Archive Note
Lopez works in fine-line black and grey rooted in the single-needle Chicano tradition descended from 1940s and 1950s pachuco lettering, extending into soft-shaded black-and-grey realism and portraiture with recurring religious and cultural imagery, Dia de los Muertos motifs, and figures in the manner of the painter Jesus Helguera, an early and lasting influence; he names Jack Rudy, Charlie Cartwright, Mark Mahoney, and Freddy Negrete among his influences in the black-and-grey lineage. After being shot and paralyzed at age 15 in Anaheim in 1993, he turned to drawing as he recovered, won consecutive drawing contests in Lowrider Arte magazine in the mid-1990s, then sought professional training, working briefly at Sick Dogs Tattoo in Westminster under Frank Sardelli before tattooing privately and opening his own shop. He founded Lowrider Tattoo Studios in Fountain Valley, on Harbor Boulevard, specializing in black-and-grey work including fine-line lettering, realism, portraiture, and smooth Chicano-style tattooing, and additional shops have operated under the Lowrider Tattoo name including ones run by his father in Orange, in Costa Mesa, and in Japan. At the 2009 Milan Tattoo Convention he took Best of Day and Best of Show along with other honors for large black-and-grey work.
Lineage
No live Atlas connections are listed yet.