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Leo Zulueta, a pioneer of tribal tattooing. Photo by Dianne Mansfield.

Fil-Am Pioneer of Tattoo Trend

By David Chesanow
Special to AsianWeek

“ But that which was most remarkable in the appearance of the splendid islander was the elaborated tattooing displayed on every noble limb. All imaginable lines and curves and figures were delineated over his whole body, and in their grotesque variety and intricate profusion I could only compare them to the crowded groupings of quaint patterns we sometimes see in costly pieces of lacework.”

Filipino American Leo Zulueta is a tattoo artist. But if you think he does pierced hearts and anchors — or even elaborate Japanese-style dragons and tigers in living color — you may be surprised and impressed by Zulueta’s work: bold, yet often intricate, designs in basic black.

A pioneer of tribal tattooing, which is one of the biggest body art trends of the last few decades, Zulueta defined the style as “not only a take-off on indigenous work from around the world throughout history, but ... see it as a tribute to the various tattooing and body adornment that has ever come before us.”

Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Hawai‘i and Southern California, Zulueta, 50, was always aware of tattoos from a young age because many of his male relatives had them — mostly Filipino-style depictions of Western designs. After studying art in San Diego, Zulueta moved to San Francisco in 1974, where he became assistant manager of a printing shop. Meanwhile, he researched tribal tattooing after work and on weekends at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library, searching through back issues of National Geographic and other sources for information on the tattoo traditions of the indigenous people of Borneo, Micronesia and other Pacific island groups.

He credited tattooist Ed Hardy for teaching him the art and launching him on his career, which began in 1981.

Top: Arm tattoo done on a client who traveled from Japan just for Zulueta’s services. Bottom: Leg tattoo done in the “Oceanic” style that combines Polynesian styles and Micronesian designs. Photos by Leo Zulueta.

“It wasn’t a formal apprenticeship,” Zulueta recalled. “It was more from a friendly basis. Ed realized that I was interested in tribal-style tattooing and so he encouraged me heavily… At that point I was in my late 20s and didn’t really see a future in it for me at such a late date in my life, but [Hardy] encouraged me to start by doing a few pieces on my friends, and then it kind of went from there.”

Hardy also advised Zulueta to tattoo himself, which he has done twice — a roughly 4-by-8-inch design on the back of his calf and a spider on his ankle. It is a rite of passage that Leo recommended to other fledgling tattooists: “When you’re tattooing yourself, you learn so much. I’ve only started out a few people [on their careers as tattooists], and I always prefer to do it as Ed trained me, ... to start the person out by having them tattoo themselves.”

Although some of the first tattoos he did on friends were Borneo designs, Zulueta he pointed out that his work does not usually consist of straight depictions of traditional images but, rather, derives inspiration from such images and expands on them. “It’s not a direct take on the Borneo-style tattoos, or Filipino ... or Japanese or Hawaiian … it’s basically a black graphic style of tattooing that is influenced by the various indigenous tribes that have tattooed over the last thousand years.” In fact, he considered it “a horrible disrespect to [indigenous] peoples to copy their designs exactly” without having any tangible personal relationship to those cultures. Zulueta said that his design for his own back piece — a striking bladelike pattern tattooed by Ed Hardy — was inspired by the tattoos of the Yap island group.

“The main reason initially why I was attracted to it was for the sheer boldness of the work — just big, huge panels of black. The second reason is the actual curvature of that design … the beautiful way that it lays on the body. That configuration of curves on the back, for me, is really one of the highest forms of tattooing.”

Zulueta is by no means the only tattoo artist in the United States specializing in tribal designs, nor was he the first to be influenced by tribal motifs. The late Cliff Raven, “had done a huge amount of tribal-style tattooing,” as early as the 1960s. But it was Zulueta who “brought it more out into the limelight,” said his mentor Hardy, who has been tattooing professionally for 35 years and owns Tattoo City in San Francisco. “Cliff was really the groundbreaker on that stuff … but Leo, I think because of his age and situation — he was into the punk scene then — he really made his reputation on that, and he had a great sensitivity for it.”

Hardy continued, “He studies the classics of it, kind of like what I do with the Japanese thing, which is to try to learn it, copy it, and then integrate it into my own style and do something different with it …”

Of the interwoven stripes he tattooed on Zulueta’s arms, Hardy said, “He wanted them to be evocative of hot rod flames. It wasn’t just like some purist anthropological exercise. He’s a surfer and grew up in the California mix — he really liked that cool hot rod style. It’s real American work to me, because it’s a fusion of a lot of different cultural streams.”

Zulueta stressed this relationship between tattoo and body contours when asked how he goes about designing a tattoo. “I’m known particularly for a ‘flowing’ style,” he explained. “The way my work flows on the body, a lot of people find that visually pleasing. I tend to look at the body and work with the muscles and try to make what I call the bodyline of the project flow on a major muscle.

“And then, of course, there’s the other consideration too: What this particular tattoo means to this person”— the special meaning that a tattoo will have for its wearer, such as commemorating an important event in that person’s life. For example, he said, “If someone comes to me and they want to celebrate that they just passed the bar exam, well, heck, I’d sure like to design them up a tribal piece [to signify that]. It might not have the justice scales on there or anything like that, but the person knows that if they ask me to put together a project like that, however the design comes out, they know that that one’s just for them.”

While indigenous peoples historically used sharpened comb-like instruments and needles made of wood, bone or metal to tattoo, Zulueta uses a standard tattoo machine. His tattoos are usually done in black. After working for many years as a tattooist in San Francisco and Los Angeles, he now makes his home in Ypsilanti, Mich., where he designs jewelry and clothing for a Japanese company. He no longer maintains a studio, but he continues to tattoo at tattoo conventions.

Leo Zulueta can be reached at 734-482-7641. He will be at Tattoo the Earth 2002, a tattoo convention held at Coliseum Arena in Oakland Aug. 9-11. For more information, log on to www.tattootheearth.com.

For more information on Ed Hardy’s Tattoo City, visit www.tattoocitysf.com, an informative site which includes books about tattooing.