru testing.”
Alligator Jesus was also inspired by the tremendous rallying he found back in ‘08, and, just like then, he’s determined not to let this crisis bring down him or any of his other underground pals.
“In many ways this crisis has actually been an uplifting time for us,” says AJ. “We were hit hard by the economic tailspin of the Great Recession of ‘08. I lost my job at the Wolfsonian-FIU Museum and almost immediately wasn't able to earn a living by being creative. If not for the support of other creatives like Otto Von Schirach, who was making a living from his music, and rest of the underground Miami nightlife, we would be telling a much different story right now.”
Tamargo has kept that memory in mind -- and in heart. “Never being solely dependent on any one employer or company to survive was central to the formation of Alligator Jesus,” he says. “So was maintaining a strong sense of community. Every day begins with acknowledging our gratitude -- both for our ability to make a living doing what we love to do and for being able to be in league with other creatives. We’re truly blessed. And we’ll never forget it.”
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