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I've always liked the street stuff.
And since I was a boy, since I can remember I liked to draw.
With the skates I start to hear to some kind of music.
I started watching certain movies about gangs.
The Warriors, Blood In Blood Out or Santana, American Me.
So I saw tattoos in all of that.
It was like: it's so cool!
I'm an artist and a tattoo artist. I'm from Monterrey.
I've been tattooing for about 12 years.
WHAT ABOUT YOU. With Lucio Ramírez.
At home it was very difficult when I started tattooing.
The first time my dad saw me tattooing
I did it in a clandestine way in my room.
It was when I wasn't living there anymore.
And I can't remember why the *** we ended up in my parents
and I tattooed at my place and my dad arrived that time.
And more than anger, I think he was disappointed.
It hurts a lot. But I also understand him.
The second time it was hard as well and it was at an expo.
I opened a gallery many years ago.
And it was there when the click happened
and he understood that I really liked it.
And at the moment when they were going to enter,
my dad spoke some words.
And I remember that a lot he said that sometimes
the kids didn't do what the parents wanted.
But that finally it was the kid's life,
and that they had the responsibility
to support their kids.
And that as such, he was supporting me.
I started to cry, really happy.
Now my dad and my mom introduce me even with pride.
The tattoo history here in Monterrey is very complicated.
There was only one ink for tattooing.
And it's the one that arrived here and it was horrible.
I don't remember the name, it was Dragon something.
If it wasn't that it was Indian ink from the stationer's shop.
It was very rustic material.
I'm talking about a small RC car's motor or a Walkman's
tied to the base of a spoon and with a pencil holder.
It's a made-up machine. I started working with that.
And with bead needles.
And the tattoo, I started making it as designs for my friends.
Until my friends started telling me:
Hey I want a design but I want you to tattoo me.
So it was a terror for me. How am I going to tattoo you?
I don't know how.
Until a friend of mine was insisting and insisting.
I had no machine.
Fortunately the tattoo turned out ok. Better than the one he had.
So he promoted me.
"This guy is tattooing." It was a lie.
I only told him I would only make that tattoo for him.
I started seeing magazines.
And to get more and more information.
Of something that I always liked, and that I never dared to do.
And I was still working in other things.
I did signs, I did paintings by order.
I was like that all day.
I had my day scheduled hour after hour.
I started tattooing, I started learning, so you don't charge.
So what people started to do was:
well I bought you these magazines.
Oh cool! For me it was more than payment.
That's awesome, thank you.
When I started to work on a studio
I learn from ethics to techniques,
and I have to leave my other jobs.
I wake up and I'm thinking what I'm going to tattoo
on what I would like to tattoo.
I go to the internet and I look at tattoos, designs.
You can see a lot of books.
I have more books there and more books at home.
My style, would be like a mixture between the little
that I know of painting, a little of art, a little of tattooing.
I like doing everything.
To put some realism, some new school,
a firmness or visual impact like the Japanese tattoo.
I like the engraving, art, alebrijes, stained glass,
muralism from here I like a lot.
I love cartoons and I moved from tattooing
to something else but those are my influences.
I worked in Ritual for many years
and I began to travel, to go to expos.
Something I haven't done before.
To travel as much as I could.
And I reached a point where I was invited to a study in Spain,
and they invite me to work there for a while.
The owner of the studio is Fernando Pons.
He has a tattoo museum.
And I was so happy. It's what I always wanted.
See old machines, old books, magazines,
original laminates from the originators of tattoos.
I was happy to go. *** yeah!
For me it represented a great effort.
Because it was an effort
of leaving my family for three months
and to gather money, and leave and see how it goes.
Because it's not the same to be in Mérida than to be in Spain.
I'm moving forward, more each time.
Awesome! I know a lot of things. I learned techniques,
I met excellent tattoo artists, tattoo masters.
I give a lot of flavor to tattooing.
Now I take it to a 100%. So I have more time to paint, to draw.
This is what I want. You learn a lot of things.
I arrived to Mexico.
I wanted to work at my own pace. Work only with my clients.
Dedicate more time to each tattoo.
To demand more things from me.
And I arrived and I started with my own studio.
"Tintas de Acero". The idea is that it is a private studio.
I only want to work with people of trust,
with people that want good pieces,
who demand things from me, so that I can grow.
Me working alone, earn my money and not depend from anyone.
The cool thing about tattoo it's that it's a living canvas.
That the people say:
I exhibited somewhere and I had an expo there.
I have expos all around the world!
Finally, we're social beings. We're everywhere.
The most comforting is to do what I like to do.
I think all people should fight for that.
Fight for what they like to do.
Even if it's super hard like I consider it has been for me.
To feel that I provide for my family.
My family is the most important, it's my engine.
My engine, and the gas is tattooing, the art.
My biggest satisfaction with tattoo is
to see the trust people have in me.
To know that sometimes a guy is calling from the other side
of Mexico, and that they're asking
for a job of mine, that they're not
asking for a previously made design.
That they're asking for me to make the design.
They know or feel that I'm going to make a great work.
And that's how I'm going to try it.
Maybe it won't be an excellent job.
Because probably my capacity in 30 years will be better.
I hope so.
I always defend the fact that the tattoo is linked with the art
and it has a lot to do with the identity of the person.
To show the people you are yourself.
It can be the simplest thing or the most absurd one.
But you see it and know it's part of you.
For me it's super cool because is using a different support,
with a different function.
The skin is not made for tattoos. The skin is another organ.
And give it another function… Awesome!
It's almost magic.
This has to do with sensitizing. It has to be made with love.
Obviously you earn money.
And if you can live of what you love,
you just don't have to work.