Some of the earlier things we were doing was these mural tours. I think we’re more just like a crew of homies. Miguel: T rust Your Struggle it was definitely like-minded folks who had a lot of the same passions and same views on the world, politics and life and everything. They started in 2003, and they’ve done work not only in the Bay but in Hawaii and the Philippines, and other places. The collective of artists do work for low or no cost in communities that could benefit from murals or other visual art that supports local culture. Pen: Miguel also came up with a crew known as Trust Your Struggle. Miguel Bounce Perez tattoos the sleeve of Lindsey Tran at the new location of Philthy Clean Tattoo in Berkeley. I think that definitely seeped its way in. I went from seeing all the Chicano styles that my family was doing and seeing graff and murals on the street. The Che mural, the West Campus one, the recycling mural that was on MLK. Miguel: I feel like there's a lot of murals around Berkeley that influenced me. Pen: So how did, how did Berkeley, as a city, pour into your work as an artist? We’d see them around the house, like written on books and all this stuff. They all kind of did that same kind of that Cali-Chicano style. I remember I used to create my own little comic characters and my uncles drew too. She used to draw these kind of chola drawings, you know, the Chicano style cholas with feathered hair, all nice and detailed. Miguel: The first influences are like from my mom. Pen: Bring us back to the origins, how’d you get started in art in general? Given Perez's experiences with both impermanent aerosol and indelible ink, I figured he'd be the best person to start this exploration into the culture of tattooing in the Bay Area, and what it feels like to create permanent artwork- if such a thing exists.īelow are lightly edited excerpts of my conversation with Miguel 'Bounce' Perez:

Miguel Bounce Perez works with Lindsey Tran to create her leg and sleeve tattoos at the new location of Philthy Clean Tattoo in Berkeley. He's also part of the art collective Trust Your Struggle, which paints murals in other countries that have been historically colonized and thus, under-resourced. Perez says he doesn't have a 'specialty,' but he's often asked to do cover-ups of faded tattoos a community service of sorts.

His art is detailed and graphic, ranging from Mayan goddesses to anime characters. He's done touch-ups for people who've been incarcerated, and even inked a team of mathletes. He's a versatile artist, who sees collaboration with his clients as central to his work. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)Īll of this poured into Perez, and laid the foundation for what he does today. Miguel 'Bounce'Perez at the new location of Philthy Clean Tattoo in Berkeley on Aug. His father was part of a car club in his West Berkeley community, a neighborhood that was also home to a number of graffiti murals. Tattoo artist Miguel 'Bounce' Perez has vivid childhood memories of art created by his family: His mother drew “chola-style” portraits of women with feathered hair and sharp brows, while his uncles created lettering in 'Cali-Chicano' Old English script. In these stories, we dive into the permanence of ink as it resides on impermanent beings. 'Permanent Behavior: Getting Tatted in the Bay,' is our four-part series, about local tattoo artists. A below shows the photos of tattoos with the image of the mountains from different masters. Sketch of tattoo with the image of mountains is performed both in color and in black and white. Most often prefer something more simple and less massive. Landscape wearable paintings are rare because they require the customer master of endurance and patience. For the Japanese can be very pleased with the tattoo image of Mount Fuji, and for the Tibetans - native peaks of the Himalayas. Then the value of the mountain gets tattoos patriotic hue. Very often the topic of tattoos are the most famous mountain peaks. The desire of man to close relatives of his broad back, bring them stability. If the mountain on the tattoo depicts ordinary, blooming and green, it can be a symbol of strength and masculinity. The darker the mountain, where the crucified people, the harder it will be to convey to the human hope for the future and faith in something good. At heart, he said ,that all good things will still be useless and they have to be punished. If someone has a tattoo with the Calvary, it may indicate at the bleakness of human attitudes to life. That's on top of her Jesus was crucified, so its image is found in tattoos. The most feared mountain in the world has always been considered Calvary.

Mountain tattoo