Terry Ribera is one the new breed of tattoo artists that focus on the true art and craft of tattooing.  Ribera has honed his skills over the years as a tattoo artist, while often infusing his painting and illustrative abilities into his work. Ribera describes his style as Art Nouveau related and you can see a definite painterly influence in his tattoo work. You can currently find Ribera on both coasts; working at Avalon Tattoo II in San Diego, Cali. and at Dare Devil Tattoo in New York City. Even with his busy and cross-coastal schedule, we found time to ask Ribera a few questions.

How long have you been tattooing?

I am getting close to nine years now.  It's funny for me to say that, because it feels a lot longer.

Do you have any formal art training?

Not much really, which I don't recommend.  I have taken some junior college courses, a few oil painting classes here and there.  I recently took a course at Jeff Watt's, which is an amazing art school in Encinitas, Cali.  I highly recommend it for anybody who really wants to take their art seriously.  It's a great place focusing on figure studies, oil painting; it's a very traditional and classic approach to art.  If I had the time I would live in that school just for the knowledge.  I am not enrolled now, at the moment I'll have to wait until my life opens up with more free time.

What made you want to become a tattoo artist and how did you get started in the industry?

Working at a grocery store, unfortunately. I originally moved to San Diego doing illustrations for small record labels and action sports type companies.  The pay wasn't that great; most of it was freelance and the contract work that I had was pretty dismal, and let's say the pay was flakey and not very rewording.  The work wasn't very rewarding either.  After about a year of it I decided I needed more money and I took a part time job working at a grocery store.  I was trying to get some money together, trying to figure a way to get financial aid I really wanted to work as an illustrator.  I never thought that I would be tattooing.  Although in the back of my mind from some experiences I had as a younger man it was one of those things that was always in the back of my head.  

Anyhow at the time I was 23, and really just hating life.  I felt pretty depressed, I had big plans for my life and let's just say pushing carts and stacking cans wasn't on the list and it seemed so far away from art school.  The way financial aid worked based on my financial situation it wouldn't be for another two years before I would be considered eligible.  I couldn't see myself working in that store for that long, or any other job.  I had a nice hiatus from a regular 9-5 for a year before just doing my art, but as I said it wasn't really paying the bills.  The grocery store was the push that I needed to really realize my life was what I made of it. However what really prompted my decision was the tattoo shop across the street from the place.  It was a pretty bad place, terrible really.  I'd see the worst things come out of there; some of the guys I worked with had collected a few things from that place.  I'll leave the shop nameless as it really is the people who get tattooed who allow themselves to get that kind of crap. 

Anyhow it made me pretty upset, just staring at that place every day.  At that time I felt like I had worked really hard with my art, I really wanted it a career in art and the fact that somebody, sitting in front of me was basically doing what I wanted and really didn't care to do it well just set something off in me.  So I decided to collect my materials and put together a small portfolio of art and seek out an apprenticeship.  It wasn't easy at first, to be honest I was completely clueless and I don't really think where I was at the time was a good reason to want to tattoo.  But luckily for me, being the big dummy that I was with no tattoos at the time and no idea about the industry I somehow landed an apprenticeship and to be honest a pretty good one.  Thanks to Gil Taimana at Master Tattoo he kind of let me in their world.  I worked there for my first three years.  Denny Besnard, who is a brilliant Japanese influenced tattooer really showed me most of everything I know.  I worked a while with Nate Banuelos and Chris Walkin, who both are amazing tattooers as well. It was just a great opportunity, and somehow I had just the right luck.  All of us at Masters, but after three years there it was time for me to move on.  I needed the eye opener. The money was pretty good there, the work was reasonably steady, but like so many people when you start somewhere you become tired of certain things.  I didn't really have anything to compare it too.  So I think it really helped for me to move on to see what was good about an environment like that.  We did a lot of military tattooing there, I wanted a chance to be more involved in custom tattooing.

How did you end up tattooing in both San Diego and NYC?

Well after a couple years working elsewhere, with a few trips every month or so to them Bay to work I did a guest spot at Fip Buchanan's Avalon Tattoo II.  A month later he offered me a job, which was just the right timing.  I was extremely close to leaving San Diego and moving back home to the San Francisco Bay Area.  But luckily for me I didn't…again I can't even begin to explain my luck.  Well I've been working here at Avalon II for over three years now and my fiancé and I have wanted a chance to work in N.Y.  The problem was that here in San Diego I've been very blessed over the last couple years.  I can thank Avalon for that; I have a very steady client base here, running around 5-6 months on average.  It's a lot of work.  I only focus on custom tattooing, it's what makes me the happiest, but there's that part of me that still wants to do illustration.  I mean I'd never leave tattooing, I just want that opportunity to do both.  

So I've decided that I needed the next couple of years to focus on that.  To really work hard at that and to take the time away from tattooing to paint and make a new portfolio of that type of work.  Ideally I'd like to do children's books, young adult novels.  But with tattooing it's so hard to get away and have the time to do much else.  Before I was busy with a long wait list I had plenty of time to paint, but there was no pressure.  It was just fun stuff for me.  The more I painted the more people would see that stuff and the more people would want to get tattooed.  The next thing I knew there was no time to paint anymore.  All I do is draw tattoo stuff now, which pays the bills and beats the living hell out of the grocery store.  But there's that other part of me, the part that wants to paint.  I can't spend all of my days off preparing tattoos, I want more out of my art than that. Even though I love tattooing it's the hardest I've ever had to work.  I am not saying that I am not making a decent living, but it really bottoms out eventually.  In order to keep it up you have to stay at a certain pace.  The pace I am fine with, but I want to do other kinds of art.  And for me that's what's going to make me be able to keep tattooing.  Not resenting it, being able to break away from it from time to time.  I don't have any other real interest beyond art. As great as tattooing is there's that other part of me that I can't ignore. My fiancé is a designer, she also went to school for illustration and is really supportive of me. 

So we had an idea that she could work out in N.Y., get us settled out there, and I would follow her every month.  I could go there for a couple weeks and spend part of it tattooing and part of it painting.  The bonus to N.Y. is all the publishing companies, so again with luck being on our side she landed a job with Disney's publishing division.  We have a nice little apartment there on the Upper East Side and we are keeping our place here while I travel every month.  Well, I approached a few shops and Michelle Myles of Dare Devil and Fun City Tattoo in N.Y. is giving me that opportunity.  I just recently made my first trip out there. I helped Jen settle our things in the apartment and I've arranged the first few months of dates with Michelle at Dare Devil. She's a really been open to my schedule and has a nice shop.  Everybody there has a really solid portfolio and I can't say enough good things about her and the place.  Each month I'll be going there a little more and more.  

I really have to thank Fip, he's been such an amazing understanding guy to work for.  At Avalon it's a very family-like atmosphere.  Everyone is friends we eat breakfast together every week, go to dinners, are welcomed into each other's home.  Fip and I have talked before about my interest when Jen and I went seeking our options in N.Y. Fip was more than okay.  So here I am, with this unusual opportunity.  I get to explore a new client base with tattooing, in N.Y. a place I have always wanted to live and I am still keeping a steady clientele here in San Diego.  

How would you describe your style? What are your favorite subjects to tattoo?

If it was up to me, I'd like to say I tattoo Art Nouveau.   People like to classify what I do as New School, which I don't really agree with.  I don't think that's what I am doing.  I feel like that's about as far away from what I am doing as possible.  I like to do a lot of biomechanical tattooing, I like to tattoo human figure pieces and animals the most.  I like a lot of architecture, flowers, and organic shapes.  I like classic and timeless ideas most, with a good dose of random biomechanical on the side.  I now that sounds like a contradiction, but to me it's very sculptural, it lends hand to the Art Nouveau style.  I really enjoy baroque period sculpture, filigree, the way old churches look.  I also like to have a little bit of an Asian influence to my work, the swirling clouds, water etc.  Mainly I am focused on the organic flow of a design to me that's what I enjoy about tattooing.  Using the body, almost like I am sculpting my designs into somebody.  To me tattooing is really about composition and harmony with the wearers body.

How do you feel about the current state of tattooing?

I am unsure; on one hand I feel busier than ever.  I guess tattooing itself keeps exploding more and more, but ultimately the clients aren't being educated.  The media promotes the hype of tattooing, not the art of it, they don't focus on the things that really matter for those of us who are really focused on this.  They keep turning it into some sad reality show.  I am waiting for the day when a tattooer can really be in a place that's just as legitimate as a painter. Where people don't just waste giant chunks of their bodies because of some fad.  I wish people would really research and discover tattoo artist that produce the work that works for them.  I have had a lot of really great clients over the last couple of years and I am currently pretty happy with where I am at with that.  But I still see people, they way they enter into tattooing.  They don't do the research, they are more often impatient, and will quickly go to another artist who is available.  It's unfortunate, because tattooing is more like a novelty to most people.  Something you would do to shock your friends, or if your experiencing a mid life crisis.  There's almost no thought as to who should be doing the work on them.  Some people really understand art and that's who I focus on.  

So for me I stay pretty happy, but I guess there's always somebody else with another view. Somebody who doesn't really care and for them it's just a tattoo, and that's fine.  There are tattooers for that.  My problem is the media is making tattooing into a spectacle and they pay little to no attention on the hard work and the actual art involved.  It's all about people crying on TV and freakish eyeball tattoos.  In a way I think it's nice to be busy, it's nice that so many of us can make a living, because it's acceptable, but then there's part of me that thinks that not everybody should be welcomed into tattooing.  It's serious, but I guess it's as serious as you want to make it.  I am not trying to be a judge, just for my life and the people that I like to work with it helps to be around like minded people. I am happy to be in place where people take interest in what I am doing.  I hope that it always goes that way, and so far it seems to.

Who are some of your current influences?

I really look up to Filip Leu, Shige, Lars Uwe, Steve Moore, Marcus Pacheco, Rob Koss, and of course Aaron Cain.  I'd also like to mention Alphonse Mucha, he's not a tattooer, but by far my favorite artist.

 What is your favorite thing about being a tattoo artist?

The ability to take on different subjects and if somebody is really into what I am doing to push it into something great.  People come in with so many different ideas; I think that's the real fun.

 What do you think you’d be doing today if you weren’t a tattoo artist?

 Working as an illustrator.

Any future plans or final words?

To keep doing the things that I enjoy and to spend more time with Jen and the dogs.