My name is chuko Moreno I’m from California born and bred um I work in the tattoo industry and I have for the past 20 plus years but I’m also um deeply rooted in my uh culture of the Cho Community um and so those two lanes those two uh veins are where my passion
Lies a little bit I I wanted to talk about I guess kind of for context how we had met was I had filmed something with you well before I was ever in the tattoo game or knew anything about tattoos so for me this is really special because kind of
Now venturing off into doing these tattoos you’re definitely high on the priority of my list of people I wanted to to film with so I’m number one grateful for you letting us in your house today and just giving us this access yeah man no um I uh I’m a
Creature of habit so it’s like once I uh befriend somebody uh later Downstream if they tap me on the shoulder and um there’s any kind of uh assist that I can uh uh lend to them or any any any Avenue of success in their industry then of
Course the doors open all that’s just how I am I appreciate that um first CU I kind of learned a little bit about this by reading your book was uh where does the name chuko come from um it deres from the root word puko which which um
That’s a descriptive label um for the original I’m cholo my my era was the cholo era and the generation just previous to that was the puko movement and basically in the southwest and in Los Angeles area uh chos in order to uh separate and self-identify themselves um we’ve always
Been very rich in our culture and that that also entails like the the dress codes and the the trends and fads that we’ve carried throughout the generations so puko was the Zoot Suit uh draped um it was the aesthetic look and lifestyle that those Chicos were living
Specifically from that era and so moving up a generation or two into my upbringing um it was a common name that um people people from that culture from that from that lane would be you know given and and um when I when I was uh coming up it was
Just the uh it was the tail end of the 70s so I was born in the 70s and grew up in the 80s and ’90s so that name was still floating around and was very aent in the in the culture um and they just shortened it
Cho and so that’s where my name comes from obviously for you you know your culture is is kind of ingrained in you not only only on the tattoos you have but kind of who you are as a person for those that maybe be watching this that
Have no idea have have a clue about Cho culture uh what is a Cho and what is Cho culture mean to you Cho is a it’s a stem word that comes again the a lot of these phrases in in modern day Society they’re derivatives of uh past generations and
Past um cultural experiences they get handed down and sometimes they morph and and um they they sometimes they’re shorthand or or um sort of like a play on an original uh phrase so Cho um depending on who you asking there’s multiple variants of the of the historic truth or the historic
Significance of that word but for me um the way that I I feel comfortable interpreting it and the way that I use it in my own lifestyle I excuse me in my life would be like um you know Mexican Americans and our place in this country our place in
American history it’s uh it’s very splintered and it’s a it’s a dual experience because we have so much passion and so much um admiration for our Our Roots and the motherland Mexico and and um all the all the experiences and all the um Heritage that comes with
That but we also are extremely proud to be an American and to live in America um and it became a situation um in the mid uh 70s 60s 80s in that block of time where I think that the identity of the Mexican-American was really kind of like
Unstable at that point in the way of outside view so like the greater public you know it’s like they’re not really Americans and they’re not really Mexicans you know and so we I think we strove to find our own like identity and our own place in the community that we
Were living in and the um the American Experience And So It originally was some sort of um it was a downgraded or an insultive term but you can look throughout the history of Cho people and it’s often it’s often been the experience that we may get something
That comes across the table as an insult but we just have this knack for repackaging it with Charisma and car and and and a just a a sense of Pride and we adapt it into our own um identity and and that’s where I think Cho I think it originates from that I
Think that no matter the obstacle no matter the struggle or whatever we’re faced with the opposition this culture has always taken it brought it into our hearts into our lives and then released it as Something Beautiful Something powerful and something to be proud of
And the word the term Cho is is for me just that I love it um I think uh for a lot of people when they think about cultures and Tattoos being combined I know probably Japanese comes to mind for a lot of people Polynesian tribal comes to mind for a
Lot of people I would say that most people probably wouldn’t put Cho Styles tattoos in that conversation do you think that should be in that conversation and if so why I think it depends on um the perspective of the P the people that are involved in that conversation but I think globally that
Um it would be agreed that uh a large portion of the foundation of modern-day tattooing is derived directly from my people from our our history from our culture anything any derivative of black and gray style tattooing done in the world today at some point it was either influenced directly or abstractly from
The original aesthetic of black and gray uh fine line tattooing that didn’t exist before our people that’s something that out of necessity and out of just the basic circumstances the situations that we’re in when we see tattooing for Chicanos is nothing new this is something that we’ve been expressing
Ourselves with permanent markings on our bodies for eons since pyramids and the modern day expression of the Cho or the neighborhood style tattoo is just the uh it’s the morph version of that original um desire to place uh imagery or significant images that represent the pride in our culture or social status
Within the community so absolutely I think that you you wouldn’t have modern-day tattooing would be I think it would be lacking in very uh it would be a really um different uh outcome had it not be for the influence of the chos and Chico style tattooing
You know black and gray if you say that term today it’s it’s um because of the tattoo explosion in recent past years it’s a commonly used commonly understood term but the realism the um the hyper detailed um the heavy black work all of these things are modern
Um versions of the original format of black and gray tattooing and where that came from was you know neighborhood people who had one color that was a you know was a handmade ink we concocted ourselves and learned how to make you know um fashion homemade Rigs and make
Permanent marking it originated with the handpoke system and then it evolved in later generations in the future of their tattooings into the rotary system of tattooing with a homemade tattoo machine and when modern modern tattooing uh something that would be like relatable or identifiable to to what we’re
Experiencing now um when that spread across the globe you’re right there was a few communities who were being documented uh in their tattooings and they were sharing information now for me my opinion on that subject is this is that in history in the history of the
World I think that Chas are one of the last cultures to be I don’t want to say exploited I’d like to keep it positive but explored and so there’s a huge chunk of my people’s history that’s either missing deleted or unknown to the masses and it’s just now that um you know the
Reality is uh we were never a minority you know where I sit today in California this is originally uh the land of my people in some fashion or form you know and because other ethnicities and other governments and um outside entities have not uh either appreciated or accepted that concept it
Branded us as a Min a minority and it also excluded us from a lot of the pages in history like growing up and going to school um if there were any teachings about our people even the common word of Aztec you have to understand that our people that’s a modernized version of
The original one of the one of the original tribes of indigenous people who live in this region in the world and um we you know our modern history that can be told or can be learned from it’s really skewed you know and I think that it’s the same way with tattooing that
Just now because there’s a a large focus on Cho people and people worldwide are starting to accept and appreciate the Artistry the culture and all the inner workings of the Cho people so now it’s becoming you know uh something that’s got a bit of a spotlight on it so
Yeah man I don’t think you can have Polynesian Japanese even America American traditional Tattooing in the same sentence without giving homage or paying respect to the Cho tattoo and we were kind of talking about a subject for this video you kind of uh give me and I
Or I guess you explain to me something that I guess really didn’t have a true concept on where you explained the difference between lifestyle tattooing versus the professional style tattooing for you what are the differences between those two I think um I think what you’re what you’re asking I’m going to try and
Answer it the best way I can but I think what you’re asking me is um what is the difference between the original Cho tattoo experience and the thing that’s so uh globally publicized now is as black and gray or Cho style or um U Mexican style tattooing and and
Um in order to understand or in order to give you a proper answer that you have to understand the historage and the lineage of that of the act of tattooing within the Cho culture and before I knew anything about Tattooing in the global sense any history any of the founding
Fathers any of the IM imagery and the influence of where that imagery was derived from I was already being brought up and experiencing tattoo within the confines of the Cho Community because I’m a I’m a member of that community and I was raised in that um experience so I
Had already been a tattoo for a lot of my life before I ever did a professional tattoo as I said before you know I was totally naive and unaware of anything that would be considered like a professional tattooing when whether it was the players that were involved
Globally and at that time you know when I got into professional tattooing homes there was only um so many people on on the planet doing this style of art and I felt like the Brotherhood and the fraternity of tattooers that I was attached to I felt like I could tell you
Every person on the planet that was actively making tattoos on a certain level right on a professional level because we were all in correspondence and there was a Brotherhood and there was an exchange of information and just there was an awareness of each other now that’s the professional tattoo Lane but
In the chico Community we have that same concept we have that same like playing field so like I could tell you names of tattooers that the professional Community will they they would know anything they wouldn’t know who I was talking about but if you just cross the
Street or go back across the tracks in the Cho community be like oh yeah Mo from Stockon he’s bad homie a could get down and he could and he did and um so there’s a there’s a I want to say there’s a u there’s a gap in communication and there’s a gap in
Information when it comes to Tattooing in the Cho Community outside of the professional realm as opposed to me tattooing now you know a known tattooer in the Cho community in the professional tattoo world but even myself when I entered to the tattoo World there was only a handful maybe
Three uh professional tattooers that were Cho and those dudes were interested and they were so far along in their career that when realism and the the interweb the birth of the interweb and the ability to take new imagery um from the interweb and adapt it into a tattoo
Pattern and offer to the community or to your clientele this higher version this more realistic version of a tattoo those vles migrated in that direction but for me because I was so deeply rooted in my community and I have such a love and admiration for our ways and our
Aesthetics our our identity our imagery I had to make a decision at that time would I go on to um you know Excel my ability in tattooing to be another realism tattoo realistic style tattoo this this is a real question that I had to answer for myself but I knew in doing
That that I would abandon this huge historical identity and imagery that was founded by my people my forebears so with the moral compass that I have and the the love that I have for my culture I just it was a no-o homes for me so I I made decision stay deeply grounded in
The original format of tattooing the original imagery and the concepts that come from this huge lineage of charismatic people uh and culture that I belong to um so for me I think that uh all these years later you know I’ve been tattooing so long and um in the professional Lane that I think
People are really starting to grasp that concept and say um you know this dude he held true and towed the line to this thing that quite possibly could have been like extinct because when I tattoo somebody like somebody comes to sit in my chair homes they always have like a similar uh
Presentation they’re like my Theo my uncle or my dad used to have tattoos and they look just like the ones you do so there’s this generational uh bridge that I’m I’m that I’m making available to these people and had I not done that in my opinion A lot
Of that artwork would have just faded away because there was this such this appeal for this newer modern version of that of of Tattooing in general and art in general um that the original neighborhood style tattooing neighbor neighborhood Cho style imagery that I’m in in uh that I’m so enamored by and the
Artwork that I that I continue to produce it it was there was a point right there where I seen a a tilt and a and a offset in Balance where this thing was almost looked down upon because it wasn’t as it wasn’t as good that was
Like the consensus it wasn’t good but in my heart it was like it was the best you couldn’t get any better and you know um that art it’s it comes straight from the C homes it’s from this is a thing that’s been passed down you know these these
These stories that get told through these images and it’s a language you know what I mean and it and it um it’s like the carrying on of a spoken history you know within the indigenous people within um other other like deep rooted cultural things the way that they pass
On history is through through telling these stories to their children so that it can make it through um because historically uh people that come from cultures like mine we don’t have the microphone homes this is a very rare situation it’s becoming more commonplace but when I first started professionally
Tattooing to put a camera in front of a auor like me or put a microphone and let me speak it was like unheard of you know and um so you can see how the the lines of History could get blurred some of the imagery could get lost and it could also be like
Misinterpreted these situations that we’re in right now and these these opportunities they allow me a direct descendant and somebody who’s actively a member of the real chico movement to say the truth so that exists you dig what I’m saying so that future Generations can look back and be like davato you
Know laid it on the table so that we can Circle back after the trends and everything happens there’ll always be this like map back to our roots to our heritage you know and so that that doesn’t die and that’s really important to me in Tattooing in my personal life I
I love that because I think it kind of uh and obviously I know this is not your first rodeo you’ve talked about these subjects a lot but I think like to me that’s one of the really cool Parts is because you know I find the history I find your story extremely interesting
And I know others will too but they don’t even know I’m lucky enough to have met you you know what I mean to have some dialogue with you I’m hoping that this in this video and the content that we’re able to make is able to educate those people that otherwise wouldn’t
Have ever had an idea um you had or you had mentioned obviously the entire concept of of uh you know doing and and sticking to those roots and sticking to those styles of tattoos uh you have a quote and I don’t want to say your quote
For you but uh when you talked about bringing you know your traditional tattoos to modern day what is that quote that you normally go by um oh you talking about the old school task for a new generation um that’s just an ideal that I that I put into a short slogan to
Try and en Encompass or try and encapsulate that idea of because um Cho um in the The Cho lifestyle you have to understand the history of this thing in order to be in context so it’s like we have all this lineage right that happened up until the point of the the
Like the Millennium like 2000s I was I was in 2000 I was in heavy transition in my personal life because I had made the decision to no longer commit crime I had walked away from a lot of uh dysfunctional um life practices and life situations and um I
Had also entered into um you know the professional tattoo Lane so there’s all these all these major storms going on in the background of my life at my core I was still aato right and I still look the same still khakis you know hair netted down brm down um but there wasn’t
Really anybody else in in in the modern the millennial Community or in the society that I was living in that still held on to that like Vos because of um how do I say this uh without getting too deep in a different direction there’s different aspects of
The Cho experience the one that I was attached to was the cholo experience which has a lot of like it has some dark undertones you know there’s incarceration there’s gang affiliation there’s violence in the community and ab there’s all these things right and in the early 2000s the government that um monitors
And controls you know California there was a huge bite down on that community and so a lot of dudes ran for cover and a lot of dudes you know they switched up their appearance um their Lifestyles uh a lot of them went away they were just
For lack of a better term they were locked up you know they were incarcerated Behind These Lifestyles and these choices life’s choices that we were all making at the time which were you know these were things that we had inherited from our the generations previous and
So my point being with that with that comment with those comments is this is that all of a sudden it felt like I was standing alone in the world and I was like the only V you know because I was free number one I was still in Society
Number two I wasn’t functioning like in the underbelly of society anymore with with the Clea with my body in that way you know what I mean and so I made this attempt at a normal life right the white picket fans hes and uh I didn’t belong there and nobody embraced me coming
Across that that lane holes so it was like to to go and interact in society to to get a bank account right to to to get a job to find some form of employment I was still very heavy stereotypical in society where it was like this dude
Looks like he just stepped out of Pelican Bay you know what I mean so it was like almost impossible to get employment it was impossible to go out and to be heard or accepted in in normal mainstream Society at that point especially when I’m like walking in
There looking like this but I I have a I have a deep guarded respect for who I am and I have a strong understanding of who I am and I’ve always had that for some reason or another and so for me to kind of like uh change who I was in order to
Fit into the box that they wanted in like modern society or general Society I just wasn’t willing to do that what I thought instead was okay um maybe with my life and uh my actions maybe I can uh shed some light on like who I really am
As an individual and maybe even open the door for other vatos because you know I have Primos and homeboy who were going to root tape from behind the wall and eventually come home and possibly look at what i’ done and said maybe this is like a this is like an example of what
Could be you know so I felt like I was pioneering something in my own life um and I just began to interact with people in professional situations uh on the job situations um I did a few speeches for my my wife at the time was in in in
College you know and I went and did a few few speeches for her in her classes and I just looked for the opportunities that would open up a door of communication for PE from people with people outside of my community so that we could be better understood fast
Forward right now we’re sitting here ER there’s many dudes there’s so many of us uh chos who have made that leap and have been successful in that attempt to cross the lines of social separation of you know economic barriers that were previously there and so
Um you know tattooing I have to say it gave me that opportunity gave me it gave me enough camouflage cuz you have if I’m driving down the street in my ride homes in 98 you’re getting hit homie you’re getting lit up and are you on Pro and
They’re going to get me out there and they’re going to lay me in front of my family it’s going to be ugly in 2010 I get pulled over for speeding and they be like oh Cho hey man I want to get a cop home a cop telling me I want
To get these tattoos and so I saw this strange thing that had happened it was a switch I was the same dude I had the same appearance same dress code still spoke very you know uh neighborhood based lingo um but I had crossed this imaginary line where I was accepted into
Communities that were outside of my own so I started to see these opportunities daily in my in my life that were like popping up where I could continually like bridge the gap and open open up dialogue and open up the eyes of people like I say outside of my community and I
Just think that because I was a part of something like the the magical industry of tattooing which was all of a sudden um you know it was no longer uh significant only for gang members and and Pirates and all these people who had enjoyed the art of tattooing for so long
It was like housewise professionals um you know people in the entertainment industry people just lost their mind over tattoos and I just happened to be this vato who was there at the right time and had enough uh clear mindset to be able to navigate that terrain and build something and I
Ended up you know building a career in the tattoo world and and that’s just open up countless opportunities to um explore new relationships and new new uh new futures for myself and everybody behind me you know um it’s very it’s it’s not it’s not uncommon to walk into
A tattoo par and to see brown people practicing the art of tattooing professionally when I first came in that was like I was the only one you had you had the homeboy Freddy NR down there in in in in LA right and a handful of other
Dudes a very small group of dudes who had made it into the professional Lane but everybody else was Caucasian or you know from some other ethnicity but absolutely not from the neighborhood you know that was a very rare thing what that did was it was a curse and a
Blessing it was really hard to get into the let’s just say into the fraternity of the tattooers that existed and who were like The Gatekeepers this thing but if you did that which I did and um I want to just say you know how much
Love I have for the dudes who gave me a chance because when they did that it was like oh because they had they were aware of our our community and our cultures imagery cuz tattooers are like little Wizards homes they’ll sit in their uh in their cave and they will just pour over
Imagery all sorts of imagery when you’re a tattooer you look at a a label on a packaging uh from something on the shelf and you see a tattoo in in some form in that in sign that imagery that’s on there and so we’re constantly scanning our environment for new images and New
Concepts to pull into the tattoo world and produce this new tattoo image that didn’t exist well it was really similar in the tattoo world with my culture’s imagery like they knew some of the stuff but they also it was very taboo there there was this huge stigma around it
That you know you had to be very careful when you put anything that looked Mexican because dudes are getting murdered day and night who wear these same types of tattoos so the tattooers didn’t really want to put it on people um on a large scale because they
Didn’t really know the meanings of these things or the repercussions of wearing or giving these tattoos and in our community originally these were Badges of Honor that were earned and a lot of them were insignias that identified certain groups and certain regions and so there was like this uh kind of a
Shark pool that you had to navigate through with images and to this day like I knew this early on I was aware of the fact that um I would produce tattoos that were based in my community’s uh culture but I would always divert from anything that could be construed as misconstrued as gang
Related or offensive to one side or another or to other ethnicities I always wanted to try and do a really good job of keeping the presence of my imagery and the tattoos that I’ve provided to the public on a really positive I wanted to show the beautiful side of chismo you
Dig what I’m saying and try to like um exclude all the other more like um danger zones or pitfalls in the in the culture and so yeah you know it was like for tattooers they were like we have a real V you know what I mean this dude is
Look at him homes and they were so geeked up on great they were like this is tight and I was equally as as excited because I was like damn I no longer have to dig a ditch I don’t have to be a a a slave uh laborer for some company who
Could care less about me will hack me at the knees anytime I don’t serve them in some fashion or another I saw that the the potential of this thing right away I was like let me get this straight homes so you’re telling me that I can still be
A v i can still live my life the way I choose to and I get to do my tattoos and art and I get paid for this and they’re like you see on and I was like okay all right holes we’re on to something so um yeah you know that’s kind of like
A brief rundown of like how I made it into this Lane and I just uh you know I’ve tried to take each day at a time and and do my best to be a positive representation of a Cho artist I love that um the last question I have and this
Kind of goes along with that subject is uh a quote that I read from your book was a tattoo can change a life now that may seem like a very simple statement to most but what is that statement mean to you um I’m stoked that you read the book I
Appre appreciate that holes um but but what that what I was trying to say with that slogan or that statement is just that tattooing to me is Magic holes because I’ve never engaged with anything in my lifetime that would cross all boundaries you dig what I’m saying so
Like um for a guy like me unless you come from my upbringing or my background you won’t understand what I’m saying but I’ll try to I’m going to try and and and make this clear it’s like there’s so many there’s so many boundaries cultural boundaries there’s so many ethnic
Boundaries even within our own culture there’s so much uh segregation right so for me in my life I felt very like um very like uh uh kind of like um hurted into this certain Lane and I couldn’t I couldn’t move maneuver or I couldn’t experience life through any other lens
And I’ve always I mean I started tattooing at 12 I’ve always tattooed I’ve always drawn and uh so little did I see you know little do I know but this thing that I’ve always loved and appreciated is L by the masses everybody loves tattooing holes come on you it’s
Tattoo homes so with that interest that vested interest and this uh level of um value placed on this this active tattooing it just opens the doors to so many people that you wouldn’t have access to without that bridge right even internally in the culture of my people I’ve crossed bridges that are
Historically like this is like um and a lot of you who might see this will understand what I’m saying but unfortunately you know there there’s there’s barriers within the culture that were like no fly zone like it just could never happen and had you asked me 20
Years ago I would say it would absolutely be impossible but I didn’t factor in the magic of tattooing um so again it’s like this thing it’s so powerful it’s changed my life so that’s why I can put that out there and not feel like corny or I’m
Like trying to be S you know like I’m selling you something it’s just the truth holes and if you understand or have experienced or engag with tattooing on any level I’m sure that you can find some part of you that agrees with my statement because I’ve seen people with
No self-esteem with no confidence and no tattoos and I come here homie hey what are you doing and they’re just like oh kicking a rock homes they’re down on their C they’re down in their life and uh come here you like tattoos and they’re like I never thought about you
Know I’m like let me you want me to put you one on let me put you one on I’ll see that same v six months later after I put a few on he’s got some h under his arm bro he’s he’s he’s the dude you know
What I mean that changed his life I’ve seen people get married over the act of tattooing I’ve seen people uh you know find their own identity you know through tattooing it’s it’s a very powerful thing and it’s a very uh it’s a very um deliberate act the act of tattooing
Itself you know you’re taking the Creator’s creation and you’re permanently changing right the aesthetic of the of a person I take great reverence in that you know every time I put a tattoo it’s like when you’re born you’re a clean slate for me to make the
Choice and for you to agree to this decision that I’m going to Mark you permanently homes for all the days of this life the rest of this experience so everybody that you meet and every experience you have that tattoo will be with you think about that concept holes
It’s a lot of weight homes it’s heavy but I take uh pride in being a person who has dedicated my entire life to to to Conjuring the ability to put on an energy that not just myself can wink and not and say that’s feeding me homie
That’s bad but the person who wears it and their their people’s people can all agree that this is a nice piece of art or this means something or this has some value attached to it so when I say that it can change your life it most certainly can and Does He
source
