Oaxaca Tattoo
Shopping for souvenirs is tough on this trip. An object has to be either a) useful enough and light enough to warrant stuffing in a suitcase and bringing along on our journeys, or b) valuable enough to warrant shipping back to the US for future us. Unsurprisingly, not much makes the cut.
Our thinking has been that we should send back one heirloom item from each location, something that speaks to the place and will enrich our home when we return. In Oaxaca, that’s the rug we bought from the workshop of Fe y Lola. It’s a beautiful artifact in its own right, a marker of our stay in Oaxaca, and a connection to a specific, beautiful experience. That checks all the boxes, for sure.
The more I thought about it, the more tattoos seemed to check the same boxes: light enough to take with us, and evocative of a particular place and time on our adventure. Now, I can’t say for certain that I’ll get a tattoo everywhere we go (I hope to travel long enough that I’ll run out of room), but a Oaxaca tattoo seemed more than appropriate. There are so many different local arts to use as a jumping off point, and commemorating our entry into this part of our lives just felt right.
Choosing to get a tattoo is, to some extent, the easy part. What and Where loom as the big questions. Where is definitely a challenge for me. My back is a hard no. I won’t endure that much pain for something only other people can see. I don’t really see myself as a face tattoo kind of guy. And my torso is the part of me that most gives away my age (yes, yes, besides my face). I can’t imagine ever lifting up my shirt with pride, no matter what I thought I was showing off.
Which leaves my limbs. It’s a limited canvas, given that my other ink is on said limbs, but I’m OK with that. I’ll just have to be judicious about where I scatter new ink.
In the process of researching tattoo ideas, I ran across this:
That looks pretty cool, and uses up practically none of my available limbs. However, on further research, finger/hand tattoos seemed like a really bad idea. They are prone to having the ink bleed; they’re at higher risk of infection; they fade quickly; and they are the most painful place to get tattooed.
So… Maybe not.
But it got me thinking about two things: a floral motif as a What, and my wrist as a Where.
The idea of a floral motif immediately connected to the rich tradition of embroidery in Oaxaca. As I was researching tattoo parlors (in Yelp, of course), I ran across this:
This was from the studio I wound up using (Exodos Tattoo). It wasn’t quite right, but like the picture of the thumb tattoo, it set me in a specific direction.
It made it clear to me that I didn’t want a cuff, I wanted something that wrapped like a garland. If I was using my wrist it would be on the right (no watchband), and my other right side tattoos also wrap. And it also cemented the idea that I wanted to lean into the feeling of the local embroidery work.
So I had a picture in my head, and a very well reviewed tattoo studio, but I needed to bring in more reference material. I couldn’t possibly use words, especially if they needed to be Spanish words, to describe what I had in mind without using pictures. I brought these and a few other reference photos to my consultation at Exodos:
I was met by Fabian, whose English was, gratefully, superb. I didn’t have to communicate a complicated visual idea by pointing and grunting. I explained both what I wanted and why I wanted it. When Fabian understood that part of my desire was to commemorate my time in Oaxaca, he showed me some other options.
He explained that the embroidery I showed him was typical of the Istmo region of Oaxaca, in the South. If I wanted something specific to the city, Oaxaca de Juarez, I should consider a jaguar or grasshopper motif, which are symbols more closely associated with the city itself. We’d previously learned that we are both Jaguars on the Mexican Zodiac, which is considered auspicious for Oaxaqueños.
The art he showed me was beautiful, but I was committed to the floral embroidery motif. So I did the honorable thing and blamed Dorothy. I explained that she was a textile artist, so the embroidery motif was a way for me to connect the tattoo to her, as well as to Oaxaca.
Committed now to my original idea, Fabian drew a general shape on my wrist with marker, which was perfect, so he asked me to come back in about half an hour to view a design. Which was also perfect (actual transfer sheet at left). Fabian had an appointment, but his colleague Arturo was free, so we sat down to do it.
Design, nailed. Placement, nailed. The real question was how well they’d be able to replicate the embroidery look and feel. Only one way to find out…
Arturo estimated three hours of work, which is as long as I’ve ever sat for a single session of tattooing. It turned out to be 3:15 total, but I was fine throughout.
Arturo’s set up, including his plastic wrapped phone. He referred back to it repeatedly, and to multiple reference photos, to make sure he captured the embroidery feeling properly.
You can also see the ink library he used. There are twelve distinct colors, as well as a few tints he made by mixing in some white. The most colors I’ve ever had on a tattoo is eight. The one advantage I had is that it isn’t an allover pattern. Each individual flower or vine is only four-five colors, so he wasn’t going over the same skin a dozen times. That would have been… even worse.
And… Done.
I got everything out of this I was hoping for. It’s beautiful and evocative, and it doesn’t add an ounce to our luggage.
Muchas gracias por la confianza,esperamos verlos pronto por un nuevo proyecto. Buen viaje!
Google Translate says: “Thank you very much for the trust, we hope to see you soon for a new project. Good trip!”
That’s from Francisco, the owner of Exodos.
Many thanks, sir. I’m proud to carry your studio’s work with me.
Google Translate: Muchas gracias, señor. Estoy orgulloso de llevar el trabajo de su estudio conmigo.
A most beautiful souvenir!! I’ll definitely be rethinking the refrigerator magnet from each trip!!
Well, it’s not an either/or. You can still bring home refrigerator magnets. Which are, to be fair, a little easier to swap out if you get bored of the view.
But do let us know if your next souvenir is more permanent. We’ll expect a full report.
One kind of needle to another.
Exactly. And there’s another layer to this. Do you know who else has a floral tattoo on her forearm? Ruby. Pure floral, not a la embroidery, but still. She got it in Oaxaca when we were here in 2019. At, wait for it… the same studio I went to. Pure karmic happenstance, which is the best kind.