Charlie Mendez
Interviewed December 23, 2015 | Written and photographed by Ilya Natarius
I round the corner of Colfax Avenue onto Lake Street and see a sign that says “Ink Lab.” Standing in a doorway below the sign is Charlie Mendez, a local tattoo artist based out of Dinkytown. Charlie asked me to meet him in his home located above Ink Lab, a tattoo shop he worked at for ten years. “My apartment is just upstairs,” Charlie says as he motions for me to come inside. I follow the staircase to Charlie’s apartment and walk through the front door.
From the moment I enter the apartment, I see artwork everywhere; various paintings, drawings, posters, and other works decorate the walls and surfaces of Charlie’s apartment. Beyond the kitchen in the main living area, one section of storage cubes is taken up by records that Charlie has collected over time. “I used to be a DJ years ago,” Charlie says, pointing to the records. “I sold my mixers and turntables to focus on tattooing, but music is still a large part of my life. I’ll never sell my wax.” Nearby in the same room, there were two desks set up for drawing — one in a closet that’s been converted into an artist space and a second one out in the main area. There’s a dining table nearby and a hallway that opens up to the living room. More artwork hangs on the walls and lines the available surfaces, continuing the theme from the working area. Electronic music bumps from the TV, a YouTube video of a live DJ set playing on the screen.
There’s an altar set up near the doorway where Charlie has a picture of his late mother hanging on the wall. It speaks to the role of Charlie’s family as a major motivation in his work. From the passing of his mother he learned many things, one of which was to never give up, and the altar, as well as his memory of her, reminds him of that every day. Charlie strives to be the best that he can be as a tattoo artist as well as a family man, and his home is set up in a way to motivate him to work on improving his craft. When he is at home, Charlie can work on creating stencils for his job as well as simply draw to relax.
Each piece of artwork on the wall has a story behind it, Charlie says, as he begins to recall details about a few of the hanging pieces. It’s clear that each work is more than just decoration — it’s a representation of memories and past experiences that are significant to him. As Charlie shows me around the apartment, I notice that there isn’t a single item or work of art that was placed without purpose. There truly is a story behind everything here — nothing is simply for show. The entire apartment is full of stories. “There are rocks on the windowsill that my kids have brought back from different places. I can tell you the story behind each one,” Charlie says, looking over at the windows. “My place is full of memories.”
Indeed, everything in the apartment has a story behind it. Each piece and book and drawing is a memory, or a story, or a reminder of something from Charlie’s past, and together these pieces create a space that is set up to be of great influence for Charlie. I’ll get a more in-depth look at some of his art later, but after a quick tour we take a seat at the dining room table for the interview, in which Charlie goes into more detail about the driving forces in his work and how the art of tattooing is, in his words, magical.
Charlie found the art of tattooing when he was an architecture student living in in Mexico and his friend showed him the tattoo shop he was working in. At the time, Charlie didn’t have any interest in becoming a tattoo artist until he was challenged by his friend to do a tattoo. Charlie immediately fell in love with the art and decided that he would learn to be a professional tattoo artist. Dropping out of college shortly after, Charlie learned how to tattoo while living in Mexico City. After several years, Charlie relocated to Minneapolis and began working at Ink Lab, where he worked as a tattoo artist for ten years. In 2015, Charlie left his job at Ink Lab and began working at Dinkytown Tattoo, where he works today.
“Losing my mom when I was fifteen marked me deeply, for life,” Charlie says. Knowing that family has been a large motivational influence on Charlie’s work and his daily drive to be at his best, hearing about his journey from the time when his attitude toward life changed forever, up until the present, speaks volumes. “Cancer took her from us. I know I still try to be the good son she deserves. She never gave up, no matter what, and her love for us is still there — that’s how strongly we feel about her,” Charlie says of his and his older brother’s experience; his brother took care of the family after their mother passed away.
Throughout his life, Charlie has been inspired by his mother’s resolve, and Charlie’s home, as well as the artwork and the ideas that it represents, is a space filled with a lifetime of growth for him. It represents his strength not just as an artist, but also as a father. “I picked this place because I’ve grown up here. In this place I’ve learned to calm down my demons. I’ve learned to understand that being by myself makes sense,” Charlie says. His two sons play a big part in his work. “My kids push me to be better, and I use that energy,” Charlie says. His sons are a large part of his drive every day, and remind him of his purpose.
All of the influences that Charlie discusses materialize as one driving force through his work; the lessons he learned along the way manifest into understanding his clients, and helping them through their difficulties. “Through tattooing I was able to develop more kindness in my heart. When my mother died, I was very angry, and through tattooing I started to understand others’ feelings. I do many memorial tattoos,” Charlie says. During this process, Charlie goes beyond simply tattooing; he tries to help his clients through a hard time as much as he can. “People come to me very depressed because they lost someone, and I understand because I lost my mother when I was fifteen years old. I understand what losing someone means. People come and I am extremely cautious with their pain. I try to make sure that while I am making the tattoo, I talk to the person and try to help them out. I share a part of me and try to tell them giving up is not an option,” Charlie says. In Charlie’s eyes, getting a tattoo is a give-and-take experience, and the client offers a type of sacrifice as well — emotional and physical pain.
“I am from Peru, so I have a lot of Hispanic history. I grew up in Mexico City, so I picked up a lot of Mayan and Aztec history. I am Peruvian by birth and Mexican by heart. Back in the day they used to make sacrifices that involved pain and blood. So when people want a memorial tattoo of someone who passed away, they are sacrificing pain and blood. I’m not making any kind of offering to God or anything like that, but it’s a ritual,” he says.
“Every tattoo I do, when it’s done, I take down the drawing. I don’t repeat it,” Charlie says. Each piece Charlie creates then becomes truly special. It’s something nobody else will ever have — an exclusive original worn proudly by the owner showing their past experiences and the struggles they’ve gone through. These pieces then find a home in Charlie’s home studio, thus being promoted from drawings or stencils to memories. During our interview, Charlie pulls out a few drawings he’s done for clients in the past and tells the stories behind a few of them, recalling when he did the drawing originally and when it became a tattoo. Charlie’s work — that is, the designs he creates — borders on symbolic instead of realistic, representing ideas and experiences. He shows several designs of outlines of people with the face replaced by a flower or another object, emphasizing that his work is not to be taken literally.
Seeing the work on display in his home and hearing Charlie’s story about his family, it quickly becomes clear to me how these two things drive him in his work, and the significance that they represent in the tattoos he creates. For Charlie, the translation of his memories in his home, his drive from his children, and the lessons learned from his mother create an experience that is special to him when he works. He sums up all of this through one statement: “It’s impossible to say that it’s just a job. You’re putting your hands on the client, you are transmitting and receiving energy — it’s a ceremony. The client comes in sad and leaves with a tattoo and a smile, and I get paid for that. I get paid to tattoo and make people happy, and that’s pretty awesome.”
