The tattooers of the best reality TV shows: only with Jasmine Rodriguez and Carlos Rojas via Buenos Aires

Concentrated in the booth badembly where hundreds of people stop to greet them and ask for tattoos, Jasmine and Carlos smile as they speak and open the suitcases where they bring their equipment. They are the guests of honor of the most important Argentine tattoo convention of South America. He is distinguished by his realistic designs and is an expert in camouflage, new school and realism.

The post with their names is mounted almost in the center of the ocher pavilion of La Rural where at this moment the details are finalized to open the doors and start the 15th tattoo show . In the neighborhood, 299 additional places are listening shortly before Friday, March 8, at noon.

There, they welcome their work team and expect that they will not only sign autographs and pose for photos.. They came to the country for the first time to do what they know: tattooing. As they pull out the ink pots, the machines, the posters and the rolls of paper and films, they say that they failed in their attempt to walk: the storm of the previous night forced them to interrupt a tour, but they make sure they do not keep the door. desire to know the culture of Buenos Aires.

"I go where they take us to learn more about this beautiful city, for now we have seen little and it's beautiful"says Jasmine to Infobae with his clbadic smile.

Jasmine Rodriguez, is the popular American star who is known for his outstanding work in American reality TV Tattooed nightmares. He was born 37 years ago in Yonkers, New York State, and at only 15 years old, he launched into the male world of art in the skin.

Your income for Champion tattoo, renowned study of his city, is not a coincidence. She arrived there, deciding and knowing what she would do with her life: she entered the store and asked the owner if she had a job at her disposal. So began the path, nothing simple, which today has it at the top.

"I have been tattooing for 22 years, but it took me a long time for my job to respect me, when I started working, it was a very closed world, it was difficult for me not only because I was a woman, but because I was brown ", remember the artist.

– In those years, what has changed?

–Today, I feel that people respect me and that they take me seriously., Actually. And that's gone from reality, I know. Many things have changed for me since my work was made public. I feel that since then, people have started to respect my work and to see me for my work and not for my bad!

– Being a space that has always been occupied by men, do you think tattoo artists are currently accepted?

-Yes! Over the past 10 years, the world has changed a lot in this regard and now we women are putting our voices in all areas. I really think that people are paying more attention to women's artistic work, which was previously more difficult to impose on the tattoo world.

Jasmine greets women who raise their voices in Argentina and find in their memory the path they had to cross: "When I started working in a studio, my colleagues asked me to serve them coffee!"laughs the devoted artist.

In Tattooed nightmares, Jasmine is one of the tattoo artists – she is accompanied by Big Gus and Tommy Helm – who has the difficult task of arranging cover, in jargon) tattoos that have hilarious stories behind them, told by people who have been wearing a tattoo that embarrbades them for years. Many of them were made after a night of excesses and others were a gamble. All this is seen in a funny dramatization.

"I did a lot of tattoos in the program, many models to cover many disasters, since most of them were very crazy stories, but there is one that has marked me a lot and that is the one I did to a boy jailed for many years. He asked me to design a boot because this boot was his only possession in the world! That was his only belonging! -It is moved by memory With this tattoo, he wanted to represent and remember the humility and that he would always remain a humble person. This has greatly affected me! It really affected me, "he said.

– What is the tattoo on your skin that also makes you excited?

-C & # 39; is my sentimental tattoo! (shows a symbol on his forearm). That's my tattoo Tattooed nightmares. The three tattoo artists in the program decided to do the same. And also this one! (points to a mini mountain in another part of his arm and is tempted by laughter) That's the Macchu Picchu! He tattooed it! (shows Tito Suriñach, his cousin, who also has dotted lines on his forearm).

The tattoo of the two symbolizes the special moment that represents for them their pbadage through Peru and the sacred city of the Incas. "We were there a few months ago," he says, while Tito, also a tattoo artist, gives more details: "We made a tattoo over Machu Picchu! We were delighted to be there we took out the machine and we did it, but they saw us They forced it down. "

The cousins ​​laugh with complicity: "It was very small! Mine is a small mountain and his is almost a line!" Make fun of the funny woman.

At the end of the interview, Jasmine shares a reflection on the path she has traveled and the one that leaves those who follow clear.

"In this work, we always learn, sometimes in decline, but always taking the impetus to move forward, improving the techniques because there are more and more talents and the number of artists in the world increases," That's why I say to those who wish to continue this work that they do and they do not accept that no one will tell them that they can not do it. Keep working because, as in any profession, you must also devote time and work!"

"In Ink Master, I had nothing good"

Carlos Rojas This is one of the references of the global realist style and became known after participating in the ninth season of the first American reality, whose challenge is to design and tattoo clockwork that, in life real, require several hours and work sessions.

Although it only lasted three episodes, he managed to impose his style and share his work with other prestigious artists. In addition, he creates exclusive designs for a clothing brand.

– How does your experience in Ink Master?

-C-was good! I arrived with a lot of expectations, but it was not what I expected, because behind the camera, a lot of things are made to play with his mind and make it all more dramatic. …

– So it was not very good?

-It was not so good because I only had three episodes and they even threw me out! (laughs) The work over there was weird because of the short time required to do everything. What I showed, I have the impression that it was not really the work that I could do in my studio, with the necessary time, without pressure, without definite time … It is very different of my normal work, of my real work.

Carlos explains that the "canvases", as a reality show host, Dave Navarro, are people who voluntarily sign up for the program to be tattooed and although they ask to be summoned for certain styles or designs, what is their turn … And this can generate conflict.

"After each challenge, there was a winner and the winner could choose a client, a customer arrived because a few days before, people were invited to get a tattoo for free … But tattooed of just what!" "In the program the winner of the day's challenge had to choose one of these customers and we might know what he expected, but the others were customers in the program," he explains. tunes that did not know who or what they were going to tattoo! "

Analyzing his experience admits that "it was very different from the normal experience of getting a tattoo because people went to make a free tattoo and then seized the opportunity to ask for 10,000 things at a time … and did not leave time for what they asked! They came to ask me to tattoo their entire arm in 5 hours! And in 5 hours, it's the time they gave us to design and finish a tattoo that you can not, it's not real. At least I do not work like that. I'm taking my time and doing my job well, but there they gave us such a limited time that it made quite unreal. "

Carlos has also been called to be one of the stars of the last edition of the Tattoo show, of which I had heard that it was "the largest convention in South America".

Carlos Rojas shared in his networks the tattoo that he made in Buenos Aires.

"I've heard some very good reviews of this convention, so when they invited me to come, I did not doubt it, it also became the first time I'd 39, is attending a convention in this part of the continent, it's the first time I come to South America, "he says. despite the fact that he knew very little about the city of Buenos Aires, the little he saw pleased him.

"I love everything I knew about Buenos Aires, at least what the tour canceled by the storm lasted," he recalls with a laugh, as the rain from the previous night caught them in the middle of the night. A tour in the center of Buenos Aires. the pink house.

Finally, while people who waited for him to take a picture with him meet, Carlos tells us that he is happy because he will do the tattoos that he likes the most in Buenos Aires and that he has all his program.

"I'm going to make realistic drawings, my favorite style, in black and white or in colors, I like taking a picture and dabbing it on the skin or creating animals and that kind of patterns … This afternoon I have a photo of rapper Tupac Tomorrow, a drawing with black and white roses next to a clock and many other objects Sunday, I did not know it yet I came to make a tattoo, do what I love most, "he concludes.