SAN DIEGO — With every line, tattoo artist Angel Lopez tries to bring the beauty of nature to life.

He’s the owner of Outdoor Traditions where he merges his love of wild places with the American traditional style of tattooing. He has created a loyal fan base for his beautiful, unique and sometimes cheeky outdoor designs — his most famous being a depiction of Death enjoying various outdoor activities.

“I try to do something a little bit different yet, you know, kind of classic,” Lopez said.

Lopez has always loved being outside, but his passion as an outdoorsman exploded when he started rock climbing several years ago. He is also an avid mountain biker who advocates for trail cleanups and maintenance, Leave No Trace practices and being courteous on trails.

“Once I got to experience it firsthand, it sounds kind of corny, but love at first sight kind of thing,” he said. “You feel at home and you fall in love with these places, and it gives you so many memories and also lessons as you’re progressing as an outdoors person.”

Now, Lopez is using his talent to give back to the places he loves. He created four tattoo designs of some of the most iconic national parks in the West and is donating 20% of sales to the National Park Service. They included depictions of Joshua Tree, Yosemite, Yellowstone and Arches.

“Instead of just taking and getting your experience and being like, ‘bye,’ I’d like to come back, or I’d like my kids to come back or family or whoever in the future,” he said. “So it’s important to just, you know, show how we love those places.”

Wendy Gracia has gotten a few tattoos from Lopez and knew as soon as she saw his national park designs that she wanted to add Arches National Park to her body. She went there for the first time on her birthday and said it was an incredible experience she wanted to remember.

“I really wanted to get something to commemorate that and as soon as he posted his flash, I was like, I have to, you know, commemorate like such a fun trip,” Gracia said.

Andrea Compton is the superintendent at Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego’s only national park. The monument marks where Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo landed in 1542, the first time a European traveler reached the west coast of the U.S. Point Loma was also a stronghold during both World War I and World War II and has hiking trails to observe native plants and animals, as well as world-famous tidepools.

Compton said Cabrillo gets more than 700,000 visitors every year, and these areas play an important role in connecting people to the world around them.

“One of the things that I like is when people come to a park, and you can just see them kind of come alive with enlightenment and excitement about what they find and what they discover,” Compton said.  

She believes national parks paint a beautiful picture of who we are as a country and is thankful people are willing to volunteer and donate their talents to help take care of them.

“It’s part of the mission of the Park Service, is that we are preserving these sights for this and future generations,” she said. “So this place of Cabrillo National Monument right now is also going to be Cabrillo National Monument, a hundred years from now, or 200 years from now. That’s how special these places are.”

As a finishing touch during the tattoo appointment, Lopez added splashes of color to capture the vibrant rock and sky at Arches National Park.

“That’s sick, dude!” Gracia exclaimed while examining her newest tattoo in a mirror.

“It’s cool, right? Yeah, I’m stoked on that,” Lopez said with a grin.  

He hopes every new tattoo is a tribute to the magnificence of nature and a beautiful reminder to take care of our world.

“Give that love back, right?” Lopez said. “Love nature back.”

The national park tattoo series will be available through the end of January. You can make an appointment with Angel Lopez through his Instagram.