Get a Tattoo by malianrob
I wasnt sure where to put this so i thought here would be a good place although it might not exactly be a fond memory of Quito. But I guess it could be.Rob loves tattoos and whenever possible and if time permits he likes to check out local artists. And if i let him, he'll get a tatoo.
We walked all over Qutio to find a nice, clean place that featured talented artists who did good work. Some places looked clean but the artists work wasnt what we were looking for. Other places the work was great but it didnt look clean enough or lacked something. Then one day we ran into this place. Its called Art Tattoo. The artist is Guillermo Barros and looking through his work left us impressed.
So we found the place, the artist, now we had to decide what to get. Rob said that sailors used to get mermaids tattooed on them when they crossed the equator so Rob decided a mermaid would be fitting. Rob more or less designed the pattern he wanted and Guillermo added some of his personal touch and it turned out great! The price was very very reasonable for the amount of time that it took and the detail to the piece. In the end Rob was happy, Guillermo was proud and the rest is history.I wasnt sure how my family would react to Robs many tattoos. Quito is more of an uptight society than lets say one of the cities by the coast. Social class is a big deal. Shorts a rarely worn by the locals. Certain jobs are concidered beneath people and they wont take them even if they need the money. Good last names are a big deal too....that sort of thing.
Tattoos are not that popular, although they are getting alittle more with the younger generations. It was funny because everywhere we would go in Quito people would literally stop and stare at Rob. Lets see, first of all he is very tall compared to the locals, He is Hawaiian, and he is tattooed. I prepared Rob before we left to Quito because i didnt want him to feel out of place and everything went fine. I really think Rob loved the attention. He wasnt offended at all. There were some older people that approached us at even asked to see his tats and commented on how nice they were. They asked where he was from and were impressed when he said Hawaii. My cousins loved his tattoos, my aunts and uncles i think just assumed it was part of his culture or something. I heard my aunt say something like that. We thought that was funny.