Cindy Ortega

I believe color gives ownership, whether its stitched into your skin, sketched onto a page or painted onto an apartment wall. This is our fiercest means of rejecting the “greige”, generic commercial rented reality that is incessantly forced upon us. As both a tattooer and an illustrator, I aim to create a world of escape through vibrancy and whimsy. I’ve delved into my love for American Traditional tattooing and re-interpreted its typical motifs to represent the feminine, the queer, and the Chicanx, loading every piece with as many magical embellishments as my canvas will allow. My work creates a place where myself and the viewer can finally have the choice to exist elsewhere, an energetic world of fantasy where we, the disadvantaged, can Own.