The Canvas
A large painting in acrylic. One, maybe two a year, painted for whoever the year asks for. Not listed. Mentioned only so you know it exists.
By request
Large-scale, authored tattoo, built across sessions, made for one person only. Some of it is kept in the archive.
Black & grey realism. Portraits and large-scale work, built across sessions.
Boca Raton, Florida · By commission · One person at a time
Selected work
The Artist
Rafael Cassaro was born in Santo André, São Paulo, into a family where art was already part of everyday life. His mother was an artist, and the people who raised him drew, painted and worked with their hands. He lost her early; the language she worked in stayed.
Art reached him before he could name it. The women who recur throughout his work were never a subject he set out to choose, he simply understands now where they come from. What was handed down to him, he keeps handing back, one figure at a time.
Over more than twenty years his hand has crossed Europe, South America and North America, rooted in black and grey realism, moving today between classical painting, the Renaissance, the Baroque, and abstraction. He works on canvas as readily as on skin.
I paint the presence I was too young to remember; the work holds her light, and I stay in the shadow.
Rafael Cassaro · Boca Raton, Florida
The Archive
This is not a collection of tattoos. It is a record of trust, time and artistic collaboration. Some projects naturally become part of my journey, not because they were planned as something special, but because the relationship, the process and the final work carried a presence that deserved to be kept. If a piece enters the archive, it earned its place.
How the work is made
We sit down, talk through the idea and I sketch the direction. No charge. The scope of a piece is decided here — never over text.
Large work is built over time, about two weeks apart, so the skin heals and the piece holds. Half day up to 3h, full day up to 6h.
A finished piece made for one person only. Complimentary touch-ups once it has fully healed. Some of it is kept in the archive.
The forms the work can take
Every piece is drawn by hand and made once. Some live only on skin. A few become part of a larger body of work: an original on paper, a place in the annual exhibition, a record in the archive. These are the forms the work can take.
A large painting in acrylic. One, maybe two a year, painted for whoever the year asks for. Not listed. Mentioned only so you know it exists.
A single work, conceived once and made in two forms: the original in graphite on A2 paper, signed and certified, and the piece on skin. Documented, and shown in the annual exhibition. Three each year.
A full day in the chair. Most pieces are built across a few of these.
A half day in the chair.
A $500 deposit holds any booking and comes off your final session. Archive Commissions are held with a 25% deposit. Payment by cash, Zelle, card, or Affirm.
You don't buy a Cassaro. You are collected into one.
Recognition
His peers named him a juror at the Empire State and Golden State Tattoo Expos; Eternal Ink lends him its name. He works on canvas as readily as on skin. He says none of it himself.
Before you inquire
Start a piece
A short note is enough to begin. I read every inquiry personally and reply with the next step — usually a consultation.