Stefano Alcántara

An international practice across tattooing and art

Stefano Alcántara was born and raised in Lima, Peru, where drawing and art interested him from an early age and comics became an early influence. He studied Graphic Design at the Peruvian Institute of Advertising, also known as Instituto Peruano de Publicidad, and discovered tattooing while completing that training. Alcántara has said that he began tattooing at 18 after his father lent him the money for his first tattoo machine. His earliest work was made in a room at home for friends and acquaintances; his official biography places the opening of his first tattoo shop in 1999. From those beginnings in Lima, his professional development eventually took him to the United States and to a prolonged period at Last Rites in New York. Across that trajectory, tattooing remained connected to a wider visual practice. His documented work now encompasses evolving approaches to tattooing alongside acrylic and oil painting and murals, with Lima, New York and Florida forming distinct contexts in an international career that moves between tattoo culture and Fine Art.