Cover artist Joey Moreira is now a two-time winner of Favorite overall tattoo artist and co-owns Cloud 9 Studios in Burrillville. In creating our cover, he chose a non-tattoo approach, using colored pencils and challenging himself with a different style of illustration. “I wanted to take on something that’s been weighing heavily on my mind – the impact of our plugged-in culture on young people. We’re so plugged in to our phones and social media. It’s restricting and straining the youth. It’s changing the whole culture.” Moreira is a father of two, who’s observed: “On any given day, if you’re in a restaurant or a park, typically kids would be running around and playing. But now they’re glued to their devices. It’s making them more fragile.”
For this piece, Moreira, who has been a tattoo artist for six years, after a prolonged but unfulfilling stint in corporate America, wanted to use a different style. He’s been experimenting with bringing a graffiti style to his tattoo work, and jumped into that look with this combination of line work, text and simple colors. Words like “follow me,” “consumer,” and “broken youth,” (across the top) can be found scattered around the illustration.
His hope is that viewers feel his message “to the bone.” He’s shooting for disturbing, not pleasant. “It should be a bit jarring – it expresses exactly what’s going on right now. We’re breaking our young people.”
For more on Moreira, check out our beer column by Kelly Currier here and see his work at @joeymo_inktherapy online.
