Tattoo artist Jose Luis Carrera, who evolved out of Miami's underground graffiti culture to ink rap stars like Lil Wayne and Birdman at OchoPlacas, his Little Havana shop, died unexpectedly on Sept. 6.

His sister, Henisse Carrera, said he suffered a heart attack at his Kendall home, a month shy of his 38th birthday.

Carrera created intricate designs in startling colors for his clients, who paid up to $200 an hour for his services.

Some were psychedelic/futuristic fantasies, others homages to the world's great artists.

``His style was ever-changing,'' said Leo Valencia, a longtime friend who works at OchoPlacas. ``He was always learning and practicing his craft.''

Carrera ``really loved all the Old Masters,'' Valencia said. ``One of his dreams was to go to the Louvre. He used to say, `I just want to see how they moved their hands.' ''

An accomplished calligrapher, Carrera also worked on canvas, in oils, acrylics and watercolors, and designed T-shirts.

Carrera, born in Miami to a Cuban mother and an Ecuadorean father, attended Caribbean Elementary, Mays Middle and Southridge Senior High schools. He was always in trouble with his parents for drawing on himself, his sister said.

As a teen, he became graffiti artist ``NES,'' which his sister said means ``Never Ending Smile.''

``He laughed about everything,'' she said.

PRISON ARTIST

By 15, Carrera was doing contract advertising work, but three years later, his life took a wrong turn -- toward crime.

While serving four years on multiple felony charges, including attempted murder, he taught himself how to create body art, and had plenty of inmate clients.

``I made my first tattoo gun using a Bic lighter and a small motor I stripped from an old Walkman cassette player,'' he told Miami New Times in July. ``I used the spring inside as the needle and would burn Styrofoam cups to collect the black smoke and mix it with water for my ink.''

He counted among his influences such art world giants as Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Durer, and post-modernist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

`LIKE A BOOK'

The first of his own many tattoos, on his chest, read ``No Love,'' Henisse Carrera said, because at the time, ``he felt like the world is a cruel place . . . He ended up with both arms covered. You read them like a book.''

By 1998, Carrera was tattooing professionally, and by 2002 he had his own shop -- and a tattoo ``reality'' gig on América TeVe, Channel 41.

`` `You should always have a pencil and paper,' '' his sister recalls him saying. ``He had notebooks and sketches everywhere.''

Jose Luis Carrera was single, but would have counted among his survivors three youngsters whom he loved: Yaileen, Angieleen and Josearmando Juvert. In addition to sister Henisse, he is also survived by parents Victor E. and Xiomi Carrera of Hollywood, sister Slina Carrera of Naples, and brother Victor Carrera of Miami. A service was held, and a memorial website made: joseluiscarrera.com.