Leo Gonzales

Giant's interview with Leo Gonzales, a tattoo artist and fine art painter based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Recorded in Mr. Gonzales' home on June 30, 2019.

Topics discussed include: Growing up in Pojoaque, NM, drawing at 2 years old, replicating Disney characters, Garfield, Prince Valiant, Dungeons and Dragons, The Hobbit, browsing book and album covers, frequency range, music/audio books as background noise, mindfulness, Cat Stevens, Kansas, KISS, Lorelei, Sikhs, Logical Nonsense, the punk scene, drugs, The Dark Nineties, tagbanging, Santa Fe vs. Albuquerque, backyard parties, hand poke tattoos, rites of passage, The Decline of Western Civilization, tattooing at school, The Hat, judging people by their tattoos, Dan-O Sanchez, self tattooing, dedication to the craft, apprenticeships, art school, Boris Vallejo’s advice, learning directly from artists, recognizable style, tattoo conventions, Guy Aitchison, Grime, Mike Davis, recognizing tattoos not clients, the pitfalls of getting your own drawings tattooed, quality vs. story, word tattoos, Hardware, assholes in business, good customer interactions, Richard Stell, Lucky 13, Ten In One, Stay Gold, Steve Truitt, body modifications, suspensions, public lynching, fatherhood, Warhammer, 5x Golden Demon Champion, miniature figures, Shawn Warcot, Stranger Things, hiking, the satisfaction of physical exhaustion, skateboarding, Shoggoth, making intestines, Asian Water Monitor, snake breeding, cross platforming.

@cthuleo