Interview with the Brazilian digital creator who seduces us with her delicious vegan recipes and also tells us about her relationship with tattoo art. So, enjoy your (tattooed) meal!
Luiza, what did you discover first in life? The joys of tattoo art or the delights of vegan cuisine?
Absolutely my first passion were tattoos. I’ve always loved cooking, but only discovered my passion for vegan cuisine about 8 years ago.
Tattoos have always been something I loved, even as a little kid.
I remember seeing my dad’s tattoos and wanting them on my skin as well. Every summer as a kid I used to get henna tattoos to pretend I had real ones on me.
Would you like to tell us something about yourself?
I’m Brazilian, I was born in Nova Friburgo, a city that’s 2 hours away from Rio de Janeiro, right in the mountains. I’ve lived in the US for 3 years and in Rome for 2, but now I’m back in Brazil and I currently live in São Paulo. “Aquela Vegana” translates to “That vegan girl” and it all started when my friends were introducing me to new people, they’d always say “Oh look this is Luiza, that vegan girl I told you about”… People started calling me by Aquela Vegana and the rest is history.
But we knew you as Luiza Maffort…
Yeah. Now I’m back to using my real name on my socials (IG: @luizamaffort), but people still call me Aquela Vegana. I have a big passion for Asian and Italian cuisines, so I try to focus on those two areas. But obviously I also love my Brazilian roots. Mixing it all up is one of the most fun ways to cook, I believe.
How did you choose the subjects of your tattoos? Are they all single subjects that you believe in with all your heart?
My first tattoos all had big meanings. they were either dedicated to my mom, my dad, my friends or dogs. Some even had spiritual meanings. As I got older and had more tattoos, I completely stopped caring about their meanings.
If I see something I like and think that it might look good as a tattoo, I’ll get it tattooed.
I have both of my dogs tattooed on my thighs and those two are amongst my favorites, but I also have a bowl of noodles, an onion, broccoli being abducted by aliens etc. So you see, now it’s all mixed… very meaningful and also not so meaningful tattoos! (laughs)
Do you have any trusted tattoo artists that you blindly believe in and would like to thank or say hello to here?
Yes, I do have a few artists that I absolutely trust. Bea Vaz (IG: @beavaz.art) is one of the artists that have tattooed me the most – and we’ve become great friends since the first tattoo I got from her. Sometimes I even just feel like tattooing, but don’t know exactly what I want to get, so I let Bea Vaz pick a drawing she really wants to do and that’s it. Nina Fontelle (IG: @ninafontenelle) and Bruna Yonashiro (IG: @brunayonashiro) are also two artists that have tattooed me and I really admire their work.
Have you ever thought about getting a tattoo of your favorite recipe with a list of the main ingredients?
I’ve never thought of getting a recipe tattooed – until now. That’s actually a pretty great idea and now I feel like getting one! Thanks for the idea! (laughs) I’d probably get my dan dan noodles recipe tattooed – it’s simple, short and absolutely delicious.
