Ed Rivera of Decoraters Tattoo

Can you discuss any particular cultural or artistic influences that inspire your tattoo designs?

Modern western tattooing to me is a post modern pastiche form…Tattooing is everything, the oldest art form, pure, raw experiential expression, feat of endurance, coming of age blood ritual, symbols to identify manhood womanhood, family, war, identity, magic, otherness… the heaviest realities we all experience, but this then must include taz, tweety, porky pug, corporate logos for sports teams, video games, kapitalist ego souveniring, bands, tv shows, start wars ships and khristian iconography, the highest highs and lowest lows, an art form so all-encompassing it is post-art total reality.

I am a low-intellect “extra person” from a mudfield in rural indiana, my own vision isn’t particularly important, ideally I serve as a conduit for the client’s identity. Left to my own devices, I like weird old references from children’s books, comics, cartoons, fast food toys, horror vhs art… My favorite tattoo work tends toward black large heavy designs removed from illustrative imagery…swirls, spikes, stripes, dots and spirals…big, heavy, layered…the bigger and simpler the better.

Could you describe your favorite tattoo design that you’ve created and the story behind it?

My favorite designs…too many to say any certain one. Some of my favorite phenomenon is when someone says “I want whatever YOU want to do,” as in, total, total artistic freedom… because, well, that’s crazy, if I don’t know you at all. If pressed to pick, you’re gonna end up getting, like, an image of a woman having sex with a german shepard, or a rat crawling into a vagina…I can’t resist, and how else could I ever tattoo such content??