Manifesto
We are born naked, without markings, a blank canvas.
I will leave adorned in symbols, and markings carved in ink.
And in tattooing other, I am allowed to help others gain that control. Tattooing is a powerful act, and in participating it allows people to bond in a way that other methods cannot achieve - Through the pain of tattooing, we grow closer together as tattoo artist and client, but more importantly as individuals and human beings.
I am an ever-changing being, my tattoos are a testament of my change and evolution, an art piece that grows with age, a solid record of my experience, a link to a specific memory. I tattoo as a mean of self-actualisation, as I grow closer and closer towards being the person I want to become. I feel increasingly at home in my body, as more and more tattoos adorn my body.
Tattoos, Pandemic & Time
By that point I’ve already amased a couple of tattoos on my arm, and have gotten fairly intrigued by the art of tattooing, but it wasn’t until school has such down due to the disease and civil unrest, that I started tattoing on my own. My best friend and I, both wanting to do something with our now sanctioned free time, signed up for an online spanish tattoo course as it was on sale. It never occured to me that tattooing, above being an art form, required a rather extensive understanding of skin - human skin that is, and so half the time was spent understanding how deep a needle should go, what the different layers make up our skin and how it holds ink.
My first designs back then were heavily influence by ignorant style tattoos, sketchy, doodle like tattoos, I doodled on my sketchbook, compiling pages of small designs that in retrospect, absolutely lacked any finesse and originality.
It wasn’t till a years later that I finally tattooed someone for the first time, I’ve flown to Los Angeles to stay with a friend and in passing, my friend had mentioned and showed my work to one of his friends -Jacob, big hunky dude, 250 pounds, walked up to me and said he liked my work and I should have a go at him. When a dude 3 times your size asks you to do something, you do it.
Filled with anxierty, I was obviously scared to start or commit to tattooing someone for the first time, by then i’ve only been practicing for a few months, tops - so I decided to do the logical thing, start with tattooing myself. And 2 hours later i’ve somehow, by some miracle, garnered enough courage from tattooing myself, and so I looked at him and said “lets do it”. We set up camp in the garage and I started tattooing. A while later, we’ve bonded via the act of tattooing, we shared a joint, had some beer, while people come and go taking a look at what was going on.
Post graduation, March 2023:
Flash forward to the beginning of 2023, I’ve just finished my senior project, and found myself with an ridiculous amount of free time. It had been 2 years since my last tattoo, but it finally felt like a good time to get back into it. besides, it was a great way to make a bit of cash. What i didn’t expect however, was the amount of people that reached out. I was fortunate enought to tattoo 25 people in the short few months i’ve done this, some of them being my friends, some complete strangers - tattooing allowed me to get to know these strangers, and helped me grow closer to those I already know.