If you’ve ever seen the iconic ‘smile now, cry later’ symbol, with grinning and crying masks side-by-side, you have Freddy Negrete to thank. And if you don’t know who that is, that’s exactly what the Tattoo Heritage Project is trying to change — specifically one of its newest board members, Carlos Torres.
His downtown Long Beach tattoo shop The Raven and The Wolves has been highlighting tattooing and Chicano culture since opening its doors seven years ago. With tons of sunlight pouring in through the shop’s windows and wide open rooms, the space lends itself to its rotating exhibits and artists within.
The shop’s latest exhibit “Caste Shadows” is an homage to one of Torres’ tattooing heroes, of which he has many. Torres invited over 60 tattoo artists of varying generations and cultures to interpret Negrete’s ‘smile now, cry later’ and what it means to them.
The result is a dozen walls honoring the old tattoo legends and showcasing the newer voices making up the scene, a blend that Torres aims to perfect.
“I really strongly believe that you pay respect to this [tattooing]. I’m huge into what tattooing has gotten me, the life it has provided for me. I get to draw on people for a living, I’ve been able to travel and things like that,” Torres said. “I think that sometimes with social media it’s easy to get caught up more on being famous and not paying respect to our craft … if we can get people to be like, ‘You know what, we should pay respect to these artists,’ then that would be nice. It can’t just be forgotten.”
Tying the exhibit together is a separate room made in collaboration with the Tattoo Heritage Project, adorned with flashes and paintings as far back as the 1940s and vintage tattooing machines used throughout the decades, including the first-ever tattoo machine, originally used as a perforator and invented by Thomas Edison Pens in 1875.
Tattoo Heritage Project is a nonprofit formed in 2021 by black and gray tattooing legend “Good Time” Charlie Cartwright and other legends in the industry. Its goal is to create “The Smithsonian” of tattoo museums in downtown Long Beach, one that’s not connected to a shop, and spans decades of global tattoo history to inspire the next generation.
“Caste Shadows” is just a small glimpse of what could be possible with a national tattoo museum established in Long Beach, bringing together pieces that are spread out in various people’s personal collections. The historical room contains original drawings from Negrete, including one of his first ‘smile now, cry later’ editions from the ‘70s from Ed Hardy’s collection, as well as machines, photos and flashes from Chuey Quintanar’s collection.
The exhibit serves as The Raven and The Wolves’ first activation partnered with the Tattoo Heritage Project, though Torres often uses the shop in similar ways. From previous historically-themed exhibits and film screenings that highlight tattoo culture, to a separate classroom for budding artists to learn from one another, the shop is no stranger to honoring the past while ushering in the future.
Torres said he was talking to artists on the Tattoo Heritage Project board, spitballing marketing ideas and asking questions about the future with no plans to join. His enthusiasm was remembered well, and in the spring of this year Torres got invited to join the board, or more accurately, he received multiple phone calls of congratulations that he was now appointed.
“Of course what a huge honor that is, it’s like all my heroes that I’m on the board with, and all the legends I’ve looked up to my whole tattoo career,” Torres said.
Freddy Negrete’s Impact
Back when the Pike in Long Beach was the hotspot for American traditional tattooing, artists were flourishing in a strikingly different setting. Chicanos in prisons in the 1970s used the downtime they had to work on their art, drawing on napkins, paper and eventually skin.
Using small motors from toothbrushes and cassette tapes, an E string for a guitar, and making ink by burning any paper they could find, Chicanos were able to create a higher quality of shading and dimensions that was never seen in the tattoo world. Negrete, experimenting with paper cups of homemade ink in a prison cell, had no idea he was part of a movement that would become black and gray tattooing.
While working in a print shop in prison, Negrete and other artists were able to customize stock paper with their designs on it, then gave it to fellow inmates to write letters. These letters are how the world came to know ‘smile now, cry later,’ and many of Negrete’s other designs.
Among the artists who unknowingly had his flash up on their wall was Jack Rudy and “Good Time” Charlie Cartwright, two other tattooers ushering in the black and gray style. The three teamed up to put black and gray tattooing on the map, and opened up doors for Chicano artists.
Torres was only 2 years old when Negrete started spreading his designs, but he, like many Chicanos in Southern California, would grow up seeing the ‘smile now, cry later’ symbols everywhere and be inspired by it.
“What he did in Chicano culture, bringing us to the professional world, it was a big deal, like [for] me being a kid and I got a lot of doors shut on me trying to get into the professional world,” Torres said. “It’s an important contribution because now you see black and gray tattoos around the world, but no one was really doing what Jack Rudy and Charlie [Cartwright] and Freddy [Negrete] did.”
Torres asked each artist in the show to illustrate what ‘smile now, cry later’ means to them; to dig deep and show their highs and lows, their beauties and struggles. While there are some homages to the masks themselves, many of the pieces are more abstract. An oil painting by Jose Morales depicts his struggle with diabetes, and the duality of indulging in sweet things versus treating it with insulin and pills.
Artists who are not necessarily part of Chicano culture can still relate to the message behind ‘smile now, cry later’, and viewers can see this in the European-style sculpture or Japanese-inspired paintings depicting geishas and samurai masks. It was important to show how far-reaching Negrete’s impact is while bringing up the new artists who will push the craft forward, Torres said.
“My whole thing with this was always to push art. I got into oil painting maybe 16 years ago and it helped my tattooing and vice versa, tattooing helped my art, so I just always try to push people to think outside the box, do more than what we’re doing [at a shop] and try to achieve a little bit more,” Torres said.
“Caste Shadows” will be on display at The Raven and The Wolves at 212 The Promenade North in downtown Long Beach through Monday, Nov. 18 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., excluding Sunday. Viewers should call ahead to schedule a visit.
