A little bit of Havana Ink

[polarbear]

9 hours ago, sarkozy said:

I really don't understand why anyone in their right mind would want to have a tattoo. Historically, they were the preserve of sailors and members of the Russian mafia. Today you see many good looking people, particularly women, who have ruined their appearance with tattoos. Yuk!

What a western way of thinking. Traditional Tattoos are sported by a number of different cultures all throughout history.
Assuming that only gangsters and thugs get tattoos is as close minded as thinking only rich people and fat cats smoke cigars

7 hours ago, sarkozy said:

I wasn't "driving" my opinion anywhere. You can take it or leave it

Perhaps you should apply that way of thinking to people who get tattoos?

[polarbear]

19 hours ago, El Presidente said:

If Leo is open at 4am......there could be a little bit of trouble next FOH trip 

 

There are no licenses for tattoo parlors in Cuba. But they still exist.

by Doreen Hemlock

Cuba Trade Magazine 

http://www.cubatrademagazine.com/havana-tattoos/

Genco Genc never planned to get tattooed in Cuba until he happened upon a colorful store called La Marca, or The Mark. Unable to resist the price or the quality of the designs he saw, the 23-year-old Swede opted for a gladiator tattoo as a sleeve from his wrist to his elbow. The cost: About 600 CUC for work expected to take at least five hours – half what it would cost in his native country.

“It’s a memory from Cuba,” said Genc, who said he fell in fell in love with the island because of its history, people that make you feel like family, and because “you don’t have to worry about anything.”

La Marca is a body-art studio and gallery in Old Havana that has become popular among visitors, who often request tattoos of local scenes to carry back to their homelands as souvenirs. Among them are the limestone mountains of Viñales, the churches in colonial Trinidad, and the skyline of Havana.

The popular parlor was started two years ago by habanero Leo Canosa, who now works with five tattoo artists, including some who hang their designs in the gallery like paintings. Canosa bought the locale on Obrapia Street and runs it like an art studio, because technically, there’s no license for tattoo parlors in Cuba. He buys ink and other supplies abroad and keeps the strict sanitary standards he learned during extended stays in Canada. Most of his clients are tourists, who pay 50-150 CUC ($60–180) per hour for the body art.

For Canosa, the studio is a dream come true. A painter since childhood, he came across a book on Japanese body-art when he was 19 and longed for more information. At first, his family discouraged him, equating tattoos with delinquents. But over time, they too came to see tattoos as an art form. “I’ve tattooed my parents and grandparents,” said the 42-year-old Canosa proudly. “My uncle was a fine-arts painter, and I tattooed my grandmother with a version of one of my uncle’s paintings.”

To be sure, there are challenges running what some call Cuba’s first formal tattoo parlor. Canosa has to pick up supplies when he or his friends travel abroad, “so we can’t bring in much. There’s no shipping system for us to import, and we have no credit card. It’s difficult,” he said. “To tattoo in Cuba is a passion, not a business. We won’t get rich on this.”

To spread the word about tattoos as art, Canosa hosts cultural events at his air-conditioned space, including exhibits and concerts. The downstairs gallery offers soft music, local crafts, and a spiritual vibe. The upstairs hosts the immaculate tattoo studio. The team also works with neighborhood children, teaching them painting and taking them to art museums.

Still, Canosa looks forward to a day when tattoo parlors are explicitly licensed and fully accepted in Cuba. “Right now,” he said with a smile, “our tattoo studio is not legal and not illegal. ”

 

 

 Havana ink: Leo Canosa opened a private tattoo parlor in Havana, despite Cuba having no licenses for that type of business. Instead, he registered the parlor as an art studio, which is just one of several workarounds he uses to share his art with the world. (Cuba Trade Magazine) 

A shame the article has no examples of his work
I'd be interested to see his style

15 hours ago, semifan1 said:

Wait... How can anybody afford these?  I thought people were only making 10 CUC a month there.

I imagine his business is aimed more at tourist trade than local customers
You see similar studios in parts of Asia and Indonesia all the time. Australia tourists will fly to Bali to have a large tattoo completed over a 12 month period.
The artists there are (mostly) top tier and while they charge more than any local would be able to afford, they manage a very comfortable living thanks to tourists who fly in specifically to get work done
A good friend of mine got a back piece done (back of his neck all the way down to his butt crack) over an 18 month period for a 1/3 of when it would cost here in Aus even after you take flights and accommodation into account

[Spanishcedar]

4 hours ago, PapaDisco said:

That's the rationalization ("just an expression of art"), but from a pure, technique point of view, tattooing as an "art form" fails on just about every level.  The colors never, ever end up being what you intended (and only get worse with time), the purity of line very quickly degrades, and stylistically there's very little originality.  Although this last is something that could be solved, the technical problems of the form never have been solved.  Skin is just a lousy canvas, and it's our own minds that deceive us into thinking it's something beautiful.  Add to that the PC notion that you can only praise a tat, never criticize it and you get a self-reinforcing industry deluded into thinking it's fine art . . . not unlike the Graffiti craze in the '80's, except at least those colors had some purity and durability to them

You do have a point, there can be both, good art and bad art while the notions are typically defined by a surrounding (or sometimes in today's age, a cyber) culture.

[Spanishcedar]

19 hours ago, El Presidente said:

If Leo is open at 4am......there could be a little bit of trouble next FOH trip 

 

So... Prez, what are you thinking about stamping on you (you don't have to say where)?

[El Presidente]

7 minutes ago, Spanishcedar said:

So... Prez, what are you thinking about stamping on you (you don't have to say where)?

...always wanted a set of elephant ears/tusks. 

[westg]

Not a bad thread to start ...show your tats....post a pic ...show us some ink...me personally tattoos are not for me...each to their  own tho 

[Randy956]

...always wanted a set of elephant ears/tusks. 

Mighty small ears? LOL



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[El Presidente]

8 minutes ago, Randy956 said:

Mighty small ears? LOL



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.....indian elephant 

[AndrewNR]

Always enjoy the rationalizing of tattoo's to being something belonging to Crime or unsavory types.

For starters, Crime is generally subjective and changes with the Gov'T De jour.

Not to mention any criminal organization who prominently brandish tattoo's probably drink Coffee, Drive Cars, Wear Clothes, Gosh pay taxes and who knows what else.

 

Tattoo's are likely not much younger than mankind, And are more easily separated from the criminal world than they are of Artistic expression, Cultural symbolism  or a practiced discipline.

 

.. You forgot Triads too by the way.

[Spanishcedar]

4 hours ago, El Presidente said:

...always wanted a set of elephant ears/tusks. 

Oh man, that took me a minute....

3 hours ago, El Presidente said:

.....indian elephant 

But, you're definitely on to something though. My sources say that that the Indian elephant has fewer rings but a hard trunk!

[Bartolomeo]

On 6/12/2017 at 4:15 AM, semifan1 said:

Wait... How can anybody afford these?  I thought people were only making 10 CUC a month there.

Most of his clients are tourists, who pay 50-150 CUC ($60–180) per hour for the body art.