My journey into the world of tattoos began, like many others, with a youthful impulse. At eighteen, I walked into a local tattoo parlor with a friend, and we both emerged with matching sun designs on our backs. While the symbolism was fleeting at the time, this spontaneous decision sparked a lifelong appreciation for ink, and my collection grew, each piece echoing my love for the natural world. Many of these early tattoos were born from my own sketches or the artistry of my former husband. These aren’t sources of regret; instead, they’re cherished reminders of past beauty and shared creativity, permanently etched onto my skin. Recently, however, my perspective on tattoo design expanded thanks to a collaboration with a local artist, Ben Muñoz.
Four animal mask tattoo designs by Ben Muñoz.
Alt text: Intricate tattoo design sheet showcasing four unique animal mask concepts by artist Ben Muñoz, blending traditional and contemporary tattoo artistry.
Muñoz, primarily known for his printmaking, was venturing into tattooing as a means of both artistic expression and financial diversification. I had admired his distinctive style, but initially, his signature Gato Vato and iguana mask designs felt somewhat disconnected from the existing narrative on my body. Yet, an engaging dialogue with Muñoz revealed a shared vision. We collaboratively conceived a whale design, a concept I had contemplated for over a decade. Having Muñoz interpret this idea through his artistic lens felt like a perfect convergence of personal desire and unique tattoo design.
A photograph of artist Ben Muñoz holding a design of a whale tattoo.
Alt text: Artist Ben Muñoz proudly displays his original whale tattoo design sketch, a blend of fine art sensibility and tattoo artistry, ready to be inked.
The four-hour tattooing session on my side was an unexpectedly intimate experience, set against the backdrop of a bustling tattoo shop. As I navigated the physical discomfort, my thoughts drifted to the work of Texas artists Bernardo Vallarino and José Villalobos, both of whom incorporate tattoos into their performance art practices. Later, a friend’s mention of Lauren Woods, who underwent a tattooing during a public lecture nearly ten years prior, further solidified my understanding: the intersection of art and tattoo design is a rich and evolving landscape.
The notion of artists working with tattoos isn’t revolutionary, especially when considering that tattoo artists are, inherently, artists themselves. Their canvas simply differs – skin and ink, rather than traditional mediums like canvas and paint. As tattoos have become increasingly mainstream, it’s a natural progression that artists are not only embracing tattoos personally but also integrating the act of tattooing into their broader artistic explorations. This evolution highlights tattoo design not merely as body decoration, but as a powerful form of contemporary art.
An installation image of an exhibition by José Villalobos.
Alt text: Exhibition view of José Villalobos’ “Diseñando Masculinidades / Designing Masculinities,” showcasing art that blends Western wear deconstruction with performance tattoo documentation.
José Villalobos’ solo exhibition, “Diseñando Masculinidades / Designing Masculinities,” curated by Rigoberto Luna at Art Yard, New Jersey, exemplifies this artistic integration. The exhibition critically examines Western clothing, a theme central to Villalobos’ performance art which often dissects traditional symbols of masculinity. The show juxtaposes sculptural works derived from Western attire with photographic records of performances where Villalobos received tattoos featuring related designs. His work underscores how tattoo design can be a potent tool for cultural commentary and personal narrative within a fine art context.
A photograph of tattoos on José Villalobos
Alt text: Close-up photograph of José Villalobos’ tattooed feet, featuring the “Cultural Reminders (Cowboy Boot Toe Medallion Tattoo)” design, highlighting the fusion of tattoo art and cultural identity.
Villalobos’ 2019 performance, Cultural Reminders (Cowboy Boot Toe Medallion Tattoo), marked his initial foray into tattooing as performance. Documented through photographs and video on his website, the piece, surprisingly understated compared to his often intense performances, reveals the tattoo process as a strangely gentle act. In the silent video, his feet remain still, seemingly unaffected by discomfort, while the gloved tattoo artist’s hands meticulously trace the design, creating an unexpected sense of care. This performance challenges perceptions of tattoo design, presenting it as a deliberate and thoughtful act with deeper meaning.
A photograph of artist José Villalobos
Alt text: Portrait of artist José Villalobos, known for his performance art and tattoo-based works, emphasizing the personal and cultural significance of tattoo designs in his artistic practice.
More recently, in Cultural Reminders: Lineage, Villalobos tattooed his back with a design taken from an embroidered element of a Western shirt inherited from his father. As a gay man raised in a conservative religious household, Villalobos frequently engages with his father and male family lineage in his art. Through sculpture and performance, he reinterprets and embodies cultural practices and visuals. For Villalobos, tattoo designs appear to be the next evolution in this act of cultural reclamation, using his body as a living canvas to explore identity and heritage.
Two framed prints by Bernardo Vallarino of butterfly wings.
Alt text: Framed monoprints from Bernardo Vallarino’s “I AM” series, showcasing delicate butterfly wing designs created with tattoo ink and blood, blurring the lines between tattoo art and fine printmaking.
Bernardo Vallarino’s 2022 exhibition, The Butterfly Case, featured a series of prints in Love Texas Art Gallery alongside butterfly-themed sculptures. These weren’t typical prints; they were delicate renderings of butterfly wings created from tattoo ink and blood, taken directly from a performance piece titled I AM. In this performance, Vallarino had tattoo artist David Alcantar tattoo a large T-pin separating butterfly wings on his back on Good Friday, 2022.
A photograph of artist Bernardo Vallarino
Alt text: Artist Bernardo Vallarino during his “I AM” performance, receiving a butterfly wing tattoo, demonstrating the performative aspect of tattoo design and its connection to ritual and sacrifice.
Vallarino chose Good Friday intentionally, referencing sacrifice and religious flagellation. His website statement explains, “I chose to engrave my skin with the butterfly symbol to acknowledge and somehow take responsibility, “cleaning my sins,” of my own short-comings of the topics I address in The Butterfly Case, which are social apathy, racism, classism, and elements of cultural appropriation.” The butterfly tattoo design, in this context, becomes a symbol of personal accountability and a visual representation of complex social issues.
Like Villalobos’ tattoo performances, the video documentation of Vallarino’s performance minimizes the pain inherent in tattooing. Vallarino, however, makes the pain palpable through the prints. The watercolor-like washes are created from ink and blood, imprinted immediately after tattooing. The apparent delicacy of the prints belies the suffering involved in the thousands of needle pricks required to create the tattoo design, revealing the physical reality behind the artistic act.
A photograph of artist Bernardo Vallarino
Alt text: Portrait of artist Bernardo Vallarino, whose ongoing “Decay” performance art piece incorporates annual ant tattoo designs, reflecting themes of mortality and artistic endurance.
Tattooing is not a recent addition to Vallarino’s artistic practice. Since 2006, his ongoing performance piece, Decay, involves getting an annual ant tattoo. The ant design directly references Salvador Dalí’s use of the insect as a symbol of death and decay. This long-term project exemplifies how tattoo design can evolve into a living, changing artwork, marking time and personal transformation.
A photograph of a work of art by Salvador Dalí.
Alt text: Salvador Dalí’s “Ant Face,” a surrealist artwork featuring ants, inspiring Bernardo Vallarino’s ant tattoo design series exploring themes of decay and time in art.
A tattoo can encapsulate a specific moment or idea, serving as a milestone or a memento, or it can become part of a larger, evolving narrative, shifting with time. While Villalobos’ pieces lean towards the former, Vallarino’s two performance tattoos embody both. Lauren Woods’ performance tattoo, however, falls more squarely into the latter category, using tattoo design to mark the passage of time and personal growth.
A screenshot of artist Lauren Woods speaking at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
Alt text: Screenshot of artist Lauren Woods presenting her performative lecture “The Line” at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, where she incorporated a live tattoo performance into her presentation.
On November 10, 2015, Dallas-based conceptual artist Lauren Woods presented The Line as part of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth’s lecture series. Her talk transcended a traditional artist lecture, becoming a performative piece. Woods read a deeply personal letter written during an existential crisis, carefully navigating a sensitive legal dispute with the City of Dallas regarding a commissioned project.
Midway through her presentation, Woods, joined by her five-year-old son, stepped to the stage’s center and removed her shirt. A tattoo artist joined them, marking her son’s height against Woods’ body, aligning it with a pre-existing vertical tattoo line, and then tattooing a small horizontal line to mark the measurement.
A screenshot from a video recording of artist Lauren Woods
Alt text: Frame from Lauren Woods’ “The Line” performance video, capturing the moment of her son’s height being marked as a tattoo, symbolizing the ephemeral nature of time and growth documented through body art.
Woods later explained that the tattoo design concept emerged from her realization of not owning a home, prompting her to consider her body as a repository for memories. “It just became clear that if it wasn’t going to be architecture that we were going to put these memories on, then it would be my body.” She credited visual and tattoo artist Patrick Romeo for helping conceptualize the straight line tattoo design that runs along her side and arm. This line, tattooed the night before her lecture, was intended as a living yardstick to mark her son’s growth. However, Woods shared that her son has since declined further height markings on her body, though she continues to document his growth on paper.
As a mother, Woods’ piece deeply resonated. Time relentlessly marches forward, and amidst daily routines, subtle markers of time – wrinkles, graying hair, new aches – can easily fade into the background. But parenthood sharply focuses the passage of time. A child’s growth is undeniably evident in the constant need for new clothes, the rapid shedding of baby teeth, and the sudden realization of their increasing height. The concept of marking a child’s growth on a parent’s body is both strikingly original and profoundly familiar.
Artists dedicate immense time, energy, thought, and resources to their craft. Driven by an intrinsic need to create, to interpret the world, to respond to experiences, and to capture moments, art is, fundamentally, a labor of love. Villalobos, Vallarino, and Woods, among countless others, elevate this labor by using their bodies as their artistic medium. They not only endure physical pain in performance but also permanently inscribe their bodies with the enduring traces of these artistic acts. Their work redefines tattoo design, revealing its potential as a profound and multifaceted art form, extending far beyond mere decoration to become a powerful expression of identity, memory, and the human condition.
