i work as a handpoke tattoo artist based in chicago. i was born in caracas, grew up between paris and mexico city, and have lived in the US for most of my life now.

stainremoval is a project that emerged in 2019 as my way to discover meaning where i thought there was none.

my practice explores this by repurposing stains into tattoos. i design abstract shapes by referencing the traces of accidents that i find around me — the spills and splatters beneath us that we often overlook.

i choose stains as a site of exploration because stains urge us to actively engage with our surroundings and they inspire us to get curious :: how can we use what’s already available to us to build a new world?

stains are beautiful, mysterious, and they give us an opportunity to transform how we relate to each other. by marking our bodies with another person’s stain, we become linked to the untold stories of our neighbors.

a stranger provides the raw material :: i turn it into a design :: you host it in your skin and reshape its lifecycle. this process creates a pathway toward connection with ourselves, each other, and a new way forward. are you in?