Local tattoo shops aid fundraising effort for Ruidoso wildfire victims

Jul. 7—As command of the devastating South Fork and Salt fires was handed over to local firefighting agencies on Sunday, Albuquerque and Rio Rancho tattoo shops worked together to raise funds for Ruidoso wildfire victims as part of a larger donation drive spearheaded by Ruidoso based tattoo shops Scorpion Tattoos and Spider Tattoos.

Tattoo shops in the area regularly do flash sales for days like Friday the 13th or St. Patrick's Day, where customers can walk in and pay a set price for a pre-made design. On Sunday, Archetype Tattoos and CZER Tattoos & Art were donating all of the proceeds of a flash sale day to a fund for Ruidoso wildfire victims that one of the Scorpion Tattoo shop owners, Logan Fleharty, is coordinating.

The tattoo artists offered their time and materials to give clients tattoos in the $100 to $200 price range. The full cost of the tattoos was donated to wildfire relief. As of 6:30 p.m., Archetype Tattoo had raised $7,000.

Meanwhile, near Ruidoso, the South Fork Fire was 89% contained and had burned 17,569 acres, while the Salt Fire was 99% contained and had burned 7,939 acres, according to the fires' incident website page. Command of the wildfires was handed over to local teams Sunday from a regional incident management team.

Cesar Valverde has fond memories of camping in Ruidoso during summers growing up. As a professional tattoo artist with his own Rio Rancho tattoo studio, CZER Tattoos & Art, Valverde has another reason to think fondly of Ruidoso: the annual Ruidoso Tattoo Expo held on Father's Day weekend and hosted by James Flores and Scorpion Tattoos.

Valverde said this year's tattoo expo brought families and was a success for the tattoo artists who participated and for bringing visitors to the village of Ruidoso. That success made a stark contrast with the South Fork and Salt Fires that began the day after the tattoo expo wrapped and the weeks of fires and flooding that followed.

"It was rather heartbreaking to have been there for that event — literally left that Monday and that Monday, everything started happening," Valverde said.

When Valverde's wife Yvonne Valverde, who helps him run the business, saw that Archetype Tattoo in Albuquerque wanted to help fire victims with a flash sale, she was determined that they should step up to help too. The couple reached out to Archetype Tattoo to coordinate and invited guest artist Mario Romero to join their studio for the day.

Romero was tattooing New Mexico inspired designs — a roadrunner head, a yucca and Zia design and a Dion's inspired pizza slice.

After an 11 a.m. opening, by 12:30 the two men had already done 10 tattoos and expected to continue working until at least 8 or 9 p.m.

Fourteen miles away, 42 customers had been tattooed or were on the waitlist at Archetype Tattoo by 2 p.m. The shop had seven artists working, including one guest artist. Client liaison Kristin Garcia estimated that 80 people would likely get tattooed by the end of the day.

Archetype Tattoo has participated in a variety of nonprofit and charity fundraisers since the shop opened 14 years ago, said owner Brad Shaw.

"Tattoo artists connect with our clients, and then being able to connect over some sort of community driven purpose, I think just connects us all in a really permanent way that you get to wear on your body for the rest of your life," Shaw said.

Shaw was preparing to tattoo an elk in a forest on Jasmine Quintana. Quintana lives in Tijeras in the mountains north of Ruidoso and wanted to show her support for the community.

"We had a fire two years ago, up in the canyon area by Carnuel that we ended up having to drive all the way around. ... If it would've went on an hour or two longer, it probably would've went to our house," Quintana said.

Chelsey Moore, a tattoo artist at Archetype Tattoo, sparked Archetype joining in on the Ruidoso fundraiser. Moore also attended this year's Ruidoso Tattoo Expo and had a great time enjoying the village with her Ruidoso friends. She was sad to see the fire get so bad so quickly, Moore said.

"We wanted to do what the tattoo community does best and come together and help our friends," Moore said.

Cathy Cook is a news reporter for the Albuquerque Journal. Reach her via email at ccook@abqjournal.com