Alberto Hartleben is known as “El Nawal” in the tattoo community. A Guatemalan native who has lived most of his life in Brazil. In 2021, he co-founded a private tattoo studio in Houston, Texas, where he currently resides and works. As a tattoo artist, he employs black ink due to its beauty and longevity. In […]
Tag: south america
With so many big names coming to tattoo conventions, it is also enjoyable meeting promising artists who are in their developing years and super excited about life and work. Raya Souza, a Lisbon-based artist that has loads of energy, positive energy—and it shines through her colorful artwork and personality. She is openly gay, married to […]
Brazilian newcomer Kat Alden began tattooing to “support people in the process of building homes for their spirits.” She feels the body is a house for the soul, an empty space in need of decor before it feels more like a home. “A tattoo can change the way a person sees themselves,” she explains. “It can change their behavior, which […]
Many tattoo artists create drawings and paintings off the skin, and Guga Scharf is an example of how the two worlds intersect. Borrowing imagery from his pencil and ink sketchbook, he translates the surrealist, minimal aesthetic into his tattoos. Erratic lines and squiggles decorate his characters, which are used as both a device for shading […]
INTI is a street artist from Valparaiso, Chile, who paints large-scale murals on buildings around the world. From France to Delhi to Santiago, INTI brings his South American roots to life in colorful portraits that represent the overlapping histories of Chilean arts and culture, the Incas, capitalism, and Christianity. Embodying these complex systems of tradition […]
“Light as a feather, stiff as a board.” This phrase can be used to describe the tattoos of Frank Carrilho, a Brazilian artist who incorporates thin, wispy lines with bold, heavy outlines. There is no in-between, but the two approaches work together and convey a chaotic harmony. Each tattoo is simultaneously delicate as a dandelion […]
According to Stan Bree’s tattoos, we’re all just a collection of simple shapes and lines. The Mexico City-based artist creates complex figures using a series of lines that effortlessly and continuously flow into one another. As a result, conventional portraits feel like they’re in motion that could twist and take a new form at any […]
Elements of fantasy and geometry are incorporated in the blackwork tattoos of FredĂŁo Oliveira. Strikingly-detailed portraits grace his client’s bodies, commanding attention with a realistic style that’s framed by decorative shapes and bold lines. Together, they evoke the feel of a technical ink drawing that you’d see on the pages of an enthralling comic book […]
Welsh filmmaker Andy Lee is obsessed with photography. Although he’s fascinated with portraiture, his recent focus has been landscape photography—traveling to three continents—taking stunning shots of planet Earth. His latest trip to Chile provided a breathtaking view of the soaring mountains of Patagonia—a spectacle seen by very few people. Images © Andy Lee.
Jairo Alvarez is a fine art photographer from Argentina. His work is a spellbinding mix of whimsical fantasy and clever illusions. He finds new visual metaphors for all sorts of human themes. Some of his best ones include the spirit lifted by a few choice yellow balloons and a man blurring into the colours of […]
