Armando: Color Theory

Armando, 23

This is the story behind both of Armando’s sleeves and the way he carries both of his parents’ passions with him on his arms.

The usage of color in Armando’s sleeves to evoke who his parents are to him is a really clever symbolic device. Usually you see people who devote their whole body to black ink or color, but the purposeful blend of styles in Armando’s work is very effective.

“So, the one side that’s all black ink is for stuff my dad got me into, like that’s the quill pen drawing the music staff, it has abstract art on it, also. The reason this side is all black ink is because my dad is very logical. There’s not a whole lot of room for interpretation for what he says, like he knows what he’s talking about when he’s talking about it.”

“And the other side is the bird and the tree and it's very colorful and has a lot of watercolor going on. That side is like mostly based on my mom because she’s very carefree and goes with the flow and is very happy go lucky. The hummingbird is specific because my mom likes birdwatching a lot and the hummingbird is her favorite bird as well as my great grandmother’s so I thought the humming bird was apt.”

Armando has never gotten a tattoo in a proper tattoo shop, he has a close friend that would come over to his house and design art for his ideas.

“He is really good at what he does. He is actually a nurse so he is very sterile. I like doing it with him because he is a good friend of mine so we just hang out and I tell him the ideas I have in my head and he’ll draw it and we will just go through sketches and what I like and what I don’t like and then when we settle on something, he makes a stencil and does the tattoo.”

Ever since he was a kid, Armando liked tattoos, even drawing himself with the feather that now adorns his left forearm. “My mom has these notebooks from me that I used to draw in and I would draw a person and he had a feather tattooed on his arm, so I’ve known I wanted that for a long ass time. It’s cool to see that from when I was so young to actually having it now.”

“It’s something that has remained, it’s something I’ve wanted for a long time.”