BLJan18ToWeb

Florida Art
Byron
Cuevas
By Misti Blu Day McDermott
Byron Cuevas is a local
tattoo artist but he is
much more than that. He
is often donating his time
and talent to raise money
for a good cause. A few
months ago, he had a
Suicide Awareness tattoo
marathon. New to Brevard,
Byron comes from New
Jersey and music is a
huge inspiration to is artistic
ambition. He paints and
sketches on his spare time
and is genuinely one of the
nicest guys you ever want
to meet.
Where are you from
originally and how long
have you been in Florida?
Byron: I was Born in Guatemala,
but I lived in central
New Jersey most of my
life. I have lived in Brevard
County for a year and a half.
How did you start out
as a tattoo artist?
Byron: I was originally going
to school for illustration
and hoped to be able to do
metal band t-shirt designs.
I was about half way done
with my Associates degree
when I was introduced to the
tattoo world. A good friend
of mine (who had been getting
heavily tattooed at the
time) introduced me to Mardo
Rodrigues, who eventually
became my mentor. I
got tattooed consistently
for a year by Mardo before
taking him up on his apprenticeship
offer. Being exposed
to the tattoo industry
throughout this time made
me very interested in tattooing
and I knew that this
is what I would be doing for
the rest of my life, which
was late 2012.
Who is your Favorite
artist?
Byron: I don’t think I can
narrow it down to one favorite
artist, but some of my tattoo
favorites would be Justin
Harris, David Tevenal,
Mrdist, Anrijs Straume and
Nicholas Keizer.
What kind of music do
you listen to?
Byron: I tend to listen to a
lot of heavy music genres
such as metal, hardcore,
punk and so on, however,
I enjoy almost all genres
of music. Some of my personal
favorite bands are:
The Black Dahlia Murder,
As Blood Runs Black,
While She Sleeps, and Veil
of Maya.
Tell me about the charity
work that you are involved
with!
Byron: The most recent
charity that I was involved
with was a suicide awareness
event that we held at
The Big Bang Studio. Myself
and my co-worker, Karissa
Johns, were able to
raise $1,410 and donated the
proceeds to the local organization
(TWLOHA) To Write
Love On Her Arms. We are
always looking for amazing
causes to be a part of and to
be able to give back to our
community.
What other type of art
do you do?
Byron: When I’m not tattooing
I’m usually sketching or
doing some sort of digital
art piece, aside from that I
enjoy painting with acrylic
paint on wood. I would like
to get into wood burning in
the near future.
What is your goal as an
artist and where do you see
yourself in the future?
Byron: My current goal as a
tattooist is to be able to have
44 - Brevard Live January 2018