For 26-year-old Mohammed Mugabo, alias Papito, life as a tattoo artist was not a choice but a matter of survival.

As a child, Papito, was not your ordinary teenager. At a tender age, he learnt the hard way: to be responsible and fend for himself following the death of his father.
 

Papito was inspired by his elder brother who was passionate about painting.  This saw him forge umbilical ties with art and craft at a tender age.

Born in Nyarugenge district in 1988, Mugabo attended primary school at Escaf located in Mumena, before enrolling at Ecole Technique du Muhazi (ETM) where he completed senior six.

When he was in primary 6, he started out as a tattoo artist. He would first draw some image on the customer's hand and he recalls, the images would come out well and the customers were happy about it. It is at this point that he decided to take the road of being a tattoo artist.