BOOMER

BOOMER — WILLIAM BAKER

William "Boomer" Baker is a Glendale, Arizona native who runs Fifth Finger Studio, the shop whose name comes from the darkest turn in his story. About a decade into his adult life, a gun malfunctioned in his hand and took his left index finger. He assumed it meant the end of drawing, and worried that losing his creative outlet would send him down a worse path. Instead, it pushed him further into art, not away from it — the accident became the push that moved him into art full time instead of pulling him away from it. Phoenix New Times + 2

Boomer's path into tattooing started sideways — he was doing graphic design and selling T-shirts out of a tattoo shop when the owner asked if he'd ever tattooed before. He hadn't, but he learned anyway. That self-taught instinct shaped how he still runs things: roughly 15 years in, with Fifth Finger Studio itself about 10 years old, his career and his shop have grown up together. He's built a name on large-scale black and gray realism and portrait work — big sleeves, and pieces that carry real weight for the people wearing them. Phoenix New Times + 2

Boomer treats the studio less like a shop and more like a gallery space, wanting clients to take pride in the work the way he does. He describes tattooing as something that made him more humble and settled him down — a far cry from who he was before he found it. Every portrait he does carries a story that matters more to him than technical difficulty — trust is the part he doesn't take lightly, since people are handing him someone they love. Off the walk-in floor, he's exactly who his 31K IG followers already know: responsible, happy, and easy to talk to — the kind of chair conversation that makes a long session feel short. Phoenix New Times + 3

Follow him: @boomer_fifth1