Daniel Luke
Rincón de la Victoria (Málaga) (EFE).- Carmen has tattooed a half moon on her chin and Juan his family on his chest. Nothing out of the ordinary, except that they are 78 and 89 years old, respectively, and at their age they have decided to free themselves from prejudice and mark their skin for the first time in honor of their origins and their loved ones.
Carmen was born in Melilla on Christmas Eve in 1944, at the end of the Second World War. She grew up in a large family and in her childhood she cohabited with her Moroccan friends. Her desire to tattoo herself emerged at the age of 14, when she attended a North African wedding and discovered some drawings on the women’s skin.
She fell in love with the typical “henna” tattoos of Moroccan culture, although her father forbade her to get tattooed. It took 64 years for that adolescent wish to come true.
Navas, freed from responsibilities and after the death of her husband, dared to take the step she always wanted to take.
The first of many
Now a crescent moon is rising on her chin, a symbol that the old woman has decided to wear because it “inspires her to grow, to be a good person and to give a lot to others,” as she explained to EFE. She has fulfilled her objective after having five children and a life between Melilla, Malaga and Castellón, being a judicial agent for 33 years.
Her next tattoo will be her name on her eyebrows: Carmen on the left and Navas on the right. The nice old lady claims that so they don’t need to ask her name and she will remember it if she ever gets Alzheimer’s disease. She even jokes about tattooing, in this case, the ID number on her forehead.
Redrum tattoo, in Rincón de la Victoria (Málaga), is the studio where Carmen has taken this step. Luis Solano, who is known in the union as Wicshky, is her tattoo artist and her friend for a few months. From her hands this little moon was born that surprises all the neighbors and that has made it known in Rincón, a very touristy municipality located about 20 kilometers from Malaga.
family and dog
In this same study, Juan Alcalde, an 89-year-old retiree who got his first tattoo when he was 81, marked his skin.
The charismatic old man tattooed his wife on his chest when he died and, later, his two children, one of them deceased. Also his dog Luca his, this time on his shoulder. The reason was clear: always carry them with you.
“I don’t have to look for a photo of my wife to see her, I just look in the mirror,” the man, who was born in Algeria when that country still belonged to France and who has dedicated his life to manufacturing tires, told EFE. until he retired and moved to Malaga. He had never been attracted to tattoos before.
“When I leave, I will have everyone with me,” insists the funny man, who does not stop joking with the tattoo artist and who boasts of his strength and endurance when marking his skin.
He confesses, lowering his tone, that his son’s tattoo, near the end of his left pectoral muscle, “itched a little.”
Luis Solano, the creator of these artistic works of ink, points out that it is “nice” that Carmen has waited to get this tattoo until she has “no social consequences” due to age and adds that it is “a joy” that older people start to normalize this world, something difficult when he opened his store 16 years ago.
Carmen and Juan are role models who represent “it’s never too late”, putting aside the stereotypes about the elderly and tattooing themselves, whether out of rebellion or commemoration, what moves them and keeps them alive.
