Featured Artist
Genaro David Gallegos, better know as "El Stomper", was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico in 1978. In the land of Mariachi, Tequila, and the home of the great muralist Jose Clemente, Orozco houses a new kind of artist.Stomper grew up in the barrio of San Andres, which is the oldest part of the city infested with violence, poverty, and drugs. Stomper's love for art started in elementary school when he used to spend countless hours drawing with crayons while his other six siblings ran amuck around the house. At the age of 10 his problems at home got worse and his new friends were a ballpoint pen and a pencil. His drawings were a collector's item in the neighborhood and many of his friends would ask him to draw stuff for them, and he would just give the drawings away. At the age of 13 his problems at home and his parents' problems pushed him to find comfort in the streets. His new family introduced him to partying and the gangster way of life. With the problems getting worse at home, his parents could not afford to pay for school, so he had to drop out and start working full time.
Stomper never gave up on his artwork and started to do graffiti. One of his friends would bring him magazines from America so he could check out other artists' work; he'd then flip it to create artworks of his own. Stomper was into doing realistic demons. He remembers practicing making crazy faces in the mirror, and sketching them out on a piece of paper. He'd then transfer his ideas onto walls. Stomper would have to save up for a few months so he could purchase supplies after he got permission from wall owners to do pieces on their property. Stomper's work was among the first to be recognized in Latin America as some of the best.
In 1994 Stomper's life changed. A friend was visiting his old neighborhood and started to build a tattoo machine with a Walkman as a motor, a pen as a tube, and a sharpened guitar string as a needle. After his friend was done tattooing, Stomper asked to borrow the machine. Word got around that Stomper had a tattoo machine, and all his homies got tatted by him. Soon enough strangers started asking for tattoos. One of his clients told him that what he was doing on others' skin weren't just a tattoos, but art. He knew someone in Puerto Vallarta who could help him get into a professional tattoo shop.Stomper took the risk of moving and started working at a shop as a helper. Even though he had already tattooed, Stomper started at the shop by soldering needles together and cleaning. It's one of the main reasons Stomper's humble attitude makes him well-liked by many of the old-school tattoo artists. He didn't forget were he came from, and for that, he's admired by all. After a year he returned to Guadalajara, and with his new equipment, started tattooing full time out of his house.
Stomper's work is recognized by many artists, and is collected by some of the best in the industry. He won numerous awards, and he's been interviewed by many different media outlets, all eager to see what else he's going to bring to the table and the next Tattoo convention. Stomper enjoys doing all kinds of tattoos from black and grey to color. He adds that doing a tattoo is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. No matter if it's a cat or a portrait, always approach the tattoo with the intention of executing it to the best of your ability. The artist is planning on opening his shop soon, but first he wants to travel all over the world to get to know more places, and their tattoo and art communities. Stomper's artwork-reflected on canvas, skin or paper-is of his everyday life. He started drawing and tagging up walls to escape from his problems at home. Now he's one of the best and most well-known artists in the worldwide tattoo industry. If you would like to see more of his work check him out at: www.myspace.com/stomper_tattoo.