Franco Maldonado, visual explorer, mind traveler constantly looking for the jewel of a still mind throughout the craft’n’art of hand and breath. He lives with a quest for inner peace, searching for the invisible made visible in artistic expression. He believes in nothing and everything, brought together by many cultures in many places and many ages. Visual gems buried in the memory of contemporary shallow worlds, lost in control of modernity’s fast times.  

Franco draws as a revelion, searching for self knowledge and liberation. His work moves between techniques and combinations. He is inspired by everything alive with a special interest for the natural world and the five elements. He has a wide range of artistic references giving his artwork a strong visual aesthetic adobed with a personal perspective. His work seems to serve as a connector of things apparently distant, diving into mysteries of universal expressions while anchored by his personal spiritual practice.  

While studying Visual Arts in Bogotá Colombia, he did his first tattoo in 2009 and has been tattooing ever since. He worked in Ark Tattoo and then Bogota Tattoo, two shops that gave him solid instruction on how to pigment the skin properly. Then he tattooed for 6 years in New York, spending 4 of those years at the mighty Greenpoint Tattoo Co. in Brooklyn, where he says he really learned how to tattoo. He also learned about the history and philosophy of tattooing, tattoo flash, and the psychology behind being an honest tattooer. 

Franco has tattooed in some of the most renowned tattoo shops all over USA, Europe and South America, and is currently located in Baltimore; a magical city in Maryland USA where you can find him Thursday through Sunday at Transmission Tattoo. If you want to get tattooed by him, you can fill out a form in the website or stop by the shop to talk in person.