Roaming Sepulveda Blvd. are young women with patient ID bracelets still attached to their wrists and grippy socks being the only thing to separate their feet above filthy sidewalks, mentally ill individuals experiencing an episode too aggressive for the sore-eye, and creatives turned addicts. They’re rejected eye-contact whilst crossing paths with one who is either desensitized to Los Angeles’ homeless and drug epidemic, or forcing tunnel vision in fear of their safety. With dying hope of receiving help—at the least, acknowledgement—they step into the tattoo parlor, that’s dark ambiance contrasts its overstimulating neighboring businesses, and are met with brothers who lead conversation for a change and tackle what feels unfeasible.
In one of Sepulveda Blvd.’s pockets is a labyrinth of tourist attractions, an In-n-out, a viewpoint to watch as planes from an infamous airport fly overhead landing onto, or taking off from, the runway, and a tattoo shop that has found its footing after 22-years of stamping Angelenos and people from around the world with permanent ink.
Dressed in bold red and black paint, Hollywood Stars Tattoo is sandwiched between a comically small pizza shop with a bright yellow finish on its exterior, and a weirdly large 7-Eleven with enough room to set up tables and chairs for customers inside. Its eye-catching presence not only lures in the LAX crowd on their arrival to the city of angels, or during their flight delays with boredom hypnotizing them into making a spontaneous decision, but the vulnerable that are surviving out on the city streets.
The first heart-palpitating and palm-sweating steps inside the shop unveil different men geared in dark clothing and tattoos covering the different corners of their body, some comfortably sprawled out on the one of the shop’s dark red leather couches, watching a movie off the flat-screen TV that hangs above the desk at the entrance, and others huddled up mapping out future projects.
Merging out the peering eyes and low-octave tones of the tattoo artists, a man with a fresh comb over and a wide smile steps up to welcome any stranger who walks into the shop. Angel Gutierrez, a piercer whose looks conceal his overwhelming affection, runs the tattoo shop alongside his older brother Erik, the owner and lead tattoo artist. Together, they have created decades of success from a foundation built on family ideals, understanding, and compassion.
Despite their financial success and working with celebrities like Jonathan Martin from the Miami Dolphins and Louis Tomlinson from One Direction, Angel finds that the connections made with different clients is most rewarding. He prides himself on the trust between a client and artist in brainstorming a new extension of their identity.
“Having 22 years being here—getting to meet people and hear their stories and the meaning behind their tattoos or the idea and being able to co-create with people, that’s been the best part, because you find out everybody’s minds and their hearts and where they’re at,” said Angel.
“We get to be a part of that,” he continued. “Every single one of those we tattooed, we’re part of it because we get that story, help create that story, and we actually stay with them forever.”
At 15-years-old, Erik began tattooing peers from around his neighborhood and high school inside the family home in South Gate, as a way to make money. He continued that grind when he left for the Marine Corps and pursued it once he got back—working at a tattoo shop in Inglewood that introduced Angel to body piercing. Through their growing passions, the brothers opened Hollywood Stars Tattoo in 2004, which became a home to many.
“We take care of it like it’s a second home,” said Raul Cruz, one of the shop’s tattoo artists, whose long hair grows along his reputation as an illustrator—taking commissions for heavy-metal album covers, punk show flyers, band logos, and skateboards. “Everybody’s welcome, even if they’re not here for a tattoo or piercing.”
Outside of their crafts, the Gutierrez brothers put forth the needs of their employees, clients, and of the unwell folks who found their way into the shop. Coming from a large family as two of seven children, Erik and Angel emphasize the role of sympathy, both in business and in day-to-day life. They take matters of mental illness and family emergencies seriously, listening closely to each person’s stories of struggles, offering words of wisdom, and praying with them for the health of an employee’s mother in the hospital.
With nearly six years of tattooing at Hollywood Stars, Erik and Angel have seen Cruz come out of his shell as he suffers from chronic anxiety, “He used to be the quiet one,” said Angel.
Through conversing about life in the shop’s downtime, Cruz has become comfortable with sharing his struggles. In exchange for his vulnerability, the brothers provide him an ear for listening and a mouth for words of support, teaching him about faith, and mental and physical health, “Eric taught me about understanding your subconscious,” shared Cruz.
“You can lean on that [support] here,” Cruz expressed. “[they] give you different perspectives and understanding from all angles.”
That same embrace is extended to the unhoused individuals that come upon the shop for help. Located a few hundred steps away from the airport, and in the vicinity of a mental hospital, their shop is in the presence of different mental patients that have been abandoned by hospital buses, and drug addicts that have roamed onto the streets of Los Angeles.
As homelessness around the area increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, the shop is often visited by unhoused individuals asking for money, a charger to plug their phones into, or to use the restroom—which the team does not always allow.
“We keep our eye on that because sometimes they may want to do drugs in the restroom or sometimes…they’ll freak out and come in and start saying things in my studio,” said Angel.
Before shaming these individuals for their situation, or punishing them for acting disruptively, Angel and Erik approach them with a warm greeting and ask them how they’re doing. Even if one appears to be disruptive, the brothers move the conversation to outside of the shop instead of demanding them to leave.
The Gutierrez brothers have bought several one, or two, month gym memberships at a Planet Fitness several blocks away, so that some of their unhoused neighbors can have access to showers and fresh water.
They offer the computers in the lobby for these individuals to search for family members or assisting services, and will sometimes allow them to use the shop’s mailing address so that they can receive their paperwork.
“I don’t want anyone scared to come on in,” said Angel.
They’ve even reunited nearly 20 unhoused individuals with their loved ones, remembering each of their names, stories, struggles, and dreams.
With each conversation, Angel took note of where they frequent and different key identifying information that he would later input into resources like Spokio, Truthfinder, Intellius, Google, and Facebook in hopes to come upon a relative he can reconnect them with.
After long shifts at the shop, he, Eric and his wife would take time to research the individuals’ pasts and message people they believe to have, or have had, a relationship with them.
The Gutierrezes have been successful in reuniting Melissa Wilcom, an unhoused woman who battles mental illness following sexual trauma, with her son, who they discovered lives in Orange County.
They helped a man named Justin, an unhoused individual who lived under a bridge near the LAX airport, off the streets in 2018. Justin, who was originally from Michigan, once was an author of Sci-fi texts and songwriter, but cycled into alcoholism that broke him away from his family and left him without a home. From just listening to Justin speak, Angel was able to identify and connect with his family that remains in Michigan, who then pointed him to an old friend that lives in Los Angeles, Doug Brandon.
Brandon was brought to emotion seeing Angel’s first message about Justin, sharing that Justin was like a father figure to him. He continued that Justin taught him about music, kickboxing, and karate.
Shortly after, together, they drove to his spot under the bridge where the two old friends would reunite after decades of lost communication, “It was a beautiful reunion,” said Angel.
“We’re all about family,” Angel expressed.
Brandon opened his doors to Justin, providing him a roof over his head and a table to feast, and took care of him until his passing in 2019, from alcoholism.
While not all efforts of helping the vulnerable succeed, Erik and Angel continue to treat each person with respect and make sure their employees follow in that same humane light.
“They’re [unhoused individuals] not the enemy,” said Cruz.
When Cruz works to upkeep the shop, cleaning the trash out on the storefront, the unhoused individuals that frequent the area help him every so often.
“You help them [and] surprisingly they could help you back,” he said.
The Gutierrezes hold their team to a high standard, hiring those that not only make a good artist, but good people that care about each person that walks into the studio. They prioritize the connections made along the way of their successful businesses, maintaining relationships with past employees and customers through checking up to them by text and inviting them back to the studio for different events like Halloween parties, barbecues, birthdays, and Marine Corps celebrations.
As Hollywood Stars Tattoo started as a family business, the brothers hope to buy the building off the landlord and pass the torch down to the younger generations of their own families once their chapter comes to a close.
