JK5

Joseph Ari Aloi, otherwise known as JK5 (an acronym that stands for a lot of things, among them Jedi Knight), is an excitable ball of positive energy prone to speaking in essay form and making up his own words (dubbing our new president Mr. Be Rock Flowbama, for instance).

Raised in White Plains, New York, Aloi has been on a lifelong quest for truth and meaning. Along the way he attended Rhode Island School for Design (class of 1994), worked in tattoo shops up and down the East Coast, made peace with two sets of parents, and filled hundreds of sketchbooks with his intricate doodles, which mix cosmology, astrology, and sexology with blatant references to pop culture, from McDonalds to NASA to Star Wars (with which he is obsessed). The madness of his artistic vision can be seen in his book, Subconsciothesaurusnex (Houston), pieces of which were made into a capsule line of clothing for streetwear brand Mishka in 2008. He’s also designed a line of toys, the Flowbots, with Kid Robot, which are being developed into an animated series by the late Heath Ledger’s production company.

Aloi currently lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn with his wife, Azy. While passing time happily awaiting the birth of their first child in April, Aloi can be found tattooing five days a week at Saved in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; the shop will hold a special art show in mid-March to celebrate baby JK6’s entry into the big wide world.

JK5 website
JK5 Myspace
Saved Tattoo
Mishka JK5collection
Flowbots video