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Una Compania de Mala Suerte | Fotos por Sal Rojas
Un Compania de Mala Suerte por Salvador Rojas
Johnny Garza was
born in the border town of Laredo, Texas. His family migrated to Gary, Indiana
where his father worked as a steel worker to support his family. His father
instilled in his three sons a blue collar work ethic.
Gary, Indiana is a
tough town known for The Jackson 5 and for having one of the highest murder
rates in the nation. Surviving the barrio takes more than lady luck; it takes
street smarts and finding a way to survive the chaos.
Ever since Johnny
was a small child he loved to draw and color. He used his house as his personal
canvas. With his loving mothers permission he tagged up the walls. As a teenager
he took up the aerosol can as his next form of expression, contributing to the
mid-west graffiti movement.
In the early 1990s Johnny received his first
tattoo by local legend Roy Boy. Being the perpetual student, Johnny asked Roy
Boy question after question about the art of tattooing. Before long Johnny was
Roy Boy’s apprentice for six months learning the craft. Johnny learned his way
around the tattoo parlor polishing his natural talent as an artist and started
tattooing professionally in 1994.
It wasn’t long before Johnny was
creating his own tattoo flash art work signing them with his name John Garza.
When a fellow tattoo artist suggested he needed something catchy and he started
calling Johnny “Bad Luck”. Which Johnny translated in Spanish to “Mala Suerte”
and he’s been representing his new moniker ever since.
As one of the handful of Chicano tattoo artist in the mid-west, Johnny
“Mala Suerte” Garza represents with the best of them. He’s one of the masters of
the prison-based fine line (black and grey) tattooing art pioneered by legends
like Freddy Negrete of Shamrock Social Club (Hollywood, CA) and Jack Rudy the
owner of Good Time Charlie's Tattooland (Anaheim, CA). Their quality of work in
the art of fine line tattoos inspired his style of tattooing classic Chicano
themes from the charras, clowns, rosaries, custom scripts, to the comedy and
tragedy drama mask with his own personal twist.
Johnny is always humble
and gives respect to those that came before him. One of the important lessons he
learned in his fifteen years of tattooing is that the tattoos foundation is one
of the secrets to a great tattoo.
If you study Johnny’s tattoo work and custom scripts you can see
elegance in every stroke with an authentic street style that’s truly unique.
When asked about his lettering Johnny replies “I didn’t create the style, but I
have a style all of my own.”
Original LA Calavera Oaxaquena created by Jose Guadalupe
Posada in 1903.
One of Johnny’s favorite artists is Mexican
great Jose
Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913). Posada is best known for his day of the dead
Calaveras. Posada’s Calaveras reflected the current events of time and different
facets of Mexican life. One of Johnny’s favorites is Posada’s “La Calavera
Oaxaqueña”. Johnny has hand drawn his version of “La Calavera Oaxaqueña”
numerous times using different mediums but all with Mala Suerte’s own style,
paying homage to Posada for his influence and inspiration.
This powerful image of an Oaxacan Calavera wearing a Mexican sombrero
holding a machete in his right hand in midair was one of Johnny’s first Mala
Suerte logos and t-shirt designs. The shirts were a huge success at tattoo
conventions. Other tattoo artists would come by his booth looking to purchase
his shirts. He would usually sell out of “Mala Suerte” t-shirts on the first day
and was freed to tattoo the rest of the days.
His success with his “Mala
Suerte Tattooing” shirts led to the creation of the official “Mala Suerte
Compania” clothing line. The clothing line launched in 2002 with the support of
graphic artist Job Moscot of Explicit Ink Designs. With Johnny as creative
director and Job Moscot adding his flair to each design you have one of the
freshest Mexican-based clothing lines on the streets.
Using the same
principles for a great tattoo, the solid foundation of Mala Suerte Compania is
based on artistic creativity and patience, working at their own pace, and making
sure everything is the best it can be. Like tattooing a classic tattoo, Mala
Suerte Compania isn’t based on time, but on being timeless.
Fotografia y Escritos Por Salvador Rojas
Official Mala Suerte Compania Related Links:
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