As ICE continues to hunt for immigrants in Los Angeles, many people in this city have discovered their own individual roles in the resistance.
While there are those who protest at the Metropolitan Detention Center and host observation hubs at Home Depots for mobile community watch, several local artists are showing solidarity through their work, recognizing that art can be revolutionary.
The Rabble Rouser Tattoo Shop in Culver City hosted a January fundraiser with custom ‘Fuck ICE’ flash sheets.
L.A. TACO spoke with tattoo artist Leslie Young, who says that the idea arose from a conversation with colleague Rosie Knight about wanting a “FUCK ICE” tattoo on her knuckles. This soon evolved into a packed fundraiser at the Rabble Rouser, a tattoo shop that perfectly embodies a maximalist environment, decked out with hanging art pieces and shelves filled with jars, ink, and knick-knacks.
“For the event, I wanted to make sure my community knows where I stand,” Young says. “Art will always be political; it is absolutely crucial for quieter voices, voices with less power/agency/spotlight, to be heard. It is not enough for people to passively not enact harm, but to actively fight against it, so I wanted to use what I had.”
On the night of the event in late January, L.A. TACO walked into the shop to find a full house of tattoo enthusiasts waiting to get poked. Not a single complaint was heard during the two-hour wait. Many of the guests simply wrote their names down and grabbed dinner at the nearby mom-and-pop shops while waiting their turns.
While we weren't able to get any ink that night, we confirmed with Young that the event raised $6,700 and that all proceeds were donated to CHIRLA, Immigrant Defense Project, and L.A. TACO.
L.A. TACO spoke to four of the shop's artists from that night, as well as Jesse, a colleague who joined to tattoo as many folks as possible.
L.A. TACO spoke with the artists to ask them a simple question:
“What does your art mean to you?”
SEBASTIAN STONE
“My art is a compulsive response to the world around me, especially when I can’t pin down a feeling," Sebastian Stone tells us. "It is a forever companion and a tool for mutual aid. When tattooing, it becomes a protective charm.”
Stone’s expertise lies in illustrative cartoons and anthropomorphic animals, often featuring fine line and colorful designs, with the character striking a pose. His flash sheet for the Rabble Rouser event featured intricate, colorful dragons: one melting an ice cube and two crushing ice cubes. He also depicted a gray cartoon wolf that could have come out of a children’s storybook to personify the literal phrase “fuck ICE,” with the animal humping a large ice cube as it melts.
LESLIE YOUNG
“For me, my art is probably one of the few ways I’m able to learn about myself and maintain my identity while also communicating with the identity that I want for myself in the future," Leslie Young says. "Communicating with the outside world as well. Tattooing has been so integral to me finding my identity and voice and connecting me with others, so I’m grateful for it.”
Young’s flash sheet consisted of American Traditional-style pieces, with ice cubes as the main focus, including a traditional U.S.-style dagger impaling an ice cube and a cougar slashing three melting ice cubes. Her art isn't confined to a single style, ranging from blackwork to American Traditional, colorful illustrated cartoons, large, detailed Ryus (Japanese dragons), to scaly, all-black cobras.
MASON CUMMINGS
“It’s always been a sort of compulsion of mine to draw and when you’re fortunate enough to have the opportunity to share your art with so many different kinds of people from all walks of life in such a permanent way, a sort of duty of the artist is born to do the best you can for your client and give them a good tattoo design," Mason Cummings tells L.A. TACO. "Art, for me, has become about pulling weird shit from the recesses of your mind and sharing it with others who also enjoy the weird edgy shit you liked too since you were, like, 15, and sharing that connection with someone is what makes it so rewarding.”
Mason Cumming’s work includes American Traditional as well as some finer linework and colorful caricatures. For his flash sheet, he had several modern American Traditional cartoons, including a personal favorite: a colored, shaded Pikachu electrifying a federal agent. Also featured in his flash sheet was an American Traditional dagger impaling a globe with a green U.S. dollar bill, as well as a pink-shaded hog frozen in an ICE cube.
KENNY TAKAR
“My art has always been a form of escapism," Kenny Takar says. "It’s a good way for me to deal with the realities of life by forcing you to be in the present for a second, where I’m not stressing out about tomorrow and just enjoying the moment. At the end of the day, I’m just content to be able to use the skill I’m decent at to help or make someone happy.”
Takar’s art typically consists of colorful American Traditional; his flash sheet features some of that work, as well as some finer-line pieces. His flash sheet includes a white dove with pink accents carrying a green olive branch, a black puma crushing a rectangular ice cube, and several cartoon figures smashing smaller ice cubes.
Southward from Culver City, a tattoo artist in Long Beach has been supporting immigrants as well as victims of genocide in Palestine, through his own flash fundraisers.
IVAN FLORES
L.A. TACO visited Long Beach to chat with Ivan Flores, a Garden Grove native who tattoos in his chic private studio in Cambodia Town.
“My art is my way of honoring what is important," Flores says. "Art is political and cultural, and to me, that means these images carry our stories. My art is mainly Mexican and Pre-Hispanic imagery, so it’s directly tied to the main group of people targeted by ICE. Art is inherently political, and I think it would be hypocritical to make art of your culture and not do what you can to support your people. Everyone has the capacity to help; it’s just a question of whether they want to or not.”
Flores recently ran a fundraiser for LUCHA Santa Ana, a local Home Depot hub that started in Anaheim and is inspired by the Los Angeles Tenants Union, following the discovery of multiple Border Patrol raids at their local Home Depots. These community watch hubs doubled as mutual aid networks, supporting the surrounding community and day laborers.
“If there’s time and space for it, then I’ll do it,” he says.
Flores’ art is certainly unique, combining various aspects of a young Chicanx’s life. Their clear inspiration, from a Mexican household and Indigenous ancestry, translates into hyperrealistic, colorful designs that pop on the recipient's body. Several designs include conchas, payasita paletas, and indigenous figures, such as a Mazatl, or "deer" in Nahuatl.
L.A. TACO headed to El Clasico Tattoo in Echo Park and met with Anthony Medina and Irene Shiori, two tattoo artists who honor revolution through a Los Angeles Chicanx lens. El Clasico Tattoo is filled with various art pieces, with a heavy emphasis on Latino fine art, ranging from Aztec princesses to the legendary “smile now, cry later” piece, an icon that is famed for showcasing the duality of the Latino plight, often mixing both celebratory designs with tragedy. A juxtaposition near and dear to any Chicanx walking in. The first thing you see when you enter is a large mural of the Virgen de Guadalupe.
ANTHONY MEDINA
“My art means everything, it’s how I can put myself down in an honest way," Anthony Medina tells us. "Sometimes people might not be able to be vocal and lay themselves down on music, or other crafty things, in a positive way. Art has that touch with me; it’s how I’m able to let myself speak for who I am. Creatively. Honestly. Emotionally, at times.”
Medina designed a piece featuring Felix the Cat spray-painting the words “FUCK ICE” on some bricks, originally designed as a flash sheet for his friends in Vegas at their tattoo shop, “Forever Yours.”
After the owner of El Clasico, Sal Preciado, took a look, he told him it would be amazing if the flash was printed on a shirt. Medina soon collaborated with James Mendez (@iamjamesmendez) to screenprint the flash design onto shirts. Medina donated all proceeds directly to families affected by ICE, either done in-person or via GoFundMe.
Shiori took a unique approach to her artistic response. Through tears, she spoke about the heartbreak she felt during the 2025 summer raids in Los Angeles, explaining that her intention was to create something protective and not outwardly brash. Something that was rooted in a shared culture that raised Chicanxs.
IRENE SHIORI
“It’s my way to channel, transmute, relieve myself of all the emotions that have surfaced," Irene Shiori says. "Everything is so heavy, and I care so much. Sometimes it’s debilitating, but the steps that I’m taking right now are self-care centered.”
Despite not being a devout Catholic, she described her affinity for iconography and how it inspired her to design a piece centered on the Virgin Mary, “a divine feminine” figure, as she says.
Her piece is a classic Virgin Maria, intended to tower over those who seek a safe space, offering momentary comfort and warmth amid a tumultuous administration. Shiori’s art expands beyond smaller sheets; she has also done large, detailed murals, one of which lives just outside of El Clasico, commemorating the original residents of Echo Park.
