Cool A** people: chino gonzalez

 Chino Gonzalez, the founder and owner of Stigma Ink Tattoos located in Tampa, Florida, has an amazing story that goes beyond just tattoos. His life story is one of passion, dedication, and perseverance through even the toughest of situations. Chino has been in the tattoo industry for over 30 years and has been a tattoo artist, piercer, tattoo aftercare product creator, and even holds his very own convention (Ink Mania).

According to Chino, his love of tattoos stems from watching his dad get them when he was a kid, “I used to always look at his arms and tattoos- I always had a curiosity about tattooing”. However, it wasn’t until Chino was older that he fell in love with tattoos and the freedom they represented, “I was a typical young Hispanic kid raised in the streets of Ybor, I had no idea as to where I was gonna go. One day when I was about 21 or 22 years old, I stumbled across a (tattoo) convention here in Tampa. I noticed the difference- you could decorate yourself with tattoos and piercings and you didn’t care about what people thought about you. Especially, here in Tampa in the 90s when life was hard for Hispanics and Black people.”
    After falling in love with tattooing and the culture it provided, Chino opened the first Stigma Ink Tattoo shop in Guadalajara, Mexico with his friend Edgar Penagos. After working at different tattoo shops, Chino and Edgar always had the dream of opening their own. After Edgar passed away in 2008, Chino decided that was the time he needed to make his dream into a reality, “After he passed away, I told my wife this was a sign for me to open a shop.”

​  But life wasn’t all uphill from there. After years of having his shop, in 2018 Chino suffered a severe kidney disease that almost cost him his life. After many attempts to cure the disease failed, Chino got a kidney transplant in 2022. Now, he is back stronger than ever, “I had a new kidney, new life. If you’d seen me almost two years ago, I was a totally different person. I was pale and couldn’t walk from here to a couple of steps. Now, I’m back at it.” Even though Chino does not tattoo anymore due to his medication making his hands shaky, he still loves what he does and the industry he has worked so hard to be a part of. As for being an inspiration to others, the artists in his shop know his story and see him as a symbol of strength and dedication to his craft. "Yeah, we know his story," says Eddie Rivera, a tattoo artist at Stigma Ink. "You have no choice but to respect it."