Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Julian Ii Rivas. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Julian II, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
Creating the first Tattoo Studio inside a shopping mall next to big brands like Nike, Burlington and others was and still is an incredible accomplishment for us. Starting Red Monkey Tatts from the ground up with no formal education, no credit and zero resources the odds for success where not promising yet the results of years of sacrifice have proven that our heart, talent and resilience compensated and exceded the prior.
My previous business partner Alexis Rivera and I started this project investing the income we received on a weekly basis, little by little completing the puzzle. Doing the remodel, materials transportation, installation and painting ourselves with the unwavering support of our respective wives, of a four thousand square feet commercial space. We opened the studio with only 2 artists, me and Luis Larregui. Working 12 hour shifts 7 days a week. We had virtually no revenue income for over a year in order to make ends meet and maintain the business. We recognized the desire and demand of people of all ages to learn our craft and insert themselves in the tattoo industry so I started to give seminars and eventually developed a complete course named Red Collective Tattoo Workshop. Over 80% of our resident artists throughout the last 8-9 years of Red Monkey Tatts have come out from our courses.
Many of the artists we developed are currently business owners or are resident tattoo artists of prominent studios.
With our vision we catapulted the tattoo industry in Puerto Rico, making tattoos & piercings more mainstrem, giving hundreds of artists the opportunity to not only to expose their art and make a living, but to excel and be prosperous.
As an entrepreneur and artist I went on to participate and win multiple prizes in local and International tattoo conventions like Inksane tattoo Fest and Ink Masters Tattoo convention. The failures and accomplishments of this endeavor have given me perspective and made me appreciate fully the love and commitment of the people who support you without hesitation specifically my mother Julia Pizarro and my wife Dianellys Febo.
It has also made me acknowledge my own abilities and overcome preconceptions of myself. Mainly the fact that I was not able to complete high school and go to college do to conditions of poverty and severe instability throughout my youth. Yet those very things that initially made me feel less and limited intellectually and emotionally were the catalyst for my ambition to over achieve and show the world what I am capable of. Today I can say I’m fulfilled but not done with my purpose. I want to share our work our knowledge and become a force that affects and leaves a lasting effect in our community for a better and more joyful future.
Julian II, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Julian II Rivas Pizarro born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Truly a “cariduro” (headstrong), given that throughout time I understood that thanks to my stubbornness I walked my way towards my progress with an unstoppable obsession. As a child I had a calling for the arts, I self-taught to play the piano, draw and paint. When I was 9 years old, my mother knew that I was going to be a great artist, and so she established the highest standards possible, thus described me as a “prodigy.” Today, those words keep me in the constant race to meet those expectations.
My work began at the school named ‘Escuela Central de Artes Visuales,’ where the sacrifice of taking one public bus and then two more buses, ‘AMA,’ on a daily basis to go to and come back from school at the age of 10 years old, showed me the value and love of the Arts and the struggle of the human being. Shortly after I transferred to the school named, ‘Bellas Artes de Humacao,’ where I had the opportunity to design that school’s logo they carry today.
I am the third child of six brothers and sisters. For quite sometime, our lives revolved around the instability and struggle through poverty. Thanks to my mom, we all learned to sew and with that my creativity got stronger. With her help I was able to open my very first clothing store with an exclusive line of clothing named, ‘So Exclusive.’ Due to my young age and lack of maturity, that didn’t last very long. But that short experience awakened in me the business man that I would become in the forthcoming years.
I went from the piano to the drawing, from the drawing to the painting, from the painting to the sewing and from the sewing to dancing. At 15 years old, I was a dance instructor at the academy, ‘Denton Dance Conservatory,’ in the State of Texas, and then later at the dance academy, ‘D’Kala,’ in Carolina, Puerto Rico.
I started in the tattoo industry around 12 to 13 years ago. Tattoos didn’t crossed my mind at all, thanks to Anthony Quiroz who spotted my artistic talents with drawing and painting; a regular day at the barber shop he put me in the spot, pulling out an old tattoo machine and calling his cousin to arrive within minutes. Out of the blue I was making the first tattoo of my career. Life placed me on a course to endeavor in this journey and years later next to Alexis Rivera we’ve opened the first tattoo studio Red Monkey Tatts, inside a shopping mall in Puerto Rico. at one point we had 4 locations and were overwhelmed with the success. Some of the key aspects were and still are the authenticity and passion to give our customer the best posible experience and the very best artwork. We understand that getting a tattoo is the most personal and intimate form of art, it carries so much meaning and it transcends time, therefore we put all of our energies into making this masterpiece, as it’s a part of me as much as it’s theirs.
Tattoos are transformative, they change the perception of the wearer, they bring confidence, appreciation, they store a memory, the essence of a love one and sensibility and appreciation for the art form. The respect of a client for his artist brings forward the very best in his work. This qualities maintain and fuel my love for this creative process.
In retrospective looking at our accomplishments and the reach we had in our island we are looking to narrow things down and focus our energy into and even more personal experience. For years we thought expanding and growing our business will bring us more success with the ultimate goal to feel happy and accomplished, yet I have realized that what truly fills your heart is that one moment you see tears falling down after a client sees in the mirror the masterpiece that we have created together, when you listen to wonderful stories, when I go home to show my sons what I’ve worked on. when we share with the world what our hands and minds are capable of creating.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Starting over again after loosing everything with hurricane Maria in 2017 truly tested our resilience. having to move to a temporary location using a power generator for many months the island having no power. Finding a new commercial space due to the shopping mall being shut down for almost a year. We started the process to purchase a commercial building only to have our establishment vandalized and robbed by local criminals, this jeopardized our operation and instilled fear and insecurity for our artists and employees so we made a difficult decision to close our doors and pull out of the deal.
Without hesitation we moved forward to a better and more secured location, the prominent and well known area of Old San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico. To get this opportunity was no easy task. without resources and credit the owners of the building requested and astronomical amount of money as a warranty for the lease. It took a tremendous amount of effort and sacrifice to fulfill those requirements yet nonetheless we pushed forward and successfully opened the new location.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I believe that society needs to be less superficial and more thoughtful, to learn more about history and art, to have a deeper understanding of the things they are interested in.
Having this deeper knowledge will lead to a better appreciation for the arts and the value of an artist work. Therefore there will. be less price comparison and the negative behavior of trying to get “the best deal” for a tattoo.
This will also promote creativity and originality getting away from trends and repetitiveness to authenticity and artist expression.
Contact Info:
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