Named one among Westword‘s People to Watch in 2021, Cardenas opened her first store, Twisted Sol, in 1997 within the Capitol Hill neighborhood; she opened Sol Tribe at 56 Broadway in 2008. She was recognized for her non secular tackle tattooing, branding, piercing and different physique modifications, in addition to for constructing an inclusive house that was thought of nearly revolutionary within the ’90s. Cardenas was an teacher for the Nationwide Security Council for twenty years, instructing courses about bloodborne pathogens, and served on the board of administrators for the Affiliation of Skilled Piercers. Her tattoos communicate to her eye for element, with intricate stippling and line work, a Caravaggio-esque grasp of depth in her grayscale, and excellent use of symmetry and utility of sacred geometry.
Her tattoos have been already extremely coveted when Cardenas began making a reputation for herself with avenue artwork that paid homage to her indigenous heritage and research in anthropology with detailed use of iconography and social commentary themes; she labored first with Crush Partitions after which Babe Walls.
Along with her unimaginable inventive creations and deep data of physique modification, she held a ardour for volunteering and anthropological research, as effectively discussing historical rituals and accumulating archaeological objects.
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Just a bit over per week in the past, Cardenas talked with Westword about tattooing in Denver, which she stated is stuffed with “pals from completely different walks of life who’re making an attempt to assist one another.” Even over the cellphone, her playful and therapeutic demeanor shone by means of, whereas her power in storytelling made it clear that she was a power, decided to make a distinction and even out the business’s enjoying discipline.
Flowers and candles are being positioned exterior Sol Tribe in honor of Alicia Cardenas.
Catie Cheshire
“It’s a white male-dominated business,” she stated. “We come from a troublesome line of characters. … It has been robust, and it makes you robust.”
Cardenas was actually robust, and she or he made strides in making certain that the business was extra welcoming and inclusive, in addition to extra respectful towards the artwork type’s indigenous roots. Sol Tribe, she stated, is for anybody and everybody.
“I’ve been constructing my tattoo store imaginative and prescient since day one about making an area that was extra inclusive and extra pleasant to completely different walks of life, the queer neighborhood — taking it out of the biker, prisoner type of realm and getting it into an area the place anybody who wished to might stroll in and get a great tattoo and really feel snug,” she stated.
“And that’s actually what it’s about,” she continued. “Taking it out of this historical past of dangerous habits that’s plain when you could have an entire business born off individuals who come out of jail or who’ve embraced this various way of life — there’s gonna be medicine and misogyny and abuse. However the half the place it’s been reborn, the place people who find themselves nonbinary have a voice – that’s been happening for some time, that’s been manifesting and switching and evolving for not less than the final 25 years.”
Cardenas had an plain position in that evolution, however all the time remained humble in our dialog. She gave repeated nods to the “lengthy lineage of girls on this city who’ve been operating tattoo outlets for thirty years.” She spoke of Sister Bear, who owns Blue Door; Mickie Kott, who owned Tattooing by Mickie; Barbara Chapman, who ran the legendary artist Peter Tat-2’s outlets; and extra.
Cardenas stated she made an effort to “rewrite the apprenticeship mannequin” at her store, in order that apprentices may very well be paid and extra folks of colour might get an opportunity within the business. She stated she was taking her concepts to different outlets as effectively, much more conventional ones, as a result of she believed in bringing each sort of tattoo artist into the dialogue.
“The apprenticeship mannequin stated for a few years that you just needed to work free of charge for 2 years and be a slave and be hazed and do all this grunt work and labor and be any person’s cleansing woman and take their automotive to get fucking washed, and sometime you may make $150 an hour,” she stated. “Individuals of colour don’t have that choice to do issues free of charge for years earlier than they get a job.”
Cardenas began tattooing when she was sixteen, then started working at Bound by Design within the early ’90s. Her highway to possession was something however straightforward. “There was nonetheless biker affiliation concerned with outlets,” she recalled. “Everyone is artsy-fartsy now and may do regardless of the fuck they need. … It isn’t the place it was once.”
When she opened Twisted Sol in her mid-twenties, Cardenas remembered, she wished to create a extra suave and comfy surroundings for each shoppers and artists.
“Within the late ’90s, we determined that we have been gonna do outlets with no flash on the partitions — we have been going to take it into this new, artsy realm,” she defined. “We have been simply going to do solely our personal artwork and draw issues for folks as an alternative of creating them select issues off the wall. And with that, we additionally wished to carry extra of a wedding of physique piercing and tattooing collectively. … It was within the late ’90s that we rebirthed outlets that had extra to them, extra tales — I might say the fashionable primitives, the tribal facet that we have been extra culturally respectful. We have been speaking about doing issues for different causes than being a insurgent or being sexual. We explored all of the subcultures of individuals we might have as shoppers. It was now not about for those who weren’t cool sufficient or tattooed sufficient. You would not stroll into the store and be scared away; you have been welcomed in.”
Some tattooing traditions are doubtless right here to remain, she stated, even when they’re fading as rapidly as a lip tattoo. She spoke of the significance of respect within the business, together with giving outlets a heads-up earlier than shifting your individual store down the road. “These forms of issues are actually misplaced on this coming age,” she stated. “A part of integrity is about figuring out the place you fall in all of it and having a great understanding of who all is round you.”
Artists Victor J. Escobedo (from left), Alicia Cardenas and Marco Antonio Garcia in entrance of their collaborative piece “Xipe Totec.”
Anthony Maes
Cardenas celebrated new outlets which can be extra inclusive and regarded protected areas, like her personal. However she additionally stated that for the tattoo business to be thought of really inclusive, meaning additionally recognizing “the nice ol’ boys’ golf equipment,” or extra conventional tattoo parlors. She thought of a few of these store house owners shut pals locally, folks she might name on for something.
“Perhaps it is as a result of I am nearly fifty, nevertheless it does not trouble me, as a result of folks want what they want from tattoo outlets,” she stated. “Magic occurs in these studios, too.”
Cardenas made her personal magic. “Yeah, we’re all just a little little bit of a multitude about how we got here into this business,” she admitted. “However we’re right here now and we’re doing the work, and it is essential for us to acknowledge that there are individuals who paved the best way. … It might behoove us as a neighborhood to be extra community-oriented.”
Cardenas leaves behind a legacy of dedication to neighborhood and full-scale inclusion; she made an indelible mark on Denver’s tattoo and body-modification business, in addition to her pals’ and household’s lives.
“I do not need the tattoo business to be framed as unfavorable anymore,” she concluded. “Sure, we must always know our historical past, nevertheless it’s actually completely different now.”
Alyssa Gunn-Maldonado was additionally shot to loss of life at Sol Tribe; her husband, Jimmy Maldonado, labored there; he was shot and is presently in a hospital ICU. After the shootings at Sol Tribe, the gunman made a number of extra stops in Denver, killing Michael Swinyard at an house advanced at 1200 Williams Avenue, earlier than heading to Lakewood, the place he went to Fortunate 13 Tattoo. There he shot and killed worker Danny Scofield earlier than shifting on to Hyatt Home, the place he shot clerk Sarah Steck, who subsequently handed away. A Lakewood police officer shot and killed the gunman, recognized as Lynden McLeod.
A GoFundMe web page has been arrange in assist of the household of Alicia Cardenas here. A GoFundMe web page in assist of the Gunn-Maldonado household will be discovered here.
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