My Dear Friends of Inked Walmarts to have these um these like toy slot things you could put a quarter in and then when you pull them out and they could bring that like temporary tattoos and so i put a bunch of quarters into it and i got out like a panther an eagle it was like traditional looking.
Tattoos and i put them on my neck and so the next day we were going to church and my mom’s like what is on your neck and i was like oh it’s just like a sticker and she was like take it off then and i was like i can’t she was like why and i was like because.
This is me my name is eve i am a model a musician and a dedicated and committed social activist i grew up kind of sheltered i had some difficulties talking about myself loving myself accepting myself but as i got older i changed drastically and became more.
Open and now i can’t stop talking i was in a predominantly white neighborhood i think the interesting thing about being a black person or a person of color is that you always know what you look like but people feel the need to remind you of what you look like as if you don’t.
Know when i was in high school i unfortunately tried to take my own life and it when that happened there were certain people who i um considered my friends who didn’t really reach out you kind of have this moment where you.
Sort of realize that you’re all you’ve got and so you tell yourself what are we gonna do with what we’ve got and how are we gonna tackle life knowing that like we are our biggest supporter and also our biggest enemy and so i tapped into the part of myself that.
Is my biggest supporter and just kind of said i don’t really give what people think but you know when you’re a child and you hear certain things and you hear certain types of rhetoric in regards to your appearance they don’t really sink in until you get older and you realize that.
The things that kids were saying to you were actually pretty mean and so that was a lot of my childhood and just keeping all of that inside and not really um sticking up for myself or calling it out which is why i think now as an adult i am so bold.
And i have more spine when it comes to things of that nature even if they don’t directly involve me if you are um talking about someone who i can identify with or care about or is a part of my community then i’m going to respond to you as if you’re talking about me because.
Um they represent me and i represent them so um i treat it as such do you remember the first time you ever saw somebody with tattoos i used to be obsessed with good charlotte when i was in elementary school i remember seeing uh this picture of them they had like.
Tattoos on their throats their arms their hands and i was like exactly yep this is it and the first time i had seen so many tattoos in person i was at walmart and this woman was walking out of the automatic doors and she was just covered just covering i was like.
Yeah this is what’s gonna happen this is happening on my chest i have nothing last forever and it’s still like i still have it it’s not covered up and it kind of like reigns true to um the way that i feel now and the way that i felt back then and it’s pretty much that you know.
No emotion that we go through lasts us forever i love that i still have it i love that it was my first one um because i look at it and it just takes me back to when i was just like this 14 year old kid who just wanted to be covered in like i was like i’m gonna get tattooed on my.
Chest ah i’m so cool how was the reaction at home well i remember um at first i was wearing a shirt over it and we had went to the beach and i went into the water with my shirt on and my mom was like why is your shirt on and i was like you know i’m just this is.
My style and so i finally took my shirt off she was like what is that and like on the spot i was like oh it’s a airbrush tattoo from the fair and i was like yeah like it lasts a year it’s not permanent it’s like but it doesn’t wash off either but like but it looks real right.
It’s cool yeah she was like yeah but then when i was around 14 going on 15 i got my face tattooed and then um i was like that’s real that’s a real tattoo and i was like yeah it is and so i was actually surprised by the reaction um and in a good way.
But it was my school actually my high school because i shared this before but my school actually kicked me out um because of my face being tattooed i remember adults being around me and people telling me things like you know you’re never going to have a job but i have always worked like since i’ve been tattooed i have never not had a job.
Which i think is something that people um i think are slowly starting to learn in this current period that we’re in is that it’s not so much about your work appearance but your work ethic i don’t think that tattoos should.
Automatically be this um hindrance when it comes to furthering your future or furthering your career or furthering your life being heavily tattooed it helps me know who to stay away from as well because automatically people have.
Something so quick to say or um have such like quick snap judgment to make on you without even knowing who you are and i’m just like well we’re not gonna be friends sick i’m gonna go get a bagel you know like this is like you’re just helping me navigate through my life easier knowing that like i don’t have to.
Worry about talking to you about anything or explaining anything about myself because you know it’s just let’s not waste each other’s time but you’re helping me by letting me know that you think i look scary the moment for me where i was like i’m a tattooed person was maybe my my freshman year of college um.
When i had gone to this like sort of casting situation for one of the photo studios at my college and they had written down heavily tattooed as like in parentheses like next to my name and i was like oh i guess but i’ve also had moments um.
That aren’t very positive um where it’s been made known to me that um i’m heavily tattooed like i’ve either been stopped by the police or arrested i was also once in um in austin texas and i was going to this bar pub with a friend just to hang out because i don’t drink.
And um they wouldn’t serve me because my face is tattooed i feel like when you are someone who deals with um uh hatred to a a degree that is like out of your control you unfortunately develop this um like water off a duck’s back.
Kind of response to certain things just knowing um when and when not to give something uh your energy because not everything deserves your energy not everything deserves your words and that’s what i’ve learned too just being the way that i am.
Not even physically and socially but politically the things that i care about it’s just knowing that every battle is not my own and every argument isn’t mine i wanna know how your approach to game tattoo has changed um well now it’s i’m definitely more uh cautious i guess whenever i’m getting.
Tattooed knowing that like once something goes in a specific space there’s like it’s that’s it it is i would say a part of the experience as well like and as i get older i’ve experienced more life um i’ve experienced more heartbreak more hardship but also more.
Triumphs as well and i it’s still healing right now but i just got 10 the word 10 going down on my face here opposite of nine and i got 10 because i’m 10 years sober as of june 16th and the artist who did it is 25 years sober and.
It was just so cool to me to get this um this mark of this decade done by an artist um who was also sober because that’s i aspire to be clean for that long because it’s an everyday battle and fight for me like i love my tattoo but the experience of getting tattooed by someone who is also sober um is very very very.
Special to me um because whenever i look at the 10 i won’t just think about myself i also think about this amazing artist who has been clean for 25 years and it will help me to aspire to reach out and hit 26 years it was very important to me.
To be able to go to artists who had experience tattooing darker skin we don’t speak about or stress enough how uncomfortable it can be as a person of a darker skin tone going to get tattooed especially when it’s in regards to something that you like something that you love that you’ve been saving up for.
Something that means something to you only to have someone say i’m not i don’t know how to tattoo your complexion which to me um doesn’t make any sense because it’s as if you were like a makeup artist or a hair artist are you simply a white makeup artist or a.
White hair artist or so when you’re a tattoo artist are you just a tattoo artist who tattoos white skin or are you attached to artists who tattoos skin you’re 13 years old you don’t have any tattoos absolutely yes i was in some sticky situations.
Oh like just really really bad situations i remember also when i was an addict i would like not only was i like selling like my clothes and like stealing jewelry from my parents house to get money for drugs but also to get money for tattoos and i remember like five o’clock in the.
Morning sometimes like sneaking out um to go to some dude’s garage to get tattooed and i still have those tattoos to this day these are just stories that i can tell my kids about things not to do and if there is ever a time to when i do something like i have done so much and experienced so much i’m just like hey like talk to your.
Dad so i wouldn’t change any of it at all and i would do it all the same because i feel like even if there was like one second of time that was different i would have never become this person and i would never be this way and i would never be.
As um careful and also as reckless as i am um in this moment and i’m thankful for the um the recklessness and i’m also thankful for the carefulness because they exist one in the same when i was 13 and before i made my journey onto modification mountain.
Um i never would have thought that it would um turn into this but damn it i’m so grateful i’m just so grateful and so proud um to be this heavily tattooed black beautiful queer man who is able to navigate in so many different communities and spaces.
And while still being myself in all of these spaces you
Yves Mathieu East was just a little kid accompanying his mom to Walmart when he first realized his destiny. A woman who was completely covered in tattoos walked out of the door just as he was walking in, and at that moment he knew that someday he too would be heavily inked. We spoke with the incredibly talented model/performer/social activist about his journey, his sobriety and what it means to be a heavily tattooed Black queer man in America.
Welcome to Heavily Inked. In our newest series, we’re going to speak one-on-one with tattoo collectors and artists about what it means to be a heavily inked person. We’ll get deep as we go through the motivations behind their tattoo choices, the way they’ve been treated in society and much more.
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