What is Mister Cartoon’s net worth?
Mister Cartoon has a net worth of $3 million. He has a real name, but nobody uses it except the courts, says the tattoo and graffiti superstar.
Mister Cartoon started out as a graffiti artist with a passion and a whole lot of skill.
He captured a lot of attention for his classic black and grey style, his intricate detail, and his ability to capture a vibe on any medium—brick, canvas, classic cars, and skin.
As one of the biggest tattoo artists in the world, Mister Cartoon is known for his fine line black and grey style—and charges major player money for the privilege of wearing his art.
Fortunately, his clients can afford it.
Kobe Bryant, Justin Timberlake, Travis Barker, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Eminem all wear Mister Cartoon’s work.
But what do we really know about the graffiti artist, tattoo artist, and guy that actually gets paid to draw all over classic lowriders?
We know he’s expanded his empire to include fashion design, for starters.
But there’s more—so read on.
The Origin Story
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Mister Cartoon—whose real name is Mark Machado—was born in the Harbor area of South Los Angeles, California, in 1969.
He is the only non-Catholic in his family as an adult.
He was always a creative kid, and his parents encouraged that from a young age.
His dad would take him to watch art-house movies at a local cinema, and he was exposed to a lot of different music at home—from disco to psychedelic rock to R&B.
He earned the nickname Mister Cartoon when he was still in high school, because of his animated personality.
He was also incredibly artistic—although Machado admits his parents weren’t really prepared for how he was going to express his artistic side. They were always supportive though.
Following a “four-or five-day mistake” in Tokyo, Mister Cartoon signed himself up for AA—his longest stretch of sobriety has been 13 years.
The Formative Years
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Machado remembers his dad being called to his Catholic school office once over a drawing he’d done.
He saw his dad—“he had his blue Dickies on, and his work shoes”—and he knew if his father had left work for this, he was definitely in trouble.
Instead, his dad complimented his drawing and told him he’d done nothing wrong by expressing himself.
He then told the nuns “don’t bother me with this [expletive] again.”
At 12, Machado scored his first job—working with his dad at a print shop he ran.
Machado did so well that his dad would regularly pull him in to help with logo and menu designs.
This was the only “real job” Machado has ever had.
By the time he was coming up in his teens, it was the 80s.
In South LA in the 80s, the culture was all about lowrider car shows, airbrushing tees, and graffiti.
Machado reminisces about that era and pinpoints it as his first foray into what would become his signature style as an adult.
Seeing what other airbrush artists were doing, Mister Cartoon knew he could do it better—so he practiced.
He’d airbrush his own clothes, iron Old English letters onto hoodies, and sell them to local buddies and at the lowrider shows.
It was this blending of New York style graffiti with classic Chicano style that would make Mister Cartoon so famous.
A Stellar Career
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It wasn’t long until Mister Cartoon caught the attention of the Los Angeles rap scene.
His art style was so popular that he wound up making an album cover for iconic Compton rapper, Eazy-E.
It was through E that he met photographer Estevan Oriol, who would become his long term business partner.
Oriol was managing Cypress Hill’s US tour, and Cartoon was designing their logo—he’d also go on to design the logo for Eminem’s Shady Records.
Cartoon also tattooed Cypress Hill lyricist B-Real.
It didn’t take long for Machado to build a following.
While he didn’t know what networking was, he did know how to make the most of opportunities—and that everyone he met, and every relationship he built, was valuable.
While Machado has tattooed a lot of famous people—from Wu-Tang’s Method Man to pop princess Christina Aguilera, it was Eminem’s tattoo of his daughter, Hailie Jade, that catapulted Cartoon into the stratosphere.
Machado and Oriol built the Joker clothing brand together.
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Mortality
Mister Cartoon, Eva Longoria and Estevan Oriol – @Getty
Mister Cartoon was fully immersed in tattoo art for much of his career so far—but he had an epiphany.
“It’s bizarre when they die,” he said about the tattoos being the only thing his clients could take with them to the grave.
It was this—and the realization that his entire body of work was going to end up dead and buried one day—that prompted him to work with canvas and sheet metal.
This work, according to Machado, has a better chance of survival and a longevity that he only started to crave in the last few years.
In typical irreverent Mister Cartoon fashion, the atheist switched between the practicalities of tattooing people—that all his work will end up eaten by worms—and drawing a link between his canvas art and his final destination.
While painting his own rendition of Hell, he pointed out that that’s where all the cool people wind up.
He also noted that there’s probably a lot of scientists there, “so we got some good AC.”
Wife
In June 2009, Mister Cartoon married his wife, Julie M.
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She’s known as soulsundaes on Instagram.
Net Worth 2024
So, how much is Mister Cartoon worth? Machado earned most of his wealth from working as a tattoo and street artist. Therefore, Mister Cartoon has an estimated net worth of $3 million.
Some of the celebrities Machado has tattooed are Snoop Dogg, Mena Suvari, Eminem, Travis Barker, Kobe Bryant, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Justin Timberlake, and Beyoncé.
In October 2021, Mark partnered with Modelo for an exclusive line of merchandise.
In 2023, Mister Cartoon opened his first solo art exhibit.
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I am Bulgarea Candin Stefan, and I founded FamousPeopleToday.com in 2018. I’m using my bachelor’s degree in economics and 9 years of experience in blogging to guide millions of people through the incredibly complex world of celebrity net worths.