name: richard cuellar, jr.

location: portland, or

age: 40

occupation: tattooer

interests: my family, anything tattoo related, old motorcycles, painting, playing drums, drawing, art noveau/deco, japanese art, collecting art books, collecting old records, watching old movies, comic books, crime novels, sci-fi/monster movie toys, jack lemmon, peter sellers.

general: i've been tattooing a little over four years as of this september at donovans tattoo in battle ground, wa before moving to infinity tattoo in portland. before that i was working as a graphic designer. i apprenticed under donovan andrews, jr. and chad sellers. i got a late start in life tattooing, but it's something i've always wanted to do, since i started getting tattooed in the mid-80s, so after having the door slammed in my face many, many times, donovan offered me an apprenticeship. i quit my good paying design job, financial security, and any kind of personal life and went for it.

the tattootime books ed hardy put out really got me interested in tattooing, especially seeing work by guys like freddie corbin, eddy deutsche, terry tweed, marcus pacheco, bob roberts, dan higgs and later eric maaske, scott sylvia, chris conn, grime, seth ciferri, matt shamah, marcus kuhn, jim miner, kore flatmo and josh hoffman. i'm predisposed to traditional tattooing, but i'm really developing an interest in black and grey work.

i work hard and draw a lot, and so far the payoff has actually been incredibly gratifying. i'm not trying to change the world or become a tattoo superstar, i just want to do strong, bold, clean work. i'll keep trying.