Running Bear - Tattooing Navajo

RUNNING BEAR Specialist in Specializing

For any person, the path of attaining the knowledge of any kind is hard. But growing up under obscured living conditions in the reservation, marginalized by society, trying the same it's even harder. It must take great courage or complete lunacy, or maybe both, to find the strength to free yourself from the fenced life in search for a truth. And that is exactly what Running Bear did. With a bit of luck and diligence, he took his chance to breakaway from the same monotonous lifestyle of his tribe fellows. And from the outskirts of modern life , from the deserts of Arizona (Fort Defiance) where he grew up, being of a Navajo origin, he launched himself beyond that realm into a turbulent and chaotic whirlpool of “civilization”.

Navajo indians (or Dine) are the largest group of North America's indigenous peoples, counting today over 300,000 people which are living in the largest reservation in the USA, spread over the vast area of land, in four different states: Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. The first two count as the largest residing areas with the capitol of Navajo nation in Window Rock, in Arizona. Their wide dispersion across the reservation is due to a limited availability of water and a limited amount of grassland.

They lead very simple life. Their homes are called hogans and are scattered all over the reservations. Usually made of logs, stones and mud with their doorways traditionally always facing east, “to receive the blessing of the day's first rays of sun”.

That undoubtedly shows their great spiritual connection with nature and they are firm believers in the transmigrations of the souls. And that would be also the reason for their great reverence for different animals which they believe to be the re-embodiment of departed spirits of deceased Navajos. Also, they believed that the animals were representations of celestial bodies and also their spiritual guides. So it was quite common to name their offsprings after the animals they related their children with. And so was the case with the Running Bear.

The bears were important and very present animals. They resemble humans when in standing position and they represented courage, physical strength and leadership. Bears are strong, agile and quick which would perfectly fit to the personality description of Running Bear. Navajo indians have a saying: “Do not laugh at bears because they will come after you” as well as “Do not make fun of a bear because it will make you sick.”

Living with, observing and respecting the laws and patterns of nature they became, over the time, great cultivators of the land and livestock. Beside, Navajos showed ingenuity in creating artistic patterns and are traditionally skillful designers and manufactures of silver ornaments as well as blankets.

It is believed that Navajo's came to where they are now, from the Western part of Canada over 1000 years ago. They belonged to an American-Indian group called Athapaskans. Their name Navajo's come from the Spanish term 'Apaches de Navajo' which derives from the 'Tewa Navahu' which means highly cultivated lands. However, Navajo's called themselves 'Dine', a term which in their own language means the 'People'.

Characteristic thing about their language is that it was used by American military forces in the second World War to create secret code language to battle Japanese in the Pacific. The men who have created the codes are better known as 'Navajo Code Talkers'.

In a way, the first contact, for Running Bear, with tattoos was seeing them on his father who served American military forces back in the days. They were “usual military stuff as well as some traditional stuff”.

Not even knowing, his father's marks ignited the sparkle of flammable curiosity

in Bear's mind. His next 'meeting' with tattoos will determine his future.

Back in 1978, at the age of 14, in the school he was attending, he met another Navajo kid who was Bear's age and who was covered with tattoos. At that time tattoos were definitely not 'cool' and “people without tattoos were scared of people with tattoos, so in the school nobody dared to talk to the kid or to get too close to him.” Even for Running Bear he was a taboo as much as tattoos were for his people in general. But that just could not last too long. RB explains:

“So one day I approached him, introduced myself and then I told him of how cool I found his tattoos, regardless of the fact that I knew absolutely nothing about it and couldn't say if they were good or bad. The only thing was that ANY tattoos were cool to me.”

After exchanging couple of words with the kid, who's name was Jerome Global, Bear found out that he got them from his uncle who was released from New Mexico's State Prison in Santa Fe where he was serving a long sentence. Much later Bear would figure out that the kid's uncle's tattoos were genuine Mexican gang related tattoos all done with the prison style machines.

However Bear did not wait another day to ask him more direct things.

“I asked him if he knew how to do them, and if he did, could he make them on me. And Jerome asked me: “Yeah I can but what you gonna give me in return.” I answered: “5 cigarettes...and a joint”. He agreed. Then I asked him: 'Where are we going to do it, is it going to be in the school or...? He told me that we will use his room in the 'half-way' house.” (institution for housing the kids from the 'problem' families, mostly alcohol and drug related). Large number of Navajo people are deeply frustrated with the conditions of living on the reservation territories. Due to a harsh weather conditions and inadequate, promised, help from the American government there is a very little, if any, progress made in many years.

Bear continues: “So we went to his place but at the entrance door was a guard standing. Jerome talked to him and he let us go to his room with the condition not to make any noise. Finally I got in, and few hours later I walked out with my first tattoo, the Black Sabbath cross. Jerome had no idea who the fuck Black Sabbath was. We were living on the Navajo land, desolate place, away from anything. It's a desert that could easily be part of Egypt or Libya. However I ran home being in a state of total ecstasy. And at home I had one 'Hustler' magazine where was an article about Japanese yakuza's and their tattoos. There was a picture of one guy with a big dragon on his back. I started tripping, took pen and the paper and tried to draw the same dragon over and over again until the early morning hours. The next day I went to the school and asked Jerome if he was able to do the dragon that I drew previous night. He replied: “Yeah, but that will cost you more...a pack of cigarettes and 5 joints. And it will take much longer than the last time.” So the next day we went, after the school, back to his place and where he started tattooing me. It lasted all night long. I could not really see what he was doing except some parts that I could see in the mirror and for what I did see I had no idea if it was good or badly done. However, when he finished only the outlines were done and I was exhausted, but also excited. Then I went back home and tried to sneak in the house but my mum was still awake, waiting for me. After she asked where was I, I took off my still blood-soaked shirt and showed her my freshly tattooed back. She shook her head couple of times and said only: “It's too late.” 

"I mean even if she'd forbid me to do it I'd run away from house and do it anyway. I went to my bed saying to myself: “Fuck man I became a man, I got tattooed.” The next day I met Jerome again and he was telling me about how much he missed his grandmother and about his plans to break out from the reservation and leave forever. When I heard that I asked him if he would copy for me the design of his tattoo machine. He agreed and made a copy at the spot. We departed and I went home with my new homework: to make a tattoo machine. I was busy again all night long and again, the next day I went back to see him and show him my creation but he was already gone. That previous night he left and I never saw him again.”

Those three days were crucial in defining Running Bear's future. Bewitched by his already 'lost' friend Bear has spent nights and days trying to experiment with his new toy, trying different guitar strings but also trying to figure out how to find people to tattoo.

“I tried to find people but nobody wanted, while being sober. So I figured: “In order to tattoo someone, we have to get drunk.” And that worked eventually. It happened few times that only after I got drunk with my homies, was when they got the courage to do it. I did couple of crosses completely free style. But later, after I gained some experience I started drawing before I tattooed somebody. And slowly I started building my clientele. That was the beginning and my love for it was instant...and constant. That's what carried me further in my life all these years.”

Little by little Bear's experience grew bigger and his confidence got stronger.

For next five years he was boosting up his knowledge capacities, drawing and painting but his transitory nature of upbringing, being of a Nomadic origin, he has realized that it isn't all about the location but about the state of being. There are not just one but many realities to be grasped. He decided to step out of the known realm and extend his boundaries. He left little town called Winter Windrock, in Arizona, and went straight to the capital of the 'occupation forces', to Washington DC. He was only 20 years old and eager to accept anything that comes on his path of learning. There he met...Punk Rock and he has fallen in love once more.

“That shit was awesome. It was completely another world. Back in those days just as much 'normal' people were afraid of tattoos, they were afraid of punk-rockers

as well. But what was really funny is that even some punk-rockers were afraid of tattoos. On the other hand it was a lot of guys who were saying; “Hey that shit is cool Bear, you crazy fucking indian, do one on me...and me...and me.” I had my home made tattoo gun with me and I ended up tattooing bunch of those mutha-f...rs. It was so much fan. But tattooing in general was illegal although there were few shops. In general it was all underground. As the matter of fact for most of the Yenk side of the East Coast, including New York and Boston, tattooing was illegal. Recently I have visited East Coast and lots of places where I've been working are not there any more. Considering people, a lot of them are dead, either from overdoses or hepatitis, aids, diabetes or God knows what else.”

He ended up his adventure on the East Coast and went back to Navajo land but now to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he spent quite some time especially because of not being able to resist and fight his new habit that he picked up while on his trips on the East Coast: drugs and its best buddy, alcohol. He has reached the point of being no different then anyone else from his 'crowd'.

“That was the end of my rope. But then a friend of mine from Washington DC who lived at that moment in California, called me to come to LA to work. At first I refused, I was too strung out but he was very persuasive and got me plane ticket to LA. I came there but instead of LA I ended up in Venice. In Venice there were only three shops. There was one cheesy shop on the Linkin Blvd., then there was another guy called Rusty with his shop right on the boardwalk and Tattoo Bob, a guy who was close to the hood. But in Venice the situation was tough. Lots of people were getting killed every day. There was constant struggle going on between blacks and chicanos, Venice 13 and Venice Short Line Cribs or VSLC. It all reminded me on the murder capitol of the USA at that time, Washington DC. Beside, I realized that most of the people I knew there were hard-core junkies and that was a step back for me trying to get off my addictions. But then I met Permanent Mark who just started tattooing at Tattoo Bob's shop. We started our friendship with me tattooing his back and he trying to score me a job at Bob's. No matter how much I wanted to work there, I knew that the shop was too small for another person. And one day Bob came to me and told me that the guys from the Linkin Blvd have a job for me. The place was named after the movie 'Revenge of the Nerds' who's owner played a role in it. He didn't have much to do with tattoos but he did owe the shop and it was a busy street shop. That place was where I got introduced into the realm of professional tattooing.”

Bear was coping with the morals of the shop owner for a while and working hard but his expectations for himself were becoming more substantial and he needed to

go further. He tried to find another shop to work like Mark Mahoney's Shamrock Social Club in Hollywood but that one and all others were way too small for another person especially for the one of Bear size. Yet Bear did not despair. He met someone who gave him a hope. That was Pote Seyler, a prosperous tattoo artist from Switzerland (belongs to top 100 most influential people in the tattoo business according to Bob Baxter of Skin&Ink Magazine).

“Pote told me that he was saving money to open his own shop in Hollywood and since he liked my work, “your crazy graphics” how he'd say, he asked me to help him out and work with him when the time comes. After a while, just at the moment when the shop where I was working got sold, Pote really came back to ask me again to work with him at his freshly opened Body Electric studio on the Melrose Av.. I packed my shit and went to Hollywood which was completely another world, that's where the doors of professional tattoo world opened completely. Pote had a good connection with the Leu Family, he got 'Battle Royale' on his back done by Felix and Filip and had a lot of friends visiting the shop. Some of those friends were encouraging me to go to visit Europe which I did. I went to Paris and from there went to a small town close to Paris and made my new base which helped me get connected with other cool people.

I 'snowballed' around and soon found myself working at the 1^st Lausanne Tattoo Convention. I was not listed but still got the booth in the center of the convention happenings. It was cool because it was only about 30 tattoo artists participating and it was packed with people. I worked three days, day and night.

There I met Christian and Blaze, from Paris and Toulouse, who also had great network of people. Then it was a new convention going on but this time in Bologna, which I was participating as well. And again I wasn't listed, but Marco Leoni, the organizer of it, found an empty booth for me. In Bologna I met for the second time the infamous Henky Panky (first time we met at 1^st Hollywood T.C.) who invited me to come to work for him in Amsterdam and to go with him to work at Berlin's Convention. I just couldn't say no to him and after the show went to France to get my stuff and rolled straight to Amsterdam. In the train to Amsterdam I met a Dutch guy , a carpenter, who told me that if I ever want to kill someone I should take him to Holland and kill him there, for the simple reason that if I get caught, I could get maximum of 6 years of jail!? That was my first contact with anything that represents Holland (beside Henk). However Amsterdam, later on, turned out to be a great city. There I met  Permanent Mark once more, who was then working for Henk. The shop was super busy, Tattoo Museum was going on, lots of partying... it was quite dynamic. I stayed in for a few years, in the second half of the '90's. But then bit by bit I plunged again into my addictions and it was imperative for me to get out and find myself.”

By then he already had excessive knowledge about tattooing and still his immense artistic curiosity played hard to be satisfied. Now that he was ready to go he picked up the destination where he thought that could never get him in the trouble again. Bear went to Japan attending 1^st Tokyo T.C. and stayed there to learn more about their approach to life...and tattooing. But.

“Ever since I was a kid I had a book by Sally Freeman with big photo plates of Japanese tattoos, for which I thought was awesome. That drew me in a way into this world. I always had love for it.I learned a lot from Pote and Henk but it was priceless to learn how to create certain shading effects from one japanese 'tebori' master. For Japanese there is a right way and the wrong way about doing this. For westerners is more that you can do whatever you want. But if you try to do it the traditional way there are number of step and rules that you have respect in order to make it look more authentic. Otherwise you will have Japanese laughing looking at you work, of course behind your back. In Japan I was doing mostly western traditional tattoos, here and there couple of dragons. I just couldn't find the knowledge for the style of Japanese tattooing. What I did find was the way of Japanese partying. I just wasn't ready to slave for anybody, not even for Horiyoshi III although I have immense respect for him, for the bits of their own tradition. After all it is theirs. On the other hand socializing with them went great. It was again too much of working, dining and partying every f...n night that I had to pack my bags and leave once more. This time I ran back to the USA.”

After years of traveling and being away from home, which brought his artistic and otherwise personality to full maturity, upon arriving to the USA Bear went on city-hopping still searching for the missing link. But deep within himself he

wanted to settle down and start on his own.

“After working for all the people that I worked for all these years, God bless them all, to whom I'm really thankful for the opportunities that they gave me and for the knowledge which they shared with me, now is the time to start on my own. I don't want to jinx it by talking about it, because it still does not exist but I collected a lot of stuff during my travels and I'd like to show them before it rots in the boxes. I don't want that my kid's open the boxes one day after I'm gone and say: “What kind of freak my dad was.”

When I asked RB to share some lessons that he picked up from the travelings across the seas he replied:

“The major thing was how to tattoo fast. Where ever I was and no matter how big the tattoo was I tried to finish it in one go. It's not like “I'll do the outlines now and finish it in two weeks”, because I might not be there in two weeks. I might not be there in months, years or maybe never again. So whatever I did I had to bang that shit up but still be in control of what I'm doing. I think working for Henk at the old place was a good school for me. The other thing I picked up was the philosophy of tattooing. When I started tattooing traditional type of designs Sailor Jerry style were in all the way. Then it went through fantasy style in the 80's and tribal and bio-mechanical in the 90's to graffiti and cartoon style later on, to single needle script, black and gray and realistic style. So the designs are ever changing but repeating. I can see tribals coming back but done in a style of computer pixels. Tattooing, in a meantime has gained

a lot of respect among 'normal' people. They don't look down on the people with tattoos any more. On the other hand there is a lot of people who look at this business only as a resource of tapping as much money as possible without care for anything or anybody else. I also think that the real feeling for this art is what is missing in the tattoo scene. Some of the pieces done by many artists are technically perfect but without life. I do understand many artists are coming out from the schools and have everything already planned and try to stick to it and buy big cars and houses. Many artists of today won't do any other style except the one they got used to. Some say: “Oh that's not my style, go somewhere else. But that's something I can't relate with. My D.C. underground experience of living on the edge, understanding and reasoning life and other humans in certain situation, has thought me about respecting this business and life around it. I grew up tattooing whatever my customers had on mind. I drew over and over again and asked if that's what they wanted and over the time became specialized in specializing.”

Being in this profession for 34 years Running Bear has demonstrated mastery of artistic skills applied in both traditional and modern context and shows untamable passion and dedication for this craft. He himself is also a passionate collector and has been tattooed by names such as Bob and Charlie Roberts, Mark Mahoney, Riley Baxter, Pote Seyler, Freddy Corbin, Eddy Deutsche, Maxxx Scott, Bill Loika, Lucky Bastard, Joe Vegas, Jesse Tuesday, Filip Leu, Elio Espana, Bit, Inya Taylor, Good Time Charlie, Molly van Oss, Reggie, Captain Caveman, Shane the Face, Reggie, Jerome Global and by himself.

More of Running Bear could be found on Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/RunningbearsArttattoo