Francisco Sanchez

Francisco Sanchez is an up and coming black and grey focused artist located in Texas. Francisco has been keeping himself in very talented company for the last couple of years. Currently working alongside Liz Cook, Rember Orellana, David Mushaney as well as travelling often. We developed Francisco's website (franciscosancheztattoo.com) and he was an incredibly nice guy to work with. Francisco took some time to chat with us about a couple of things in a quick interview. Be sure to keep an eye out as he has some big projects coming up!



When did you first become interested in tattooing?
I had really never paid much attention to tattoos until one of my good friends from high school showed me a tattoo he had got in somebody's kitchen, though the tattoo itself was not the most of amazing piece of art I'd seen it was still enough to want to make me seek more into it, a few of my friends knew that I was really into art so they kept mentioning to me that I should try it out and see what I could do with it even volunteering to be my first canvases,though really wasn't until I was in community college that I really decided I was gonna give it a real try. 

Do you remember the first tattoo you saw or one that really impacted you?
definitely man, I think thats something that you never really forget, I had the pleasure of seeing one of Robin Carpio's tattoos on a good friend of mine and fellow tattoo artist Angel Ramirez, he has a photo realistic color portrait of a famous Mexican actor (basically the Mexican John Wayne haha). I was blown away by the attention to detail and the fact that he tattooed it 13 hours straight, you can actually google Mario Almada tattoo and it will be the first thing to show up. 

Do you have any family members who do art? Or is it something that you seeked out?
I've always tried to narrow down what it is that drew my interest in art but it is very hard to pinpoint what or who it was that made those gears start turning in my head, maybe its something that youre born with since nobody in my family before me did much art that I know of, one of my younger sisters, a younger brother in law and my daughter all really draw alot and always show me what they came up with when I see them so it is pretty awesome to think that maybe I had some kind of influence on them though in reality Im sure my
family is one of my main inspirations since I would often use my sisters to pose for me so I could draw from life.

More recently who or what has helped you progress?
I think like in anything else in life experience is a great factor in what you do, you start to notice small subtle things in your work you can tweak or even the way you use your machines to be more efficient, and something else that has helped alot is reading more about art, I try and take in as much useful information as I can to try and apply it to what I do on skin.

In terms of improvement, how do you keep yourself motivated?
just seeing how many amazing artist are coming out of nowhere everyday keeps you on your toes, and realistically speaking no matter who you are there's always room for improvement, Im sure if Rembrandt didnt wana keep improving his work work would not be hanging in the world's best museums today, art is a lifetime commitment and is something that you should do to the best of your ability, even more so in tattooing since people have to walk around with it for the rest of their lives. 

Who got you started as a professional? Was there anyone who you can cite as helping you change? Do you have a secondary influence?
the person who really got me into this industry and is an inspiration on a daily basis is my best friend Rember Orellana, I was introduced to him by Angel Ramirez ( the same person who sold me my first tattoo machine and proud wearer of the amazing I talked about earlier). I had done very few tattoos on my own when Angel Ramirez contacted me about a possible opening at a small shop owned by Rember, I was very nervous at first since I had never worked at a shop before and wasnt sure if I was gona be able to handle it but I explained my situation to Rember and he helped me get started, and from that day on we have worked together to try to improve and motivate each other by using constructive criticism to break down our tattoos, very often as soon as either one of us would get done with a tattoo we would immediately start looking at what could be of been done differently to improve the tattoo.

You’ve worked in some real amazing shops in the Texas area. How are things at Rebel Muse Tattoo?
man as far as working at Rebel Muse I gotta say I love it, everybody that works here is all about doing great tattoos and trying to constantly improve while pushing each other, thats a good recipe for a great working environment. 

The team over at Rebel Muse seems to really be pushing the limits, how do your coworkers influence you?
I love the feeling I get when I walk around the shop and see great tattoos being produced by my coworkers, its almost like a friendly competition going on everyday, it really does motivate you knowing that your client is watching other clients walking around with badass tattoos done the same day by some of the other artist in the studio so it really motivates me to try and give my clients the best I can every single time.


To stay in contact with Francisco be sure to check out his website or his instagram by clicking below.