Meet Andres Lopez | Tattooist (@Zillotattoos)

We had the good fortune of connecting with Andres Lopez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andres, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I always knew I wanted to be an artist. To share my art with the world, my family and friends, it seemed to me as a kid, like the best job ever. Slowly as I grew older, people around me consistently told me I would need to study and get a degree, choose a 9-5 job and become “successful”.
But there was one point in my life when I realized that the meaning of that word is different to everybody. What it means to me is to do what you love and create happiness from it.
So I sat down one day and asked myself what would really create happiness in my life, and after a few hours of thinking I landed on the idea of starting my own art business, Tattooing.
Tattooing is a craft i’ve always idolized, it’s very very impressive what some tattooists can do.
When I decided to start, it was frightening for sure, I mean the thought of not being good enough or failing. But I just knew that I am a person that will try it regardless, and if I fail, I can try again.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I would describe my art as lively, telling a story or giving off an emotion. It is always full of sentiment because I pour my entire heart and soul into every single tattoo I do. I am very proud to say that I’ve single handedly built my own studio and refined my skills to where people from other cities have started to notice my work, all in less than 1 year of having started.
This was not an easy task to do, between the many items and equipment I’ve had to work hard to purchase, and the countless hours that I spent learning about tattooing and its techniques. But I overcame it all, pushed through and forever will keep in pushing, because if there is something that my journey has taught me, it’s that YOU are in 100% control of your destiny and what happens to you on a daily basis.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love this question, I actually have a list of places to eat and hang out at that I frequently visit to get some inspiration. To eat, I love korean BBQ and my favorite place so far is this restaurant called “Izziban”. Another restaurant that calls to my attention is sanTo’s american and japanese buffet. Nothing like eating a good meal and then heading to a place like “tate’s comics” to recharge creatively. Their selection of comics, posters, action figures, movies, books, magazines, etc, will surely bring your creative juices to flow.
Another activity I might indulge in is thrifting! I love to thrift and find little nick knacks here and there to decor.
Some good thrift stores would be oddballs nifty thrift, old ghosts odditorium, american thrift, between others.

Instagram: @zillotattoos

Other: email for contact: zillotattoos@gmail.com