In their quest for beauty, Brazilian tattoofans are turning to the most unlikely ofpretty faces: The death skull. At Rio Tattoo

Week 2016, billed as Latin America’s biggestpiercing and tattoo convention, the image ofdeath stared from arms, legs, necks, and mostother body parts, not to mention T-shirts andposters.

Plenty of other designs featured at thethree-day bash. Disney cartoon characters,Viking warriors, Japanese geishas, roses, vines,and entire gardens were on show at the Rioconvention center. Even old-fashioned Popeyeanchors. But inky death in various guises-grin-ning, grimacing, winking-was inescapable.

“It has become the fashion,” said PriscilaVirla, 32, co-owner of Lady Luck, a tattoo stu-dio which caters especially to women andwhich had one of the 250 convention stands.“The skull is one of those things that has reallycaught on, especially here in Rio de Janeiro.”

Some of the depictions of death carried intattoo catalogues showed skulls horribly dis-figured, screaming or dripping in blood. Butdespite initial appearances, this attachment toskull images has surprisingly wholesomeroots. “For Brazilians the skull representsequality,” said Binho Fernandes, whose ThugNine clothing and accessories line is big on allthings skull-related. “People tattoo skullsbecause the skull unites us all.”

Nelio Cadar, whose Radac studio uses ahighly stylized skull as its logo and who alsosports a big skull tattoo on his right arm,echoed that thought. “We take the beautifulside of the symbol. It’s less about death thanequality,” he said. “Whether you have a lot ofmoney or no money, whether you are Catholicor some other religion-when we all die we allhave a skull.”

Mexican takeaway The skull obsession originates from

Mexico’s cultish Day of the Dead celebrations,tattoo experts at the convention said. There,

the Aztec god of death was transformed bypopular culture into a dark folk saint calledSanta Muerte favored today by “criminals andthe police,” said Federico Ruiz, an artist who’dcome to Rio from Mexico City to sell hisworks.

Artistically related to Santa Muerte isanother Mexican skeleton woman, Catrina,now a major inspiration for tattoo aficionadosinternationally, although with an especiallylively following in Brazil. “It’s something Braziltook as its own,” Cadar said. “We’ve made itcool.”

A detailed skull tattoo covering a good por-tion of the arm costs about 1,200 reais ($293),a hefty sum in recession-hit Brazil. But there isno shortage of clients. Appetite for tattoos isso great in Rio that vendors quizzed by AFPseemed to agree that they remain protected

for now against the country’s economic crisis.The potentially gloomy aspect of beingemblazoned with a death symbol doesn’tdeter much either.

“Once you have a certain amount of tattoosyou stop caring so much about what theymean,” said Lorena Lima, 21, who bore a largeCatrina tattoo-this one with fierce eyes and astitched-up mouth-on her right arm. “You justhave them because they’re beautiful,” sheadded, wincing as an artist worked on tattoonumber 10, a woman with a serpent’s tongue.

Anyway, skulls don’t even have to be scary,pointed out Virla at the women-friendly stu-dio. “See?” she said, pulling up a trouser leg toreveal a small skull with a playful red andwhite polka-dot hair bow. “It all depends onyour perspective.” — AFP

Death just a pretty face for Brazilian tattoo fans

A man called “Zoumbiepunk” shows his eye tattooed during the Tattoo Week internationaltattoo and piercing meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. — AP photos

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A man shows a tattoo on his head.

A man getting a tattoo