WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.520 --> 00:00:04.840 The body is, I would argue, like a contested political territory, 2 00:00:04.880 --> 00:00:08.000 and people experience that differently, whether it's because of their gender, 3 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:12.719 their race, their disability. And so getting a tattoo for 4 00:00:12.840 --> 00:00:17.040 somebody who's experiencing discrimination because of their body throughout their 5 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:19.840 daily life is going to mean something really different to 6 00:00:19.880 --> 00:00:23.240 them than for somebody who's not experiencing that daily discrimination 7 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:27.080 or that daily oppression. And I think that there's a 8 00:00:27.080 --> 00:00:31.080 really incredible power to interrupt those experiences, you know. I 9 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:33.479 think the touching can be a real intervention in that sense. 10 00:00:37.760 --> 00:00:41.920 From Futuro Media, It's Latino, USA. I'm Maria in Posa today, 11 00:00:42.040 --> 00:00:47.640 imagining the possibilities of body art with tattoo artist Tamera Santivnis. 12 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:04.399 On a street corner in New York City, there's a 13 00:01:04.440 --> 00:01:09.160 glass door with an orange flower painted on it. It looks 14 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:14.840 like a sunflower. It's open, it's bright and inviting. 15 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:17.440 HI. 16 00:01:18.240 --> 00:01:22.280 This is Flower World, a tattoo studio in Brooklyn's East 17 00:01:22.280 --> 00:01:23.759 Williamsburg neighborhood. 18 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:26.800 It has beautiful windows. It's on a corner, so we 19 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:28.959 get a lot of natural light, which is really special, 20 00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:30.480 and we have tons of plants. 21 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:36.360 And this is Tamera Santi vagnis a Mexican American tattoo artist, writer, 22 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:40.119 and oral historian. They're one of the artists who work 23 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:40.880 in this studio. 24 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:44.440 Well, I started working here in the summer of twenty 25 00:01:44.520 --> 00:01:47.840 twenty because the shop that I was at closed because 26 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:51.480 of the pandemic. I was like, is it so delusional 27 00:01:51.520 --> 00:01:52.800 to think that we can do this safely? 28 00:01:53.600 --> 00:01:57.720 Tamra went four months without touching needle and ink to skin. 29 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:01.160 That was a first in their teen year long career, 30 00:02:01.240 --> 00:02:04.919 but giving up tattooing entirely was never in the cards. 31 00:02:05.080 --> 00:02:07.200 It's like riding a bicycle. I started doing it again, 32 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:08.359 and it all comes back to. 33 00:02:11.200 --> 00:02:15.359 They've been tattooing since their early twenties. Their designs are 34 00:02:15.440 --> 00:02:19.520 typically in black and gray, often featuring images that draw 35 00:02:19.600 --> 00:02:23.840 from their cultural heritage and from the counter cultural punk 36 00:02:23.880 --> 00:02:28.280 scenes that they embraced in the early two thousands. Tamera 37 00:02:28.720 --> 00:02:38.320 is covered in tattoos they've collected over the years, delicate scriptwork, flowers, crosses, daggers, hearts, skulls. 38 00:02:39.040 --> 00:02:41.839 Some pieces were done by friends and colleagues, and many 39 00:02:41.880 --> 00:02:44.120 others were done by themselves. 40 00:02:44.320 --> 00:02:47.000 I had, you know, like many funks been doing a 41 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:51.120 lot of homemade tattooing and sort of self teaching in 42 00:02:51.160 --> 00:02:53.440 some ways, and a lot of it is just practicing 43 00:02:53.760 --> 00:02:56.320 on skin. A lot of that is practicing on yourself. 44 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:02.240 And like all permanent body art, tattoos grew and evolved 45 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:08.280 with life. The idea of the body as a living 46 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:11.239 archive is central to Tamra's work. 47 00:03:11.800 --> 00:03:14.960 Tattooing is so layered and tattooing is so complex, and 48 00:03:15.320 --> 00:03:19.440 the work that I'm most excited about is really examining 49 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:23.679 how different bodies are differently inscribed with meaning and how 50 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:29.280 we can meet that and shift that empower ourselves. 51 00:03:30.160 --> 00:03:33.919 In their recent book Could This Be Magic Tattooing as 52 00:03:34.040 --> 00:03:38.440 Liberation Work, Tamera explores how tattooing can be a tool 53 00:03:38.520 --> 00:03:42.400 to document cultural histories and help clients heal from trauma. 54 00:03:42.880 --> 00:03:46.520 Their current work focuses on the legacy of tattooing within 55 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:51.360 the prison system. To walk us through the art of 56 00:03:51.440 --> 00:03:55.760 tattooing and all the potential it holds, Tamera is going 57 00:03:55.800 --> 00:03:56.600 to take it from here. 58 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:07.720 I've always been interested in bodily adournment and in outward 59 00:04:07.720 --> 00:04:10.640 expression of identity, and so when I first moved to 60 00:04:10.720 --> 00:04:12.280 New York, it was because I wanted to go to 61 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:15.120 school for Fashion design. I was really interested in clothing 62 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:17.839 and communicating through clothing, and I thought that that's what 63 00:04:17.880 --> 00:04:20.800 I wanted to do. But when I got here, it 64 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:23.640 became pretty clear that I wasn't interested in design, or 65 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:28.080 in manufacturing or in clothing trends that sort of cycle 66 00:04:28.080 --> 00:04:30.880 of production. I was more interested in craft and things 67 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:34.400 that were handmade and in things that were more process based, 68 00:04:36.400 --> 00:04:38.719 and so I ended up graduating from art school with 69 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:43.640 a degree in printmaking. Printmaking has a really rich history. 70 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:45.960 It's a really special craft that I still have a 71 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.080 lot of affinity for. It's so handmade and you really 72 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:53.800 can't replicate the quality of it. It's so material, and 73 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:57.760 I think that that really prepared me for tattooing, because 74 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:01.800 to me, there's lots of similarity is in the movements 75 00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:04.520 of the hand and the physicality of how you carve 76 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:06.720 a piece of wood, for example, if you're going to 77 00:05:06.760 --> 00:05:09.919 be making a print from it, and how you apply 78 00:05:09.960 --> 00:05:13.600 a tattoo. You know, they're obviously varied in different mediums. 79 00:05:13.640 --> 00:05:15.239 A piece of wood is very different from the skin, 80 00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:20.240 but there is a lot that feels relevant between the two. 81 00:05:20.440 --> 00:05:23.200 And so when I was in school for printmaking, I 82 00:05:23.320 --> 00:05:26.200 was sort of revisiting the idea of tattooing. I had 83 00:05:26.200 --> 00:05:28.040 always been drawn to it, and I had always had 84 00:05:28.080 --> 00:05:30.800 friends that were in the tattoo world, whether that was 85 00:05:30.880 --> 00:05:33.360 working at a shop as an assistant, or apprenticing to 86 00:05:33.440 --> 00:05:38.320 tattoo or getting tattooed. When I was young too, my 87 00:05:38.400 --> 00:05:41.039 friends were all older and they would sometimes ask me 88 00:05:41.080 --> 00:05:42.960 to draw designs for them that they would go and 89 00:05:42.960 --> 00:05:44.720 then get tattooed, and I would always be like, let 90 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:47.720 me come. I want to see the process. I was 91 00:05:47.760 --> 00:05:50.479 always really intrigued by it and enamored by it and 92 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:53.040 really felt like, oh, I want to learn how to 93 00:05:53.080 --> 00:05:56.839 do this. It just seems really magical. I can't quite 94 00:05:56.920 --> 00:06:07.320 understand how it's being done, but I want to know. Yeah, 95 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:10.600 so this is my station. It's funny to say this. 96 00:06:10.760 --> 00:06:13.120 I guess I'm almost a little old school and some 97 00:06:13.160 --> 00:06:17.000 of my techniques now, I've been tattooing for I think 98 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:20.559 over thirteen years at this point, which I can't believe 99 00:06:20.600 --> 00:06:23.320 that it's been that long. But I still use mostly 100 00:06:23.440 --> 00:06:25.880 coil machines to tattoo, which is kind of what you're 101 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:28.800 hearing now. A lot of people now are using rotary machines. 102 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:32.200 Which are a lot quieter. They all can do different things. 103 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:35.720 It really comes down to tattoo artists preference. Every time 104 00:06:35.720 --> 00:06:38.039 I do a tattoo, I set up my station. I 105 00:06:38.080 --> 00:06:40.880 have this metal trade that can be sterilized between clients 106 00:06:40.960 --> 00:06:43.880 between uses. Basically, the way the process works is that 107 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:46.760 you shave the area that's going to be tattooed, and 108 00:06:46.960 --> 00:06:50.240 you give it a good wife with rubbing alcohol, and 109 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:52.640 then you can apply your stencil. It will almost look 110 00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:56.360 like a temporary tattoo, right like just the outlines. I 111 00:06:56.520 --> 00:06:58.400 like to help people try the extensile on in different 112 00:06:58.440 --> 00:07:00.800 places or on different positions in the body so that 113 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:02.960 they can check it out and see for themselves, having 114 00:07:02.960 --> 00:07:05.000 them look in the mirror, kind of moving their body 115 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:07.720 around to see how the sensil changes, so usually what 116 00:07:07.800 --> 00:07:10.040 people's sencil is running. Then I'll set up my machines. 117 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:12.320 Then I pour out my inks that I'm going to 118 00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:14.880 be using and make sure that I get them in 119 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:17.800 a comfortable position, whether that's with an armrest or on 120 00:07:17.880 --> 00:07:24.640 a massage table, and then we start tattooing. As I 121 00:07:24.680 --> 00:07:27.160 got older, and especially as I started getting more into 122 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:30.880 music and punk and sort of alternative cultures, tattoos were 123 00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:34.160 a big part of that, especially for people who wanted 124 00:07:34.200 --> 00:07:37.320 to be countercultural. And I'm old enough that this was 125 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:42.280 before tattooing really entered the mainstream on tattoo television. Reality television, 126 00:07:42.320 --> 00:07:46.080 I think made that culturally so much more known and understood. 127 00:07:46.200 --> 00:07:51.040 Behind every tragic tattoo, there's always a ridiculous story. 128 00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:54.440 I built myself from the projects to be seas of 129 00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:55.320 black ink. 130 00:07:55.760 --> 00:08:00.920 Of I think master artists prepare for it. But this 131 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:05.360 was before then, and so people who had tattoos really 132 00:08:05.400 --> 00:08:08.840 were a lot more outsiders. I think at that time 133 00:08:08.880 --> 00:08:11.400 it wasn't as accepted as a form of expression of 134 00:08:11.400 --> 00:08:16.480 self expression. I was seeing a lot of people, especially 135 00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:20.800 people playing in bands, musicians, in my mind they have 136 00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:24.800 so many tattoos. I think they didn't really. I think 137 00:08:24.840 --> 00:08:26.880 it was just that they had tattoos, and that memory 138 00:08:26.920 --> 00:08:34.240 is so burned into my brain. My dad had a tattoo, 139 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:37.240 and I think he regretted it. I don't think he 140 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:38.520 liked it very much, and I think it was a 141 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:40.839 relic from his younger days. But that was definitely the 142 00:08:40.840 --> 00:08:43.400 first one that I remember seeing was this very blurry 143 00:08:43.480 --> 00:08:46.920 music note tattoo that my dad had and I don't 144 00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:52.839 think that anyone of my mom's generation has tattoos. And 145 00:08:53.720 --> 00:08:56.000 I remember my older cousin got a tattoo, and she 146 00:08:56.120 --> 00:08:57.400 was the first one, and it was kind of a 147 00:08:57.440 --> 00:08:59.320 big deal. We didn't really talk about it, but I 148 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:04.079 remember it being a thing. I was seventeen when I 149 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:08.079 got my first. The first tattoo that I got was 150 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:10.800 a tattoo on the inside of my lip. I guess 151 00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:13.920 this was early two thousands. I always feel like I'm 152 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:16.000 dating myself when I described that, because it was so 153 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:20.120 of that era. I think that really had a moment, 154 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:22.040 especially because they're so easy to hide. I thought I 155 00:09:22.120 --> 00:09:24.640 was being so slick, and you know, I wasn't going 156 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:29.560 to get found out. I remember when I confessed to 157 00:09:29.559 --> 00:09:33.240 my mom that I'd gotten my first tattoo. She didn't 158 00:09:33.280 --> 00:09:35.280 react as strongly as I think that she might have, 159 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:38.080 and I think partially it was because you know, I 160 00:09:38.120 --> 00:09:41.480 was already having punk haircuts and piercings and things like that. 161 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:43.960 I think that used her way into it. You know, 162 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:47.720 it wasn't as much of a surprise. I think at 163 00:09:47.800 --> 00:09:52.600 that time. My mom's concern, like most people of that era, 164 00:09:52.800 --> 00:09:54.280 was just like, how will you get a job with 165 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:58.160 a tattoo, and that's changed so much since then, and 166 00:09:58.160 --> 00:10:01.640 I think it changed pretty drastically. Not long after that, 167 00:10:02.360 --> 00:10:03.720 I knew from a young age that I wanted to 168 00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:05.880 go into a creative career field, and so I wasn't 169 00:10:05.920 --> 00:10:08.920 so concerned about how it would affect my job prospects. 170 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:12.760 But I think it helps a lot that I do 171 00:10:12.880 --> 00:10:15.400 tattoos as my job, and so having tattoos is also 172 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:19.360 a part of the job. So I've been doing most 173 00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:22.720 of my drawing on iPad. It doesn't have the same 174 00:10:22.760 --> 00:10:26.040 satisfying feeling as drawing on tracing paper, and so I'm 175 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:28.880 hoping to make some time to just do that coming 176 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:32.400 up soon. But I always print out my designs and 177 00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:34.520 have them in a physical book so people can flip 178 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:36.839 through it, because I think that that's a really satisfying 179 00:10:36.920 --> 00:10:43.160 experience to hold something in your hands. So this one 180 00:10:44.040 --> 00:10:46.319 has these sort of plastic fleeves so that I can 181 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:56.000 pull things out and holding up in the mirror, replace them. 182 00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:59.040 On each page, there's maybe two or three designs, so 183 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:01.160 as I'm drawing new I'll print them out, put them 184 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:04.840 out and put them in this little booklet. So I'm 185 00:11:04.880 --> 00:11:07.559 trying to always slap them out. I do repeat designs 186 00:11:07.640 --> 00:11:09.640 just because I think it's nice to always do them 187 00:11:09.640 --> 00:11:13.760 a little bit differently. But yeah, some of these are 188 00:11:13.760 --> 00:11:16.040 old and you don't really get a chance to do 189 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:18.200 them until someone picks it. And it's always a fun 190 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:22.600 process to see what someone's going to choose. Yeah, like 191 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:24.640 I would say this one, this rose with the barbed wire, 192 00:11:24.679 --> 00:11:26.760 I've done a lot of times now, so I'm gonna 193 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:32.560 maybe change this one up. I tend to think that 194 00:11:32.600 --> 00:11:38.199 tattoos can change meaning over time, and that's something I 195 00:11:38.280 --> 00:11:40.880 talk about with clients too, because sometimes people will have 196 00:11:40.920 --> 00:11:43.720 a lot of specifics about the symbolism that they want 197 00:11:43.760 --> 00:11:46.160 to include to communicate the meaning of their tattoo. And 198 00:11:46.760 --> 00:11:50.200 I've had tattoos for long enough and done tattoos for 199 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:52.680 long enough that I know that the meaning can be 200 00:11:53.040 --> 00:11:55.079 sometimes more fluid than we might expect it to be. 201 00:11:55.320 --> 00:11:57.520 But the tattoo is always going to look the same, right, 202 00:11:57.720 --> 00:12:00.400 So it's about finding images that can stay the test 203 00:12:00.440 --> 00:12:02.880 of time, or can at least be responsive to those 204 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:06.080 changing meanings. And a lot of tattoos that I have 205 00:12:06.120 --> 00:12:07.839 are the same way. I mean, I have enough now 206 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:10.720 that I forget about some of them, because they just 207 00:12:10.760 --> 00:12:13.440 become so a part of your body that I don't 208 00:12:13.520 --> 00:12:16.160 quite remember what's there or notice them all the time. 209 00:12:16.800 --> 00:12:18.560 Sometimes I'll catch a glimpse of some of them and 210 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:21.120 be like, oh, yeah, I have this tattoo. I totally 211 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:24.199 forgot about that one. I have this tattoo on my 212 00:12:24.280 --> 00:12:28.120 leg that's from one of Iron Maiden's album covers, this 213 00:12:28.280 --> 00:12:31.839 heavy metal you know image, And when I look down 214 00:12:31.880 --> 00:12:33.480 at it, I'm like, Wow, I haven't listened to Iron 215 00:12:33.480 --> 00:12:36.959 Maiden in years, but I'm like, wow, I loved heavy 216 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:39.000 metal when I got this tattoo, and I remember so 217 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:40.960 distinctly getting it from my co worker, and it's so 218 00:12:41.040 --> 00:12:46.200 well done. It still looks so cool, but it's not 219 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:48.040 as relevant to me as it was when I got it, 220 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:53.320 but I still love that it's there. One thing I 221 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:56.160 know for sure is that tattooing has so much power 222 00:12:56.320 --> 00:13:01.440 to shape people's concept of themselves. It can be a 223 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:04.200 tool for communicating about yourself to the world, to the 224 00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:06.079 rest of the world, how you want to be seen. 225 00:13:06.880 --> 00:13:09.400 It can be a way to align your vision of 226 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:15.480 yourself with how you see yourself and externalize that. For example, 227 00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:19.199 for transgender people, you might not be able to access 228 00:13:19.520 --> 00:13:24.360 gender affirming surgeries because of insurance reasons or because of 229 00:13:24.600 --> 00:13:28.920 access reasons, And in instances like that, sometimes tattooing is 230 00:13:28.920 --> 00:13:32.000 a thing that's accessible to you to make your body 231 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:37.840 feel more like your own or to affirm your gender identity. 232 00:13:37.920 --> 00:13:40.800 I could give a hundred examples of what tattooing can 233 00:13:40.840 --> 00:13:43.520 do for people, especially people who have been trauma impacted. 234 00:13:44.440 --> 00:13:46.760 I've done a lot of tattoos that are cover ups 235 00:13:46.800 --> 00:13:49.800 of self harm scars, for example, because people have dealt 236 00:13:49.800 --> 00:13:52.319 with a lot of judgment for having those marks on 237 00:13:52.400 --> 00:13:58.679 their body. I've tattooed people who are recovering from eating disorders, 238 00:13:58.800 --> 00:14:01.960 and tattooing is an important that recovery journey people who 239 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:04.880 have survived sexual assault, and it's a really important part 240 00:14:04.920 --> 00:14:10.280 of reclaanning agency and ownership of their bodies. So oftentimes 241 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:13.520 tattooing can be a way to overwrite something that wasn't 242 00:14:13.520 --> 00:14:15.920 of your choosing, that's happened to you, and to say, well, 243 00:14:15.960 --> 00:14:18.400 you know, it wasn't my choice to develop breast cancer, 244 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:21.440 but it is my choice to get this beautiful tattoo 245 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:24.880 over my mistectomy scar because this is my body and 246 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:35.440 I do have ownership over it right now, we have 247 00:14:35.480 --> 00:14:38.160 three stations, so we all kind of work between these, 248 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:42.120 and in my space I have a lot of different 249 00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:46.200 things that are Mexican crafts. It's a really important kind 250 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:48.920 of recurring theme in my own artwork, and so I 251 00:14:49.040 --> 00:14:51.520 like having little pieces of like da la Vera the 252 00:14:51.600 --> 00:14:54.400 core or pottery around. We have some of it in 253 00:14:54.440 --> 00:14:56.920 the front to I love this little butterfly one, it's 254 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:01.760 so cute, as well as as you know, milagros and 255 00:15:01.960 --> 00:15:05.480 punch tin. We have this tin mirror over here that 256 00:15:05.520 --> 00:15:09.240 I collected. I also have always in every space that 257 00:15:09.280 --> 00:15:11.720 I've worked, put up a lot of my own drawings 258 00:15:11.760 --> 00:15:17.160 and stencils. I really love doing lettering, especially script. I 259 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:19.200 do a lot of kind of larger scale lightering pieces, 260 00:15:19.240 --> 00:15:22.360 like stomach rockers or like across the shoulders or chess pieces, 261 00:15:22.640 --> 00:15:27.160 which I love. Some of these are really small on 262 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:29.120 the wall, but they were actually done really large scale, 263 00:15:29.160 --> 00:15:31.800 like this one. This kind of stone of arc piece 264 00:15:32.040 --> 00:15:34.680 is actually a huge back piece. And you can also 265 00:15:34.760 --> 00:15:37.440 see that there's a lot of different kinds of images 266 00:15:37.480 --> 00:15:40.720 that reference LATINX culture or like specifically Mexican culture. And 267 00:15:40.800 --> 00:15:43.280 I taught you a lot of LATINX people and a 268 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:45.720 lot of other Mexican people, which is really fun for 269 00:15:45.800 --> 00:15:50.520 me to I grew up in Athens, Georgia. I was 270 00:15:50.520 --> 00:15:53.120 actually born in Oregon, which is where my dad's family 271 00:15:53.160 --> 00:15:57.320 is from, and my parents relocated to Georgia. My mom 272 00:15:57.360 --> 00:16:00.880 is an immigrant from Mexico. My mom imigrated to the 273 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:03.520 US when she met my dad, who is a white American, 274 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:05.960 and so we grew up, especially at a young age 275 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:09.520 when my parents were still together, being very bicultural and 276 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:13.840 on my parents split up, my mom was my primary 277 00:16:13.880 --> 00:16:15.600 parent who I was in the house with. I have 278 00:16:15.640 --> 00:16:20.280 a couple brothers and sisters, so we had a really supportive, 279 00:16:20.640 --> 00:16:26.160 very Mexican household. There wasn't as large of a Mexican 280 00:16:26.280 --> 00:16:29.360 or a LATINX immigrant community in Georgia at the time, 281 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:33.280 and I feel really appreciative, especially now as an adult, 282 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:35.680 that I grew up in a household where my mother 283 00:16:36.160 --> 00:16:37.760 was making sure that we had a lot of connection 284 00:16:37.800 --> 00:16:42.040 to culture, so a lot of cooking together, you know, 285 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:45.480 a lot of tortillas for breakfast, and again making sure 286 00:16:45.520 --> 00:16:47.240 that even though we couldn't travel very much, that we 287 00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:50.040 would always go to blad Lacada to see my family 288 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:54.880 there because tattooing is so collaborative, right, because it's so 289 00:16:55.040 --> 00:16:56.760 based on what the client is going to want to 290 00:16:56.760 --> 00:16:59.320 wear and who they are and what they want to 291 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:01.880 say about themselves. A lot of people have come to 292 00:17:01.920 --> 00:17:06.320 me because they know that those cultural origins resonate with 293 00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:08.120 me and that I share those and that I understand, 294 00:17:08.200 --> 00:17:10.840 and it feels less. I don't want to say transactional, 295 00:17:10.840 --> 00:17:14.119 because I don't think tattooing is transactional necessarily, but just 296 00:17:14.560 --> 00:17:16.960 there's a little bit of a deeper alignment there that's 297 00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:22.680 so rewarding to work with. There is such a rich history. 298 00:17:23.320 --> 00:17:26.000 I think the most simple terminology, fine line, black and 299 00:17:26.040 --> 00:17:28.080 gray is what people think of when they think of 300 00:17:28.280 --> 00:17:32.440 chicato style tattooing. Single needle tattooing is another way people 301 00:17:32.480 --> 00:17:35.400 think about it or describe it. There's just so many 302 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:39.240 figures who are so seminal to shaping that voice in 303 00:17:39.320 --> 00:17:43.000 tattoo culture, like Freddy mcgritty or like Tuklo Moreno, people 304 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:44.920 who I really look up to and who I've looked 305 00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:47.960 at since I started tattooing and was really trying to 306 00:17:48.040 --> 00:17:51.520 connect my own work to that tradition. There's a lot 307 00:17:51.520 --> 00:17:55.120 of images that are recurring in that tradition as well. 308 00:17:55.160 --> 00:17:58.440 There's a lot of portraiture, a lot of script is 309 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:02.040 a really common one. I would say it's very family oriented, 310 00:18:02.280 --> 00:18:05.520 a lot about identity and name and lineage and place 311 00:18:05.560 --> 00:18:09.920 and language. I've done tattoos for Fejanos who want to 312 00:18:09.960 --> 00:18:13.920 commemorate that, or tattoos that are La themed, for example. 313 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:17.600 There's a lot of images like the Smile Now Kry 314 00:18:17.720 --> 00:18:21.240 Later that are really standised and just so of that 315 00:18:21.520 --> 00:18:28.360 visual vocabulary and really draws on the history of Chicano art. 316 00:18:29.720 --> 00:18:32.719 A lot of it isn't informed by the Chicano movement 317 00:18:32.840 --> 00:18:35.760 and the sort of like civil rights alignment with black 318 00:18:35.760 --> 00:18:40.320 power movements and other rights movements of the sixties seventies, 319 00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:43.080 and so I consider it to be political as well. 320 00:18:45.840 --> 00:18:48.160 But I think that one of the most important origins 321 00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:49.879 to name and to make sure as part of the 322 00:18:49.920 --> 00:18:53.760 conversation is also it's connections to the prison system in California. 323 00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:57.800 That's where fine line, black and gray tattooing is credited 324 00:18:57.840 --> 00:19:03.119 as having originated from, because in prisons they were making 325 00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:05.920 tattoo machines and tattoo needles out of what is available 326 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:08.879 to them, which oftentimes was guitar strings, so there was 327 00:19:09.280 --> 00:19:12.439 quite literally a single needle, whereas with other types of 328 00:19:12.440 --> 00:19:15.520 tattooing you're sometimes working with a larger grouping, so you 329 00:19:15.640 --> 00:19:17.760 might have eight needles together in one to make a 330 00:19:17.760 --> 00:19:20.600 boulder line. The fine line single needle tattooing was all 331 00:19:20.600 --> 00:19:22.840 being done with a single needle, which was creating that 332 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:25.600 kind of stippling a fact, and not really thin, really 333 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:29.199 fine aesthetic that became known and is now kind of 334 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:32.119 replicated all over the world. But I think that a 335 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:35.119 really important aspect of it to name and to really 336 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:39.040 try to honor is that connection to the prison system 337 00:19:39.040 --> 00:19:41.680 and the fact that there was such disproportionate incarceration of 338 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:52.080 black and brown people that is continuing to this day. 339 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:56.560 So we also have displayed this client Bill of Rights poster. 340 00:19:57.240 --> 00:20:01.520 And this actually came about because a number of years ago, 341 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:04.960 in collaboration with the Women's Prison Association here in New York, 342 00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:11.280 we were working with clients who needed cover ups for 343 00:20:11.320 --> 00:20:14.920 some pretty heavy reasons. A number of them had experienced 344 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:20.040 intimate partner violence or trafficking. Some people had tattoos that 345 00:20:20.080 --> 00:20:24.960 were reminders of those experiences or that had been done coercively. 346 00:20:25.160 --> 00:20:30.359 So working with the Women's Prison Association. I came up 347 00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:33.679 with sort of a set of steps for clear communication, 348 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:36.840 for affirming people, for trying to make people feel safer 349 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:39.439 in that moment, and just in the tattoo process in general, 350 00:20:39.520 --> 00:20:43.639 which is really a lot about communication. So some of 351 00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:45.840 the things on the client bill of rights are the 352 00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:48.560 right to a clean and comfortable environment that follows best 353 00:20:48.600 --> 00:20:52.040 practices for health and safety. The right to equal treatment 354 00:20:52.119 --> 00:20:56.240 and service regardless of things like race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, 355 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:00.280 physical ability. The right to respectful communication. You know, you 356 00:21:00.320 --> 00:21:04.240 shouldn't be misgendered or you shouldn't be hearing any hate 357 00:21:04.280 --> 00:21:07.200 speech or harassment in your tattoo environment. And again, these 358 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:11.719 seem so basic, right, but it's not what some people's 359 00:21:11.760 --> 00:21:17.240 experiences are, which is really unfortunate. I think this is 360 00:21:17.320 --> 00:21:21.199 sort of part and parcel of the rhetoric of tattooing, right, 361 00:21:21.320 --> 00:21:24.880 is that it's an important form of self expression, right, 362 00:21:24.920 --> 00:21:27.400 that it's creative, and that it's artistic. But those things 363 00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:30.119 don't happen independently of the systems that we live under. 364 00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:33.320 The body can really be to me a site of 365 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:38.680 archiving experience, of accessing sort of personal and collective histories, 366 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:41.639 and so I think the bulk of my work is 367 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:46.440 to try to connect tattooing and tattooings expression with systems 368 00:21:46.440 --> 00:21:49.520 thinking that takes on the broader context of how we 369 00:21:49.720 --> 00:21:53.159 exist in the world because bodies are so politicized. The 370 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:57.359 body is, i would argue, like a contested political territory, 371 00:21:57.400 --> 00:22:00.520 and people experience that differently, whether it's because of gender, 372 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:05.399 their race, their disability, and so getting a tattoo for 373 00:22:05.520 --> 00:22:09.879 somebody who's experiencing discrimination because of their body throughout their 374 00:22:09.960 --> 00:22:12.679 daily life is going to mean something really different to 375 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:16.040 them than for somebody who's not experiencing that daily discrimination 376 00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:20.080 or that daily oppression. And I think that there's a 377 00:22:20.119 --> 00:22:24.159 really incredible power to interrupt those experiences, you know. I 378 00:22:24.200 --> 00:22:26.560 think the touching can be a real intervention in that sense. 379 00:22:28.920 --> 00:22:32.639 I think that the tattoo exchange ideally can be a 380 00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:35.400 space to live as if your body's already free, right, 381 00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:37.920 as if you can make all the choices in the 382 00:22:37.960 --> 00:22:40.800 world about yourself and about your body, which is not 383 00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:43.600 something that we can say about most of our lives. 384 00:22:45.840 --> 00:22:47.959 There's so many forces or so many systems that are 385 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:50.119 telling us what we can and can't do with our bodies. 386 00:22:50.200 --> 00:22:51.840 Or how we can and can't move through the world, 387 00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:54.960 and to be able to have a space a time 388 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:57.760 when you can say this is what I'm choosing with intention. 389 00:22:58.800 --> 00:23:02.200 I don't think can be under it estimated, and that's 390 00:23:02.200 --> 00:23:03.160 how I like to think of it. 391 00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:23.960 This episode was produced by Alejandra Salasad and edited by 392 00:23:24.040 --> 00:23:28.199 Daisy Contreras. It was mixed by j J. Carubin. The 393 00:23:28.280 --> 00:23:32.880 Latino USA team includes Andrea Lopez Ruzado, Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, 394 00:23:33.240 --> 00:23:38.160 Julia Ta Martinelli, Victoria Strada, Rinaldo Leanos Junior, Patricia Sulvaran 395 00:23:38.320 --> 00:23:41.680 and Julia Rocha, with help from Raul Vedes. Our editorial 396 00:23:41.720 --> 00:23:45.359 director is Julio Ricardo Arella. Our director of engineering is 397 00:23:45.400 --> 00:23:49.280 Stephanie Lba. Our senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Our associate 398 00:23:49.280 --> 00:23:52.919 engineer is gabriel A Bias. Our marketing manager is Luis Luna. 399 00:23:53.280 --> 00:23:57.440 Our fellows are Elisa Reina, Monica Morales Garcia and Andrew Vignalis. 400 00:23:57.600 --> 00:24:00.679 Our theme music was composed by Sane Robinos, I'm your 401 00:24:00.680 --> 00:24:03.840