Tattoos & More
About Francella
Biography of Francella
Spirit driven, she has a vision and she creates.
Born in 1982
Born in 1982, Francella is a lifelong artist based out of El Paso, Texas. Art played a huge role of importance for Francella from a very young age. The youngest in her family, she spent her childhood alongside her mother and two older brothers… playing outside, daydreaming, and always creating. Her rooted connection with the Earth, Animals, and Nature is where most of her inspiration is drawn and has always been a reoccurring theme in her work in some capacity. Spirit driven, she has a vision and she creates.
High school is where she decided to make art her career and path in life as it was what she felt most passionate about. Francella’s entrepreneurial artist spirit kicked in at the age of 16 when she began booking her own art shows at local coffee houses in the mid to late 1990s. She was filled with passion, motivation, and drive.
The Craft Begins
By her 20s she had already sold many works of art as well as handmade items like clothing made out of band tees or old horror flicks, jewelry, accessories, hand painted cigar boxes and more both locally and online. She was a creator and was always making things with her hands. Getting tattooed at a young age opened her to another world of possibility. She began to seriously take on learning the craft and art of tattooing in her mid 20s and began a professional tattoo career in 2008.
At the age of 30, Francella had an opportunity to open her first brick and mortar store called “La Adelita Gift Shop”, Adelita referring to the women who joined and fought in the Mexican Revolutionary War. In this store, she was able to showcase her art and creations as well as showcase other local artists and sell items she had interest in like antiques, curiosities, jewelry, alternative home wares, etc. This happened soon after the birth of her daughter, Quetzalli which made this is great time of new beginnings.
New Beginnings
New beginnings turned into transitions and a name and location change a year and a half later helped her grow her store and also have her own tattoo studio under one roof. This is when the infamous “Dreadful Things” was born - a play on words with her signature dreadlocks she has had for over 22 years as well as the type of items sold her in store (some may look at as being dreadful). After 12 amazing years of business, Dreadful Things closed its doors on Dec. 31st of 2023 so Francella could solely pursue her art career. Although the retail portion of Dreadful Things no longer exists, she still occupies the same space with her beautiful private tattoo studio (full of amazing curiosities!) located in El Paso. A professional tattoo artist since 2008, she has countless well earned awards from many tattoo conventions all over the US under her belt as well as two Best Of Show awards.
