ASiAn invASion wElcomEd - ProMéxico

56 Negocios i The Lifestyle photo courtesy of kurimanzuto
Dr. Lakra,
the tattoo of
contemporary art
Jerónimo López Ramírez, who is better known as Dr. Lakra, has
combined the worlds of tattooing and painting into a new art form.
By superimposing provocative tattoos of demons and erotic shapes
on magazine images from the 1950s, Dr. Lakra has inked a unique
place in contemporary Mexican art.
A collection of magazines and posters from
the 1950s, ink and his uniquely creative concept
have turned Jerónimo López Ramírez
–better known as Dr. Lakra– into one of the
most important exponents of contemporary
Mexican art.
With the mind of a surgeon and the hands
of a tattoo artist (his original job), López (born
in 1972 in Mexico City) has created work
that intervenes itself among old images –the
majority of which are charged with eroticism
that seemed incendiary when he was
just beginning and is still very provocative
nowadays. On the bodies of nude or seminude
women who were eager to exhibit their
roundness, the painter creates posthumous
tattoos, drawing demons, sexual organs and
false teeth. It is an exercise many passersby
have mischievously done on images found on
the streets.
“As pertinent as graffiti, the relative innocence
of the other is politicized and the images
are seasoned with a diabolical condiment.
Embellishment or social identification, the
works are a carnival of the grotesque. The
erotic firecrackers, the ancient ritual and the
hallucinogenic visions are established in a
collage of ideologies,” asserts the presentation
text of an exhibition by López at The
Saatchi Gallery in London.
As the resident artist at Kurimanzutto,
the prestigious Mexican contemporary art
gallery, Dr. Lakra’s works have traveled from
England –The Saatchi Gallery, Tate Modern
Kate MacGarry– to Japan, having passed
through the cities of Vienna, Madrid, Castilla,
Lisbon, San Francisco and New York.
The last crop of iconographic interventions
resulted in the book Health & Efficien-
cy (editorial RM, Mexico City, 2009). It is a
series that was partly inspired in a handful
of old magazines about nudist camps that Dr.
Lakra bought one rainy Sunday in a market
on Brick Lane in London. With Chinese ink,
tattooing needles, pencils, vinyl paint and
white gouache (an opaque watercolor), the
artist created demons to conquer the bodies
of the women who were photographed in
the 1950s for those magazines.
In addition, the artist’s work can be found
on human skin. Born in Mexico City but having
lived in the city of Oaxaca for several years now,
López is recognized for his work as a tattoo artist.
It was what opened the door to the world of
painting. Without a doubt, he assures that tattooing
and painting are distinct disciplines.
—How did Jerónimo López
Ramírez become Dr. Lakra
—At the end of the 1980s, between 1988
and 1989, I would frequently go with my
friends to the Chopo flea market (in Mexico
City). I decided between 1991 and 1992 to
become a tattoo artist and draw on human
skin at my house or at the homes of my
friends. Of course, I was already tattooed.
To do my job,I always carried a medical
bag where I would store my needles,
gloves and surgical masks. Everyone told
me I looked like a doctor.
—And how was it that
Dr. Lakra became an artist
—I was already painting and drawing before
I was tattooing. I was doing what I always
did: I never stopped painting. The good
thing was I never had to look for space
to do my work. I knew the people at
Kurimanzutto from before and they invited
me. In reality, I was very fortunate.
—Why do you continue tattooing
—Tattooing and painting are distinct
mediums of expression; they look
alike but can’t be compared. They
combine various arts. I go to tattooing
conventions and everything. On the other
hand, making a living from art is difficult
in Mexico or in any part of the world.
For a long time, I made a living from
tattooing because I couldn’t solely do
it from painting. Now, I combine them
without a problem. In my work, I am
a boat without direction. I go where the
air guides and takes me because in life
one thing (tattooing) took me to another
(painting) and brought me back. Today,
I make more specialized tattoos. I never
stopped working on different things.
—The tattoos you paint in your
artistic work, are they preconceived
like those of your “patients” or do
they emerge while you are working
—I have painted many pictures in which
I knew what I was going to create; for
example, sometimes I want the pieces to
only have tattoos that are used in Russian
prisons. Other times, they are random,
picked by chance.
—Tattoos are seen negatively in
some sectors. Do you think your
paintings have the same effect
—Times have changed. Today, most
people accept tattoos. There is also
a very conservative sector for which my
paintings can be very provocative. n