Una Compania de Mala Suerte | Fotos por Sal Rojas



Un Compania de Mala Suerte por Salvador Rojas

Johnny Garza was born in the border town of Laredo, Texas. His family migrated to Gary, Indiana where his father worked as a steel worker to support his family. His father instilled in his three sons a blue collar work ethic.

Gary, Indiana is a tough town known for The Jackson 5 and for having one of the highest murder rates in the nation. Surviving the barrio takes more than lady luck; it takes street smarts and finding a way to survive the chaos.

Ever since Johnny was a small child he loved to draw and color. He used his house as his personal canvas. With his loving mothers permission he tagged up the walls. As a teenager he took up the aerosol can as his next form of expression, contributing to the mid-west graffiti movement.

In the early 1990s Johnny received his first tattoo by local legend Roy Boy. Being the perpetual student, Johnny asked Roy Boy question after question about the art of tattooing. Before long Johnny was Roy Boy’s apprentice for six months learning the craft. Johnny learned his way around the tattoo parlor polishing his natural talent as an artist and started tattooing professionally in 1994.

It wasn’t long before Johnny was creating his own tattoo flash art work signing them with his name John Garza. When a fellow tattoo artist suggested he needed something catchy and he started calling Johnny “Bad Luck”. Which Johnny translated in Spanish to “Mala Suerte” and he’s been representing his new moniker ever since.



As one of the handful of Chicano tattoo artist in the mid-west, Johnny “Mala Suerte” Garza represents with the best of them. He’s one of the masters of the prison-based fine line (black and grey) tattooing art pioneered by legends like Freddy Negrete of Shamrock Social Club (Hollywood, CA) and Jack Rudy the owner of Good Time Charlie's Tattooland (Anaheim, CA). Their quality of work in the art of fine line tattoos inspired his style of tattooing classic Chicano themes from the charras, clowns, rosaries, custom scripts, to the comedy and tragedy drama mask with his own personal twist.

Johnny is always humble and gives respect to those that came before him. One of the important lessons he learned in his fifteen years of tattooing is that the tattoos foundation is one of the secrets to a great tattoo.



If you study Johnny’s tattoo work and custom scripts you can see elegance in every stroke with an authentic street style that’s truly unique. When asked about his lettering Johnny replies “I didn’t create the style, but I have a style all of my own.”


Original LA Calavera Oaxaquena created by Jose Guadalupe Posada in 1903.

One of Johnny’s favorite artists is Mexican great Jose Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913). Posada is best known for his day of the dead Calaveras. Posada’s Calaveras reflected the current events of time and different facets of Mexican life. One of Johnny’s favorites is Posada’s “La Calavera Oaxaqueña”. Johnny has hand drawn his version of “La Calavera Oaxaqueña” numerous times using different mediums but all with Mala Suerte’s own style, paying homage to Posada for his influence and inspiration.



This powerful image of an Oaxacan Calavera wearing a Mexican sombrero holding a machete in his right hand in midair was one of Johnny’s first Mala Suerte logos and t-shirt designs. The shirts were a huge success at tattoo conventions. Other tattoo artists would come by his booth looking to purchase his shirts. He would usually sell out of “Mala Suerte” t-shirts on the first day and was freed to tattoo the rest of the days.

His success with his “Mala Suerte Tattooing” shirts led to the creation of the official “Mala Suerte Compania” clothing line. The clothing line launched in 2002 with the support of graphic artist Job Moscot of Explicit Ink Designs. With Johnny as creative director and Job Moscot adding his flair to each design you have one of the freshest Mexican-based clothing lines on the streets.

Using the same principles for a great tattoo, the solid foundation of Mala Suerte Compania is based on artistic creativity and patience, working at their own pace, and making sure everything is the best it can be. Like tattooing a classic tattoo, Mala Suerte Compania isn’t based on time, but on being timeless.

Fotografia y Escritos Por Salvador Rojas

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