Yea, all of my training was in Miami.
I was lucky enough to fall into a shop
with a lot of good artists. They were
about bringing tattooing out of the stigma about that seedy, dark subculture.
A lot of people didn’t understand it
back then.It was at Chico’s I got most
of my apprenticeship done. That was
the first time I saw people getting portraits done, actually taking time with
the craft. I was working at a few biker
shops before that but it wasn’t until
Chico’s that it was taken to another
level. I was taught by an artist named
Yarino Argote. It was between him and
another artist named Joan Zunigga
(said with accent)
What the fuck is with these names?
(laughing)
(laughing) It was Miami! I never
thought I would do any kind of realism
and if it wasn’t for those guys I would
be very limited as an artist today and
we took that from one shop to 4 shops
and started doing conventions. Those
were some crazy times (laughing)
I bet!
Just when we started going to conventions, that’s when all the Miami Ink
shows and Ed Hardy shit was popular.
It was kinda like riding the wave.
So how did you end up on Tattoo
Nightmares Miami with Clint Cummings and Reese Hilburn?
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