Cabos Houston, TX

Cabos is an artist specializing in lettering with his own dark twist to it. His style has no bounds, anything from paintings, murals, to tattooing ⸺ Who/where do you get your inspiration from? Most of my inspiration comes from graffiti and different styles of lettering I see day to day in the real world. Anything from billboards, food menus, or flyers. All styles and types of lettering serve a purpose. The way they bend and can be shaped in so many different ways offers a lot of possibilities ⸺ What did your family and friends think about you getting into the tattoo business? Most of them thought it was silly and that I had no future in it. They saw it as a hobby and didn’t believe I could make a living from it. It was very discouraging at the time and felt like an uphill battle a lot of times. I, in turn, used it as motivation ⸺ What would you say is your favorite part of the job? My favorite part of the job, I would say, is when a client comes in and asks to just have some freehand lettering done and to do as I want. Nothing compares to that feeling of just drawing directly on the skin on the spot straight from my head. Then seeing it come to life as I tattoo it ⸺ What is the

most important advice you can give someone new to the art of

tattooing? A good piece of advice, I would say, is if you truly want to excel in the industry, you just have to put in more than what you expect out of it. Tattooing owes nothing to us, but we owe everything to it. It will only give us back a fraction of what we put in; just being fortunate enough to have a part in it is very humbling ⸺ What else do you hope to accomplish in the future? For now, I’m trying to get out as much as I can, guest spots, conventions, all of it. I’m really big on putting my name where it isn’t; I’m determined to leave my mark. Just grateful to have a place in the lettering game means a lot to me ⸺ Any other upcoming artists we should look out for? The whole squad at Virtue Tattoo is making big things happen! ✕

CABOS