Ganga Tattoo, from small town to celebrity tattoo artist

The first thing you have to do when searching for your next tattoo is look through the portfolio of the artist. As with a lot of things, a person’s previous work speaks volumes. Enter Joaquin Ganga Lopez, from the small town of El Palmar in Murcia to a well renowned tattoo artist with over 1 million followers on IG, whose hyper-realistic style has captivated celebrities such as Drake, Jesse Williams and Odell Beckham, to name just a few.

Currently, Ganga owns a tattoo studio and academy in Murcia Spain and recently opened another tattoo studio in West Hollywood. His intricate detail and almost dreamlike realism set Ganga apart from many of his contemporaries, and his Los Angeles-based studio is quickly becoming a cultural hub where actors, rappers, athletes and tattoo aficionados can get realistic, micro-realistic, fine line, traditional or neo-traditional tattoos.

Ganga has been drawing all his life, and since high school, was moved and inspired by Salvador Dali’s artwork. He loved to draw lettering which also motivated him to do graffiti when he was only 12 years old. From the begininng he never had any special training in drawing, because his unique skill was natural.

Realism art was his major inspiration, and when he was around 15 or 16 years old he started watching Miami Ink with his father and realized he should give it a try. What started as a bonding experience with his father, watching moving images of tattoo artists living their dreams thousands of miles away, became an actual dream come true for Ganga. 

“I love being around artists and learning from them. I really love having the ability to motivate my artists and colleagues and have the possibility of being surrounded by people that have the same ideas as me.”

Ganga is progressively looking to utilize his talent in new and exciting ways. One of these new initiatives is an upcoming sneaker collaboration that is sure to shake up the fashion world. Another would be starting art classes for children, and more initiatives soon to come. Ganga’s work has just begun and is focused on his tattoo business while looking for other ventures in the near future.

Check out his studio on https://www.gangatattoo.com/es/ his personal account https://www.joaquinganga.com/ and make sure to follow him on Instagram @gangatattoo