Today we’d like to introduce you to Terry Ribera.
Hi Terry, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started tattooing in 2000 at Tahiti Felix’s Master Tattoo in downtown San Diego, under Denny Besnard. Before that I was working with small record labels and doing commercial illustration, so I came in with a drawing background but had to learn tattooing from the ground up like everyone else. Back then it was coil machines, hand making needles, no ipads, no social media. honestly it was a wonderful and more authentic time if you ask me.
The first several years were mostly walk-in work, which is the best training there is. You learn to draw fast, apply cleanly, and deal with people. Over time I got pulled toward larger custom pieces, and that’s where I’ve stayed. Sleeves, back pieces, illustrative tattoo work, body suits. Neo Japanese, biomechanical, neo traditional, ornamental. Honestly I just love to draw.
In July 2011 I opened Remington Tattoo in North Park, we are now located in a 1930s Spanish house we converted. The idea was a shop where artists could focus on serious custom work, when time permits walk in tattoos are still available with some of the artists. . I apprenticed Jasmine Worth my partner there, about 3 years in to our relationship I encouraged her to consider tattooing. It just made sense, she’s already a great artist. She has been tattooing 10 years now.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, it hasn’t been smooth, shortly after i opened I went through a divorce. it was incredibly difficult to manage that emotionally and run a business, A year or so later I met Jasmine and we have made 14 great years together. Tattooing looks glamorous from the outside now, but the first years are mostly trying to create a client base that’s consistent and of course learn the craft. I came in as a developed artist drawing and painting all of my life. I had to unlearn a lot of it. Paper doesn’t age like skin. Ink migrates, scars take pigment differently, a line that reads perfect on a flat surface can distort when the arm moves. That took years to get right, and anyone doing this is forever perfecting it.
Opening the shop in 2011 was its own education. I knew how to tattoo. I didn’t know how to run a business, initially my ex-wife was to handle the web, marketing and branding as that was her background. I would handle the lease, deal with the artists and supplies and of course tattoo. When we decided to divorce, it put me in a position to need to learn her role a well. Some of that i hired people for, a lot of it i did on my own. After 4 years we moved the shop across the street and I bought the building we occupy now. I manage a building from the 1930s that needs constant attention, let’s just say i own a lot of tools now. The first 15 years I was working full 12-14 or more hour days 60-70 hour weeks with clients and then doing books and repairs after close. There’s no course for that. You learn by making expensive mistakes, and I made many mistakes.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a tattoo artist and shop owner. I do large scale custom work, mostly sleeves, back pieces, and body suits. The styles I work in are illustrative, neo Japanese, biomechanical and bio-organic, neo traditional, ornamental, and art nouveau. A lot of what I do is combining those rather than staying inside one lane. All of my work is an illustrative art nouveau that reaches in to different subjects and styles of tattooing.
What I’m known for is Large colorful illustrative work. Lot’s of biomech and bio-organic work. That’s the material in Guy Aitchison’s Biomech Encyclopedia, and it’s what a lot of people find me for. I do lots of illustrative work that consists of nature, ornamental design, fantasy or mythological narratives. It’s a demanding because my style is based in inventing forms that have to read as structural and organic at the same time, and they have to wrap naturally around a body.
What sets my approach apart is that I design for the body, not for an instagram photo. A large tattoo has to work when the person is standing, sitting, and moving. That means the composition is built around the anatomy from the start rather than a flat drawing applied to a curved surface. It’s slower on the front end and it’s why my consultation and drawing process is longer than most. I want to put serious thought in to my compositions. I also need tell the client’s story through my lens. It’s a huge investment of time with the client, and additional work outside of tattooing. It’s a lot of drawing.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Here’s a draft:
The most direct way is to book a tattoo or commission a painting. I take on a lot of large projects at a time and the wait is around a year, so the earlier you reach out the better. Email hello@terryribera.com with what you have in mind, placement, and size, we can discuss the details and my assistant River handles scheduling. I’m at Remington Tattoo, 3009 Myrtle Ave in North Park.
I sell a Biomech Kit for tattoo artists who want to learn that style properly. Reference material, structure, how the forms actually work. There’s a composition book in progress too, covering full body templates and design structure. Artists who buy that stuff and use it are supporting the work as much as clients are.
On the fine art side, I show regularly at Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco and recently Jasmine and I both did a big Featured show La Luz de Jesus in Los Angeles, and the paintings and drawings are also on my website www.terryribera.com. Collectors and galleries can reach me the same way.
Pricing:
- That information is on my website
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.terryribera.com
- Instagram: @terryribera
- Other: https://www.remingtontattoo.com
