Mario Beltran

My name is Mario Beltran. I was born and raised in Fontana, CA. I’ve been tattooing for 12 years now. My art journey originally began with graffiti at age 13 as I could only draw letters and never any type of faces, whether it was a realistic or cartoony style I just could never.

While on this journey fast forward to age 17 as I’m still heavy into the graffiti scene I found myself about to start a family of my own at a young age . I then knew I had to think of an alternative which wouldn’t get me into trouble if I still wanted to do something I love and I was in love with art. I first thought the closest thing to a spray can would be an airbrush ! I brought this idea up to my brother-in-law “Cranky” , who is a shop owner and he says “ No, if you wanna make money you need to get into tattooing .“ Then my cousin “smiley” started tattooing there shortly after this which motivated me more to start tattooing. I immediately dropped my graffiti style to learn how to draw lettering styles that were common for tattoos like old English and script so I wanted to be able to draw my own custom versions of these styles.

My first attempt to drawing script was inspired by my oldest brother in which is incarcerated , he would send these amazing drawings with amazing custom lettering to our mom until I asked to borrow one that said “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” in script, as my 2nd oldest brother was sitting with me, he had an idea as to the fundamentals of script and gave me some tips to get started as I attempted to copy my oldest brothers letters. I then found myself drawing script lettering on “EVERYONE” at school for money ($1-$5) , it was a pen that really looked like a real tattoo.

My cousin “Smiley” then let me borrow 2 tattoo machines to get started and told me to use those until I saved enough money to buy my own. Then my whole life changed. Ever since then my life has consisted of 2 things, tattooing and my family the best support team (my amazing wife and now 3 daughters).

Fast forward to 11 years later in 2020 I get blessed with a dedicated client “Drew” that flew in every other week from start to finish till his sleeve that consisted mostly of portraits was completed, As I specialize in black and gray portraits/realism. He then goes and gets a dope huge cover up done by the master Robert pho in which was 1 artist in a small bunch of artists that were ahead of their time in this industry and I looked up to since I started tattooing.

Next thing you know I get an Instagram direct message from Robert pho and Orlando Quintanilla acknowledging and appreciating my hard work and it meant the world to me! Now it’s 2022 and I find myself blessed with the amazing opportunity to be a part of the World famous Skin Design Tattoo Family!