Leo Zulueta

Leo Zulueta is an American tattoo artist. He is known as the "father of modern tribal tattooing."[1][2][3]

Leo Zulueta
Leo Zulueta at Spiral Tattoo. Ann Arbor, Michigan, August 2011
BornMay 18, 1952
Bethesda, Maryland
NationalityAmerican
Known forTattoo

Biography

Leo Zulueta was born in 1952 in a naval hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.[1] He was born into a Roman Catholic Filipino American family.[4]

Zulueta spent his early years on the island of Oahu in Hawaii and in San Diego, California.[1] He attended San Diego State College in 1970, where he studied arts and crafts.[4]

During the 1970s he began to explore his interest in Bornean traditional tattooing.[4] In 1976 he met tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy, who encouraged him to become a tattooist.[1][5] Zulueta started tattooing professionally in 1981.[1]

Zulueta's style of neo-tribal tattooing has been influential to other tattoo artists.[6] In 1989, he was featured in the RE/Search publication Modern Primitives.[7] In 1992, Zulueta founded Black Wave Tattoo in Los Angeles, California, which he sold in 2000.[1] In 2007, he was featured on TLC's Tattoo Wars with his protégé Rory Keating.[3]

Zulueta currently resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he operates Spiral Tattoo.[1]

References
Leo Zulueta at Spiral Tattoo. Ann Arbor, Michigan, August 2011
  1. Aquino, Joann Natalia (March 2012), "Leo Zulueta: The Father of Modern Tribal Tattooing Celebrates 30 Years in the Black", Skin and Ink
  2. Levy, Janey (2008). Tattoos in Modern Society. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 50. ISBN 1-4042-1829-7.
  3. Chansanchai, Athima (August 12, 2007), "Tattoo convention draws legions -- and a TV show", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, retrieved March 26, 2010
  4. Vale, V.; Juno, Andrea (1989). "Leo Zulueta". Modern Primitives. RE/Search. pp. 96–99. ISBN 978-0-940642-14-0.
  5. Ciferri, Seth, "Leo Zulueta — The King Of Black", Tattoo Artist, no. 6, archived from the original on July 19, 2009, retrieved March 26, 2010
  6. Gay, Kathlyn; Whittington, Christine (2002). Body Marks: Tattooing, Piercing, and Scarification. Twenty-First Century Books. p. 42. ISBN 0-7613-2352-X.
  7. Trebay, Guy (July 29, 2003), "Where Rebellion Is a Pose, the Tattoos Just Get Bigger", The New York Times, retrieved March 26, 2010
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