When Arielo Taylor started doing graffiti at the age of 14, he didn’t know it would lead him into his eventual career path.
“I had always been interested in tattoo art, I remember looking at the magazines and stuff as a teenager, sometimes I would buy some of the issues and redraw some of the tattoos that I liked but I didn’t have a set goal to go and become a tattoo artist,” Taylor said. “I didn’t even know what that looked like. That process was not super known.”
Taylor says there are a lot of misconceptions and preconceived notions surrounding the term graffiti, and often finds that business owners in Anchorage are more willing to collaborate or hear his pitch when he self-identifies as a muralist or street artist.
“You throw the word graffiti out there, it is gang-related only by definition of law enforcement as a way to boost charges against people who do vandalism and things like that,” he said. “But me and a lot of other painters that I know have never been a part of any gang, it’s not inherently so — but they have heard those terms put those terms together and it assassinates the character of the entire art movement involved with the walls.”
Born and raised in Anchorage, the tattoo artist and muralist known by many as Bisco says he started practicing tattooing in tattooing when a friend started managing a shop.
“I had been dabbling with graffiti, drawing, oil painting, watercolor, a bunch of other things up until that point,” he said. “I kind of had a diverse set of media there to work with, and it was just one more thing to add to it. And after that, photography, engraving and all that, the list just goes on and on.”
His work can be seen around Anchorage, and although his style is “more or less pretty fluid,” Taylor says he has a “big, diverse bag of tricks” he uses to keep it fresh.
“I go through phases of doing things — there were periods where I was doing abstract paintings, periods where I was doing strictly graffiti, which was more or less pretty rigid when you’re doing letters and stuff like that… then from there I started doing what you would consider more street art, which is open to do whatever you want.”
Taylor says he also goes through phases where he favors black and grey work, or phases where he’s using every color in his inventory.
“There are periods where all those things intersect, and I’m doing blends of all those styles that I”ve learned,” Taylor said. “When I move onto a different phase, I don’t completely put the other thing away, usually it all kind of works out into the new body of work.”
Taylor’s books are currently open for tattooing, and he has merch available for purchase through his website.
Sam Davenport is a writer residing in Anchorage. She's a leo and a plant-person, and loves spending quality time with her dog, Aspen. She is a Real Housewives fan and has been called a Bravo historian.
