#921 - The cosmic jaguar

Inspiração: During the lasts years, my tattooing experience has motivated me to give visibility to different environmental causes supported by different entities in Colombia and also other processes that are responsible for protecting or raising awareness about specific ecosystems and the species that inhabit them. One of the most important ones, and the one I started with, is the “Chiribiquete” project, where I tried to leave part of my connection with the nature on the people’s skin. “La Serranía de Chiribiquete” is a region located between the departments of Caquetá and Guaviare, called by the indigenous people -The center of the world-. This is the biggest protected area in the country and one of the few places on earth that haven’t been colonized by humans. There, along the rocky formations denominated “tepuyes”, are nearly 70.000 pictograms left there by the old communities that lived in the area and that still living there today; guarding the area. In them, the relationship between the communities that lived in the area and different species surrounding them can be seen, but the most important one, the jaguar, the animal that is believed to be the connection between the physical and the spiritual plains. It is also believed that he is the son of the moon and the sun, for this reason he has a yellow back like his father and a white belly like his mother.
This region barely known by the most of Colombians and the world had to be recognized by it’s magic, so I used my reach on social media to show people this place. Then, the pictograms inspired me to design tattoos that represented this magical region in our country and along with this designing process, I realized that more and more people got the opportunity to know this place and they also got amazed by the magic of its cave paintings, so much, that they wanted to scrap them from off the rocks, figuratively, and put them directly under their skins. Then, having made more than 100 tattoos between 2020 and 2021, I consider that I have left my own legacy on the new generations, embodied on their skins forever, just like the pictograms will remain forever on the “tepuyes” of the Chiribiquete and Colombian skin bringing to light the history and the invaluable asset of our past, also that one that came and is still at the jungle.

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Diegobefruit's Bio': My name is Diego, I was born in the Colombian jungle, and together with my parents, during the early days of my childhood, I was able to meet magical places, filled with incredible cultures and animals. It was there, around the Guanía region, where I felt in love with the rain forest ecosystem and all the living beings that belong to it, including me.
Years later, settled down in Bogotá and trying to keep on learning about those incredible places inside the Colombian jungles, I decided to study environmental engineering and later a master’s degree focused on sustainable living systems. My professional background always went along with the artistic field, illustration and grafitti, and later I found in the art of tattooing not just a way to channel my personal passions, but also a way to demonstrate my interest on the environmental protection of my country.

Materiais necessários: Spray paint
Acrilic paint
Laquer