By Heidi de Marco
It was Saturday morning at Southbay Tattoo and Body Piercing in Carson, California, and proprietor Efrain Espinoza Diaz Jr. was prepping for his first tattoo of the day — a memorial portrait of a person that his widow needed on her forearm.
Diaz, referred to as “Rock,” has been a tattoo artist for 26 years however nonetheless will get somewhat nervous when doing memorial tattoos, and this one was notably delicate. Diaz was inking a portrait of Philip Martin Martinez, a fellow tattoo artist and buddy who was 45 when he died of covid-19 in August.
“I would like to pay attention,” stated Diaz, 52. “It’s an image of my buddy, my mentor.”
Martinez, identified to his mates and purchasers as “Sparky,” was a tattoo artist of some renown in close by Wilmington, in Los Angeles’ South Bay area. A tattoo had introduced Sparky and Anita collectively; Sparky gave Anita her first tattoo — a portrait of her father — in 2012, and the expertise sparked a romance. Through the years of their relationship, he had lined her physique with intertwining roses and a portrait of her mom.
Now his widow, she was getting the identical {photograph} that was etched on Sparky’s tomb inked into her arm. And this could be her first tattoo that Sparky had not utilized.
“It feels somewhat odd, however Rock has been actually good to us,” Anita Martinez stated. Rock and Sparky “grew up collectively.” They met within the Nineteen Nineties, at a time when there have been no Mexican-American-owned tattoo retailers of their neighborhood however Sparky was gaining a popularity. “It was artists like Phil that might encourage loads of us to take that step into the skilled tattoo business,” Rock stated.
After Sparky obtained sick, Anita wasn’t allowed in her husband’s hospital room, an isolating expertise shared by a whole bunch of 1000’s of Individuals who misplaced a liked one to covid. They let her in solely on the very finish.
The tattooed portrait of Philip Martin Martinez on Anita’s arm. She selected to get it on her forearm so she might see it each day. (Heidi de Marco/KHN)
“I obtained cheated out of being with him in his final moments,” stated Martinez, 43. “After I obtained there, I felt he was already gone. We by no means obtained to say goodbye. We by no means obtained to hug.”
“I don’t even know if I’m ever going to heal,” she stated, as Diaz started sketching the outlines of the portrait under her elbow, “however no less than I’ll get to see him each day.”
In response to a 2015 Harris Ballot, virtually 30% of Individuals have no less than one tattoo, a ten% improve from 2011. At the very least 80% of tattoos are for commemoration, stated Deborah Davidson, a professor of sociology at York College in Toronto who has been researching memorial tattoos since 2009.
“Memorial tattoos assist us converse our grief, bandage our wounds and open dialogue about dying,” she stated. “They assist us combine loss into our lives to assist us heal.”
Covid, sadly, has offered many alternatives for such memorials.
Juan Rodriguez, a tattoo artist who goes by “Monch,” preps his consumer’s arm for a memorial tattoo. (HEIDI DE MARCO / KHN)
Juan Rodriguez, a tattoo artist who goes by “Monch,” has been seeing twice as many consumers as earlier than the pandemic and is booked months prematurely at his parlor in Pacoima, an L.A. neighborhood within the San Fernando Valley. Memorial tattoos, which may embody names, portraits and particular paintings, are widespread in his line of labor, however there’s been a rise in requests as a result of pandemic. “One consumer referred to as me on the best way to his brother’s funeral,” Rodriguez stated.
Rodriguez thinks memorial tattoos assist folks course of traumatic experiences. As he strikes his needle over the arms, legs and backs of his purchasers, and so they share tales of their family members, he feels he’s half artist, half therapist.
Wholesome grievers don’t resolve grief by detaching from the deceased however by creating a brand new relationship with them, stated Jennifer R. Levin, a therapist in Pasadena, California, who focuses on traumatic grief. “Tattoos generally is a approach of sustaining that relationship,” she stated.
It’s widespread for her sufferers within the 20-to-50 age vary to get memorial tattoos, she stated. “It’s a robust approach of acknowledging life, dying and legacy.”
Sazalea Martinez, a kinesiology scholar at Antelope Valley School in Palmdale, California, got here to Rodriguez in September to memorialize her grandparents. Her grandfather died of covid in February, her grandmother in April. She selected to have Rodriguez tattoo a picture of azaleas with “I really like you” written in her grandmother’s handwriting.
The azaleas, that are a part of her title, symbolize her grandfather, she stated. Sazalea determined to not get a portrait of her grandmother as a result of the latter didn’t approve of tattoos. “The ‘I really like you’ is one thing easy and it’s comforting to me,” she stated. “It’s going to let me heal and I do know she would have understood that.”
Sazalea teared up because the needle moved throughout her forearm, tracing her grandmother’s handwriting. “It’s nonetheless tremendous contemporary,” she stated. “They mainly raised me. They impacted who I’m as an individual, so to have them with me might be comforting.”
This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially impartial service of the California Health Care Foundation.
