With more than 20 years in the business and many travels around the world, Lucho Morante, 38 years old, has become a lettering figure in the tattoo world. Let's rewind back a bit and take a look into the unusual path of the "Charapa" of tattooing.
The first machines. Lucho comes from « Iquitos », a tropical city located in the north east of Peru. Charapa (a small freshwater turtle) is the nickname given to the inhabitants of this region buried in the jungle. His interest in tattooing began in his late teens when he got his first tattoo. Lucho tells us : « This dude tattooed all the guys in the gangs and worked with a rotary machine that he had tinkered himself. When I got home, I wanted to take my mother's sewing machine apart to see how it worked. (laughs) » he ended up building his own tattoo gun and started inking his friends. It wasn't easy at that time to get a real machine in his town… « I was always trying to improve my machines to look like the ones I saw in the magazines, but I didn't really know how it worked or what it looked like. One time, a buddy who had managed to get a real machine lent it to me and when I tested it… I said: "What the fuck! It's really too heavy! (laughs) ».
Lucho, now the owner of many professional "tattoo-guns", has since always worked with "coil" machines (there are two kinds : coil machines which work with a system made of electromagnets inspired by old housebells, and rotary machines which possess a rotating electric motor as in the old walk-man or electric shavers. This system, which is widely used in prisons, among other things, was not of high quality nor popular until about ten years ago, and after numerous improvements, has become the most popular, because it is easier to use). Recently Lucho tried once more a rotary machine, made by another tattoo artist, which he praised for its aesthetics and quality, the « mother of all tattoo machines. » "The frame, the style, it looks like a traditional machine and that's why I bought it, otherwise I always work with traditional machines" he tells us. In conclusion, "coils" are known to make better lines and for an artist who tattoos a lot of lettering, the lines are important.
The journey : In 2003, after 3 or 4 years of tattooing in Peru, Lucho decides to leave for Europe. He settles in Tarragona in Spain, a seaside town located a hundred kilometers south of Barcelona. He finds a place as a permanent tattooist in a shop mainly dedicated to"Old School » tattoos. He learns a little bit of technique and is happy to have the opportunity to work but he feels rather attracted by "new school » tattoos. So unfortunately Lucho doesn’t feel at the right place. He starts going to conventions and "guests" (tattooing for a short period of time, usually a week, as a guest in a shop, this allows him to travel and meet other professionals, a very common practice in the tattoo world). It’s during the famous tattoo convention in Barcelona that he meets Dimitri Hk, Safwan, Steph D, and Jee Sayalero, new-school artists whose work he appreciates. He will from then on do numerous « guest weeks » at Dimitri Hk's shop in St Germain en Laye (near Paris in France).
After many years of wandering between shops in Tarragona, guests and conventions all over Europe, Lucho opens his first shop "Blessed Garden" near Tarragona in 2015, then a second one in Toulouse, France. Many trips between the two cities follows and he finally ends up staying in Toulouse. Unfortunately bad luck forces Lucho to give up his own shop in Toulouse after the city bought the building… So he goes back to doing "guests" and traveling for miles and miles. At the moment he’s mainly based at a shop in Lille called "People are strange » and with the desire to open a new shop perhaps in Brittany. the adventure still continues…
Style. At the beginning of his career, Lucho develops an attraction for new-school (a genre inspired by comic books and cartoons) with among his references artists such as Victor Chil, Logan Barracuda and Koan, who inked Lucho’s torso and belly with a magnificent tattoo. About ten years ago came a fashion for lettering and chicano looks, he started tattooing letterings in addition to new school pieces. "They called me "latino-chicanos" with my tattooed South American face, and they asked me for lots of letterings" he tells us, framing his face in his hands. Since then, he has become a specialist in this style, and together with El Carnicero, Fatkush and Feel "original side" he created the first lettering collective in Europe "Born to Script".
Having become a big name, he explains "sometimes people think that lettering is just writing, but we don't write, we take the time, we do the lining, the shadows, and then we tattoo… » It’s true that at this level it's more of an illustration than just school writing. Lucho, before having developed his own style, was inspired by artists who are for him the most innovative in this style: Big Meas, Big Sleeps and others who are not tattoo artists like Dave Smith, letter painter and gold leaf specialist, and also Martin Schmetzer, another talented letter painter. In 2015, the shop "Blessed garden" that he opens with his friend Nono in Toulouse is mainly access on lettering, the decoration was incredible.
Conclusion We ask Lucho for a little anecdote to conclude our interview and he tells us "A few years ago, in Tarragona, I had to go for a walk with my daughter and I take her to my shop. So she moans a little when she sees me setting up my equipment: "Are you going to work, Daddy? and I tell her: "No, you're going to tattoo me. "And she gave me her first tattoo when she was 11 years old, it's a great memory. » ((((Finally, we ask him : "Anything else to add? » to which he replies "I'm hungry! « (laughs). Report by ATC TATTOO TEAM translated from French by James C. https://www.instagram.com/lucho_morante https://www.instagram.com/luchomorantelettering https://www.facebook.com/comomucholucho https://www.youtube.com/LuchoMorante
