Ailed Duarte is co-founder of La Marca studio, which has helped carry tattoo artwork, as soon as unlawful all through Cuba, into the mainstream.
Ailed Duarte is co-founder of La Marca studio, which has helped carry tattoo artwork, as soon as unlawful all through Cuba, into the mainstream. She and host Nathan Thornburgh talked at Fábrica de Arte Cubano on the first-ever worldwide tattoo conference in Havana concerning the strong artwork and precarious commerce of Cuban tattooing.
That is an edited and condensed transcript from my dialog with Ailed. You possibly can hearken to the complete episode, without cost, on Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thornburgh: Inform me about this huge occasion. What’s happening right here?
Ailed Duarte: Nicely, that is the primary occasion of its type in Cuba, on tattoos. Lots of tattoo artists have finished exhibitions. However for this, so many artists from everywhere in the nation have come, some have been invited from Mexico, from the US, and are exhibiting issues aside from tattoos—that is the primary time.
Thornburgh: So that is the primary main tattoo conference?
Duarte: Yeah, we expect so. However we’re attempting to indicate it as a physique artwork exhibition, not simply tattoos, as a result of there are piercings, hair-styling, and Afro vogue, and soaps and a few oils for the pores and skin—the whole lot across the pores and skin and physique artwork.
Thornburgh: Nicely, and that is the rationale that we’re right here in Cuba this week, as a result of Michael Magers, who’s acquired an exhibition of Japanese tattoo images right here at Fábrica de Arte Cuba, was explaining it to me. And when he stated, “first tattoo conference of its type in Cuba”, I spotted it was an enormous deal, as a result of tattooing has been very political right here. This has not been an accepted artwork kind. So inform me, what’s the quick historical past of tattooing in Cuba that we must always know?
Duarte: Well, I feel that in Cuba, like in lots of different nations, tattoos weren’t well-regarded, not accepted, as a result of they had been related to prisons—at first.
Thornburgh: So in that Japanese model? It’s acquired an affiliation with criminality.
Duarte: Sure, the identical. People who had been in jail had tattoos, tattoos about their moms, or love, that type of message. And after that, vacationers got here to Cuba and other people began to see loads of guests with whole-body tattoos and kinds that had been completely different from what that they had seen earlier than.
There isn’t a license for tattoo actions in Cuba, however we by no means had issues with that.
Thornburgh: What was the Cuban model? Was it easy, such as you would consider as jail tattooing?
Duarte: Sure. The identical as within the different nations, as a result of the methods and the devices and the provides they needed to hand weren’t good. So it was largely names and easy pictures, or spiritual symbols.
From 1998, a gaggle of artists joined the affiliation of younger artists right here in Cuba and began to create tattoos as inventive expressions. And we labored on that and made loads of small exhibitions. However that affiliation is for artists beneath 35 years outdated. So, when these first artists reached the age of 35, they needed to go away the affiliation, and there isn’t one other artists’ affiliation that accepts them.
Thornburgh: So there’s an age restrict?
Duarte: Sure, as a result of it’s a younger artists’ affiliation. You’re alleged to belong to a different affiliation of artists earlier than that, and after that.
Thornburgh: So there’s no outdated tattoo artists’ affiliation?
Duarte: No.
Thornburgh: When did you get entangled? Was it round that point or later?
Duarte: I’m not a tattoo artist. I’m married to [Leo Canosa], one of many outdated tattoo artists.
Thornburgh: That’s how La Marca acquired began?
Duarte: Sure. My husband had been tattooing for 25 years, in his home. The opposite artists right here in Cuba, they work in their very own locations, small locations, attempting to have all of the well being necessities they do in different nations, however and not using a license. They need to be acutely aware about that, concerning the duty that their work has. And 5 years in the past—we had been all the time dreaming about having a primary tattoo store, with all of the artists concerned, and have it’s a gallery, and to have exhibitions and actions round tattoo artists—we purchased a spot.
Thornburgh: So that you personal your personal retailer, and you got that 5 years in the past?
Duarte: Sure. It’s in Previous Havana.
Thornburgh: So 5 years in the past, it’s type of late to be opening the primary tattoo store. You say it’s like different nations, however that is later than a spot like Mexico?
Duarte: Yeah, as a result of you’ll want to be courageous—to purchase a spot and burn some cash to transform to housing and constructing a tattoo store, with all the required well being necessities. You want to be ready for all that, and it’s a danger, as a result of nothing is definite.
Thornburgh: Yeah, it’s a special entrepreneurial local weather right here in Cuba. Together with your husband, and it’s true with different tattoo artists, there’s a political dimension, proper? He’s been at odds with the federal government right here at instances as you understand, as lots of my closest mates in Cuba are now and again. How do you stability the politics with the enterprise of working a profitable store?
Duarte: Nicely, there is no such thing as a license for tattoo actions in Cuba, however we by no means had issues round that. So we expect that we’re not doing something flawed. We’re doing our job proper, and we attempt to do it as proper as we will. And if we try this, we expect we gained’t have any downside with our actions. And sometime, they may acknowledge the significance of what we’re doing. Possibly ultimately we could have a license and a few recognition round that. However these sorts of actions [the convention] we expect are actually essential too, for the tattoo motion.
Thornburgh: Proper. So it is a huge week for you to have the ability to present, Hear, there are worldwide individuals, there’s consideration, there are {dollars} coming in. You’re a part of a worldwide motion and have that connectivity. What’s the licensing? There’s no type of board for licensing what you guys do.
Duarte: No, no. However we’re not [restricted]. Now we have social media, loads of followers, and we put up the whole lot we do. It’s public so everybody can see what we’re doing, if now we have an exhibition, or if we come right here to do tattoos. Every part we do, we’re actually clear. So if [the authorities] don’t need to acknowledge us… However no less than we don’t have any issues in the meanwhile.
Thornburgh: Proper. And this isn’t the one exercise in Cuba that’s finished publicly and recognized broadly, and but doesn’t actually have an official house. There appear to be a variety of these sorts of actions. I keep in mind speaking to [musician] X Alfonso concerning the Fábrica de Arte Cubano, and the way that began—additionally, very a lot in a grey space. It’s the way you guys get shit finished. It’s simply, do it, and type of see the place it goes, proper?
Duarte: And for certain, lots of people will come at present and can speak about that. And they’re going to see that we’re doing one thing good. And that could be a great way to do that type exercise right here in Cuba. If we do it in an inventive method that’s not nearly enterprise, it will likely be nice.
The very first thing about La Marca is that we don’t copy something. We don’t work with a reference that clients carry. We draw the whole lot, we create the whole lot. And that method, it’s going to all the time be a Cuban tattoo model.
Thornburgh: How would you describe the model? Is there an indigenous Cuban tattoo model?
Duarte: I feel that now we have loads of references from loads of tattoo actions internationally. But when the tattoo artists do their model, what they really feel, then that’s a Cuban tattoo model. So the very first thing about La Marca is that we don’t copy something. We don’t work with a reference that the purchasers carry. So we draw the whole lot, we create the whole lot. And that method, it’s going to all the time be a Cuban tattoo model. That’s what we defend.
Thornburgh: That phrase, to defend the Cuban model. That’s a method that ought to do it. Are there visible reference factors? Is the colour palette completely different?
Duarte: Sure, we use actually brilliant colours. We try this with out occupied with it, the artists are simply doing what they really feel.
Thornburgh: One of many issues that I noticed from a number of the work in La Marca felt like there was nearly like a brutalist model, a very muscular model of portraits that jogged my memory of outdated Soviet posters or one thing that you’d discover within the Japanese Bloc someplace. Is there one thing from the Cuban propaganda kinds or visible kinds that influences artists?
Duarte: Oh, for certain. One in every of our artists is Roberto Ramos, he’s our designer and does all of the model that represents La Marca and our artwork—the design of the store, the id, our emblem—and he was definitely influenced by that model.
Thornburgh: So Roberto Ramos is someone who you’ve introduced into La Marca to do tattoos, however he had a designer profession?
Duarte: He’s a designer, and to start with he was a tattoo artist, and he solely does stick-and-poke at present. Lots of people wait to get inked by him. He’s actually distinctive, what he does.
Thornburgh: How do you cope with one of many greatest issues I feel for Cubans, which is…
Duarte: The provides.
Thornburgh: How do you get them? What are the challenges for you?
Duarte: We are able to’t purchase something from right here. We don’t have a delivery system. We have to journey and purchase the whole lot and convey it right here, and we will’t try this in huge portions. We have to purchase what we’d like for a short while and convey that in, as a result of in Cuba, you possibly can’t purchase something for tattoos, or get it cheaply—nothing.
Thornburgh: So it’s like a mule system?
Duarte: No. All our artists can journey, and lots of get [residencies] in tattoo outlets around the globe, and go to conventions which can be a very good alternative to purchase good provides, and that method, we make it work.
Thornburgh: The opposite situation is pricing. Cuba nonetheless has a troublesome time. There are such a lot of superb issues right here, however they’re actually obtainable extra to me, as a foreigner, or to the Cubans who’ve entry to exhausting foreign money. How do you cope with pricing and making this accessible for all?
Duarte: Our costs usually are not low cost, as a result of a tattoo will not be a necessity. If you’d like a superb tattoo that lasts eternally, from a wholesome place, that isn’t low cost. We are able to’t do low cost, with all of the provides we have to herald from elsewhere, and all of the measures now we have to make sure to do a superb job and to make sure the security for the client. There are loads of foreigners that come and get tattoos with us, however loads of Cubans too, as a result of persons are studying concerning the significance of selecting a superb place, with all of the circumstances the artists have to do protected work.
Thornburgh: The place you wish to see tattooing go in Cuba and what do you suppose it could actually change into?
Duarte: For certain, we need to see some recognition from [Cuban] cultural establishments for tattoo artist, like all different gifted artists in Cuba. Cuba has all the time acknowledged good artists, and has a wealthy artwork tradition, and we wish tattoos to be a part of this motion, the cultural motion.
You can listen to the full episode of The Trip Podcast Episode 104 with Ailed Duarte here
