Nanette Gonzales

Neto Velasco's body is his canvas.

Neto Velasco came to Los Angeles to make his mark, but the city also made its mark on him. He arrived from the Mexican town of Querétaro a year ago. "I had a really good life in Mexico, but I prefer adventure," he says. "That's why I came here."

Velasco, a graphic designer, had left his house and given everything away except three pairs of jeans, five T-shirts and a camera. "I want my life to be simple. Like, if tomorrow I want to go to Japan, I just grab my backpack and let's go," he says.

At 26, he is young and passionate and wears his heart on his sleeve. He admits that it wasn't just adventure but misadventure that fueled his decision to come to the United States: A girl in Mexico had broken his heart. She'd met another guy. "I never want to talk to you again," she said. Velasco refused to remain in the same country she inhabited.

In L.A., he got a snake-and-dagger tattoo to remember her by. He'd given her everything but received nothing — just a dagger in the heart.

"Every time I have a broken heart, I need to get a tattoo, and I need to go out and do some stencils," he explains. Tattoos and stencils — which he's used to mark the streets of L.A. — are his therapy.

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Diamond Bodine-Fischer

Photographs of classic tattoos can be found near the entrance.

See also:
*5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week
*10 Awesome Tattoo Artists in L.A.

At last week's opening night of the Craft and Folk Art Museum's exhibit "L.A. Skin & Ink," which celebrates the last 60 years of tattooing in Los Angeles, the crowd could be heard laughing and chattering from nearly a block away as Alex Clare's "Too Close" played in the background.

After entering through the gift shop, where there's an assortment of books on the history of tattooing and packets of temporary tattoos, I ascended the stairway, past groups of beautifully unique individuals with colorful hair, fearless fashion, and -- of course -- often ink-covered skin.

At the top of the stairs an old station where a tattoo artist would have worked sixty years ago was set up, while further inside a more modern display illuminates just how much times have changed. Exhibitions Coordinator Sasha Ali explained that it was important to the curators that they cover the early growth of tattooing, the unique influence Asian and Pacific styles had on the West Coast, as well as modern day where fine art and tattoo have been bridged.

Ron Platt, who previously curated "Under the Skin: Tattoos and Contemporary Culture," and Camila Rocha of High Voltage Tattoo, helped assure that the exhibit fully covered the past half century, from when clients chose an image displayed on a shop wall, to the present, as tattooing has evolved to become a more sophisticated form of art.

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SJ O'Connell

See also: 10 Awesome Tattoo Artists in L.A.

Welcome to my life, tattoo
I'm a man now, thanks to you
I expect I'll regret you
But the skin graft man won't get you
You'll be there when I die

-"Tattoo"
by The Who

People with tattoos are sentimental. Most of them, anyway. No one gets a tattoo just for fun. Or at least don't get every tattoo for fun. Few people look at a tattoo on their body and completely forget how and why it came to be there. They usually represent something that is or was once important to them. "I love my kids!" or "I have a very strong fondness for the Dodgers!"

At the Body Art Expo in Pomona this weekend, there was a wide cross-section of people, from teen girls accompanied by their moms to rugged old dudes with fading battleships, all of them contemplating their next permanent declaration.

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Nate "Igor" Smith

From the MUSINK Tattoo Convention and Music Festival 2012

When it comes to tattooing, we are fortunate to have an enormous wealth of talent in Los Angeles. Though tattoo culture erupted in mainstream popularity several years ago, it was a vital part of L.A. long before that and remains so today. There are artists in every corner of the city, with faithful clients on long waiting lists.

We have so many true masters in Los Angeles that to try and narrow it down to the top 10 most talented would be not only impossible, but criminal. We didn't want to let that stop us from spotlighting talent, however, so below are several of our favorites.

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Fernando Leon

"Everyone knows I'm not going to watch it," says California based tattoo artist Heather Sinn, referring to Ink Master, Spike TV's new reality television tattoo competition series that begins tonight, hosted by musician Dave Navarro. As an unhappy contestant on the show, Sinn says it took time for her to recover from what she describes as a "grueling experience."

Though she is accustomed to being in front of a camera, having modeled for years, with appearances in music videos ranging from Prince to Melissa Etheridge, the 42-year-old Michigan native, who co-owns Simi Valley tattoo shop The Tattoo Room (with tattoo artist Danielle Oberosler), hated being in front of the Ink Master cameras. "It was a very tough experience. When I was originally told about it, I said, 'This isn't like some kind of Fear Factor thing, is it? If it is, I don't want to do it.' After I was already there, I came to find out it's a lot like that. I was in tears a lot on the show. It was very hard on me and it was no secret that I was unhappy."

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