He was born two years after Freddy Negrete got his first professional tattoo job at Good Time Charlie's. In the first room of the exhibition, there's a life-size silicone arm with a full sleeve tattoo of Meso-American imagery in black and gray. It takes you through the origins and evolution of the artform and Chicano style black and gray is a significant part of the show. And, this year, his work was featured in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles called Tattoo. Today, Negrete's in recovery, tattooing with his oldest son, Isaiah, at the Shamrock Social Club on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Negrete was just a couple of years shy of his 50th birthday. ![]() He started using again and ended up in Folsom State Prison. In his memoir, Negrete writes that after his son's death, in 2004, he lost the will to live. Negrete was on and off hard drugs, was in and out of jail, and his teenage son was shot and killed by a rival gang member. There was a lot of drama between those career highs, though. The shop's proprietors changed their professional tattoo machines to have a single needle. Their primarily Mexican-American clientele, male and female, wanted tattoos that were done in "la pinta" (prison) with fine lines and black and gray shading. It started when a tattoo parlor opened up in East Los Angeles in the mid-1970s called Good Time Charlie's Tattooland. So, how did black and gray style break out and go legit? One of his most famous drawings from back when he was a young man came from his time in the California Youth Authority, (now called California Division of Juvenile Justice.) It was of the iconic comedy tragedy masks with ornate lettering that read, "smile now, cry later." If you go into most tattoo shops and request a "smile now, cry later," Negrete says, the artist will know exactly what you're after. Paper decorated with roses, Catholic and Aztec symbols, portraits of girls dressed like Mexican revolutionaries with gun-belts and sombreros. He made stationary with Chicano imagery for the other inmates to write letters on. ![]() ![]() His super power in the penitentiary was his ability to draw.
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