Gods of Death Tattoos in Los Angeles

The dark side of Mesoamerica is the centre of Goethe Silva’s work: the underworld, the rituals, the sacrifices, and the gods who overcame their own deaths.

Mictlantecuhtli, lord of Mictlan. Ah Puch, the Maya god of death. Xipe Totec, the flayed one — life, death and rebirth in a single figure. Xolotl, who guides the dead. Tlaltecuhtli. Cihuateotl. These aren’t horror motifs borrowed for effect; they’re a cosmology in which death is half of a pair, not an ending.

Rendered in blackwork, realism and neo-traditional. Private Los Angeles studio, by appointment only.