An Australian Tattoo Artist with an Affinity for Hip-Hop
To see more of Iva’s work, check out @eevz on Instagram. For more music stories, head to @music.
Iva Chavez (@eevz) knew she had a gift. When she was about 7 or 8, she began drawing members of the Ninja Turtles and the New Kids on the Block — not just childlike doodles, mind you, but faithful re-creations. Her mother immediately took notice.
“I didn’t trace it, I copied it from eye,” recalls Iva, now 32. “And my mom was pretty blown away by how exact it looked.”
Iva would draw throughout high school, then eventually change gears to become a graphic designer. Years later, she had an epiphany: Why have a talent if you’re not going to use it? Though she hadn’t drawn in about a decade, she somehow managed to pick up right where she started, while also taking a new direction: tattooing.
“I practiced on myself first, before I tattooed anybody else. But it was just mainly small scriptures and little symbols,” she says. “I did not want to even attempt a portrait. You know, you can’t make one mistake while doing a portrait. Like one little line that’s a millimeter off or a little bit of shading that’s slightly too dark and you might ruin the whole [thing]. It takes time to build the confidence to even attempt one.”
Once she gained that confidence, she never looked back. She’s now been a full-time tattoo artist for three-and-half years, specializing in portraits of rappers. Iva, who grew up in Australia, has always been an enormous hip-hop fan, and has transferred that love through ink, with tattoos of everyone from Tupac to Eazy-E.
“I’ve always been interested in drawing hip-hop,” she says. “I grew up on it.”
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