2023

One of the hardest years of my life. I’ve faced so many hard times this year… Started with an elective surgery, to fix my hair. Damaged from the stress of hard times from previous years. Had to shave my head, had to work a couple days after surgery… hiding the wounds, hiding my discomfort. Had to wait about 4 months before I looked normal enough to go out without a hat covering my head. By June, this faded from prevalence in my life.

My friends and family have endured many hardships this year. Fight, hospital, overdose, rehab, abuse… are words that I use too often. I’ve watched people I love hit the lowest lows they’ve ever met, and I’ve been lucky to watch them rise from that. I’ve done my best to be there, and it’s taken a toll.

This led me to change my life. I quit doing a lot of drugs. I quit mindlessly partying for days on end. I started really considering my behavior and physical health. I try to be really careful with what I put into my body. Drugs, food, drink, etc… I started exercising regularly, now it’s every other day. I want to make sure I can be here, proper, for a long time.

My back/ neck pain reached a critical point this year. I was in enough pain to wake me from sleep, and cause me to cry. My partner really pushed me to seek treatment. I don’t have Insurance, so I’ve paid out over $5k to my chiropractor this year. I remember being self conscious about my hair issue being noticeable during my first few chiropractor visits. Like talk about a fuckin broken toy…

Where are we summer/ late summer? I’m working out, I quit drugs. I gotta new head of hair. Well let’s buy a house… Bought a house in August. It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life. Go ask your mortgage guy the last time he wrote a policy for a tattooer… I’ll wait. Moved into that house during the hottest week in recorded history. & was met with all the challenges that one is met with when buying a home.

I did all that with my partner. We didn’t live together. We moved into that house together, and it was tough. We learned things about each other that we didn’t know.

Shortly after buying the house I  started therapy.

Now let’s take a second to talk about tattooing… By far the worst year I’ve experienced since I started seven years ago. The rush that comes every spring… didn’t happen. & then has continued to be the slowest year I’ve seen since I started…. Is it the recession? Is it that “fine line” tattoos aren’t trending on Tik Tok anymore? Do people hate me? Did I say some bs on the internet that pissed people off? Is it that I tried to basically rebrand my image? Long story short, my career now scares me more than it ever has, and I couldn’t be more uncertain of my future. I’m now at the studio every spare second, learning how to make my art into something with more longevity. Find a place within tattooing that has longevity. Hoping like fuckin hell that I can do something to promote good business & get things back to something familiar.

…

All this has happened & more that is smaller and less memorable, yet I’m still here. I’m still here thinking of what I could do to improve. How I could make it better.

I look pretty fuckin good considering the shit I’ve been through. I stand different, my body carries different, my neck doesn’t burn and cause pain ALL of the time anymore. I haven’t done a powder drug in 6 months. I go for jogs. I own a decent little house. Me & my partner worked through all the struggles. My family & friends are on the mend and have worked hard to better their lives. There are people who love getting tattoos from me. I’m gonna get my fucking business going and prove that I’ve got what it takes, again.

I won’t give up. This year was hard, but progress was made. I made dreams become reality this year. I’ve learned more this year than I learned the last 5.

I’m going into 2024 with a fucking vengeance.

PIVOT

This year has been extremely transformative for me. A lot has changed, I have changed. I have changed a lot. & I have realized that I am no longer willing to compromise anything when it comes to living my life the way I want to. 

I got to a point where I hated tattooing. I hated what I love to do, because of the way I was doing it. Booking appointments a year in advance, planning my life a year in advance, tattooing boring subject matter, tattooing boring people… it made me want to quit tattooing.

Instead, I decided to make a major pivot in my approach to tattooing. I decided to only accept tattoo jobs that are truly interesting to me & only accept clients that treat me & my craft with respect. Through this process I am able to book less appointments, creating a six month cap on my schedule bookings.

This pivot was not executed in the most graceful and efficient way. I feel like I upset a lot of people, and I may have created a reputation for myself that I don’t want. I know I could’ve done better, and now I’m trying to correct that wrong by doing better for the people who are still paying attention.

My career path has been unprecedented. I have had just about ZERO direction. I’ve had to learn all of this the hard way. There is no correct business model for tattooing. & I was the premiere and sole fine line tattooer in the state of Kentucky for years. This was way more than I could handle.

I had no chance to really take the time to figure out who I am. I’ve spent so much of my life just trying to “get there” I didn’t really have time to think about anything else. I got so caught up in how busy I was, how many people wanted to see me. That I didn’t realize I was busy with jobs/ people that were sucking the life out of me.

This “pivot” in my career is me trying to make things right. Put myself in line to be successful & happy in my career. I have realistic dreams, and I know they can come true. I just need to deliver my message in a way that the right people will see/hear it.

I had a client recently that really made me feel like I did a good job. It was a realization of my dream. The client was full of bliss upon entering the Hideout, and once they settled in we spent some time talking about a loose idea (my favorite). Once we settled on a direction I started drawing. They spent an hour smoking and hangout out in the studio with my dog. Once I completed the drawing we began to make the tattoo happen. When we were done, we were talking about how getting tattooed can feel like coming home after a festival/ long trip. You can achieve a sense of transformation, achievement. It’s something special, it’s tattooing the right way.

TWO YEARS

It’s  really all a blur to me, then again, to me life seems that way most of the time. Especially now, it’s gotten hard for me to keep track.

About two years ago I was traveling to a different place and tattooing almost every month. I was constantly on the road. I went to NYC for my first time February 2019, I fell in love with the place. Shortly after I came home, I was featured in a local magazine for “Best Tattooer” and shortly after that was “fired” from my job at a local tattoo shop. By July, I was solo & renting a small room within a permanent makeup studio.

I traveled a bit more the remainder of that year. I spent a lot of time in Daphne, Alabama. A charming place, home to even more charming people. If any of you are reading this I hope you know I consider you a friend and think about/ miss y’all all. 

NYC was on my mind a lot throughout that year, and finally was able to make it back, in March 2020. & It’s a good thing I went to the city then, because that was the last time I was gonna be traveling anywhere for a while.

Literally as I had landed back in Kentucky, the first case of covid had been recorded. Within a week tattooing had been outlawed by our governing leaders and shortly after the world shut down. ***except for corporate business and other things deemed “essential” like candy stores & fast food restaurants*** As many of you know, this was an unprecedented event, that I had zero capability of handling financially or emotionally.

Honestly, after the initial shock and fear of the whole thing, I started tattooing again. Wherever I needed to, to make money, so I could survive in this world. & I spent about three months of my late 20’s either tattooing anyone who was brave enough to come out, or hunkered in my apartment drinking bud light (DO NOT RECOMMEND).

June 2020, I found the Hideout. I didn’t realize it, but this was gonna be the next great pivot point in the grand scheme of things (aka my life). I found the place on Craigslist of all places, and told my landlord to print that lease out as fast as possible. Once I started moving in I felt like I had finally found ‘home’. & Immediately people were coming in and telling me they thought the place was special.

*I think it’s worth noting that about this time is when my personal life starting changing a lot. Quarantine broke me, and through that I was fixed. I started living a completely different (healthier) lifestyle. My perspective on things had changed, and I felt like I was coming to peace with myself, my life and all that blah blah. I built a lot of the furniture in the studio, which was a really nice physical/ mental exercise. & decorating the place overall, just felt good.

Winter of 2020/ early 2021 was a hard time for me. Went through a lot of physically/ emotionally painful events. I’m grateful for the experience and for being stronger/ better because of it. But it was hard, and I’m proud of what I’ve been through and maintaining my business throughout that time.**

My business & I’d say tattooing in general, has exploded. It’s been hard to navigate everything by myself, using my personal lessons as the only guide through how to run my business. At first it was cool and exciting, now it’s pretty much just pure chaos. I feel like I do a decent job of maintaining the chaos, but I know that people see when I lose my cool.

I’ve been in the Hideout for almost two years now. It is the coolest art studio I’ve personally ever been to, and I think most of my clients would say the same. The place is amazing, it literally feels like you’re in some sort of inner city, brick tree house. With a view that makes a sunset seem perfect.

I feel extremely lucky that I have been able to experience the amount of success in creativity that I have personally experienced in my life. I understand it’s rare, especially among visual artist types. Though I’ve found myself at a point where I’m like a cowboy, absolutely yanking the reigns of a horse that I lost control of, and it’s not fun. 

Recently I’ve made leaps to try and make sure people understand more about my process and how my business operates. Not sure if it’s working? I’m starting to feel like less of a cowboy, and more of a clam closing my weird “mouth?” so I can focus on making a pearl. Done with my time of collecting sand, now it’s time to focus on making something beautiful.

That’s really where I’m at right now. I have gotten my life & business to a point where I know what feels right/ good, and what feels wrong/bad. & I am finding it impossible to compromise my happiness. The business isn’t worth losing my sense of inner peace. I have come to realize I deserve to be treated a certain way, and I like working with certain people. Especially people that treat me a certain way. & I feel like I’ve created an equal opportunity/ access to information that should get a total stranger acquainted with the way I am/ operate. 

I am interested in creating quality. A quality of life, a quality tattoo, a quality studio, a quality experience. I want everything I do, to be a genuine expression of my creativity. The compensation I receive for my work, is by social standards “something I deserve”. I’m honored, grateful, and proud that my work can support my life & business.

I haven’t felt like writing in a long time. Honestly it felt like I kinda lost this, it’s not easy to just sit down and think about/ write all this down in a way people might consume. I hope they do. I hope the people that read this understand that I’m just a simple guy doing the best I can in this complex world. I’m not out to get anyone, but I want to be understood and what I’m working for to be appreciated, or left alone.

I’m booked out till next year, I’m working in this year, my client for next month canceled, my client for next week is getting anxious, I got to make sure I’m ready for my cool client tomorrow, but right now I’m just trying to get through today. 

Balance

This entry is in regards to 2019, as a year filled with harsh balance. I new almost immediately 2019 would be a wild ride. By the end of January two members of my family passed away. During February I took a trip to NYC for the first time to tattoo at Rebels & Saints; I made new friends and fell in love with the city. In March I made my first trip to Alabama. I spent 3 days tattooing at The Bell Rose, and made more amazing friends. I spent most of April preparing for/ and recovering from the Louisville Tattoo Convention. May was a month of recalibration. I felt a need to fix anxiety-causing situations in my life, and did my best at fixing those issues. In June I took another trip down to Alabama, and spent a full week tattooing and hanging out with the wonderful people at the Bell Rose. It was just as hard to leave home as it was to leave the new friends and place I had found in Alabama. (on the way to alabama my cars transmission failed and that whole situation lasted about a month and ended with me taking a day off work to drive from kentucky to alabama and back to get my car once it was repaired lol)

Now we enter July...

Every July 4th week, for as long as I can remember, I have visited the UP of Michigan. During my visit this year I struggled through stress caused by the situations I had gotten myself into, and I basically let it ruin my holiday. I left the trip early to get back back and recover, and a week after I received an award in Louisville Magazine. Things seemed to have balanced themselves out, and I was starting to feel better about the future. 

(during this time i had a customer that was wanting me to conduct business in a way that i’m not comfortable. as a result, i partially refunded the deposit and cancelled the appointment. eventually i find this person had left me bad reviews on multiple platforms and one day i awoke and got on FB to find another post they had made. so i made a short sighted... dumb... definitely knee jerk... reaction and replied to the post basically saying that i thought they were wrong and wanted -the exact term i used was “advise”- them to stay away from me. this -of course- was twisted into me threatening this person. as a result, i was fired from my workplace via text message)

Suddenly my future was shattered. Luckily I had friends that were willing to help me through the trying time, and let me continue my business at their workplace. I spent one month tattooing in Indiana and during that time was making arrangements to move into a private studio. 

By mid August I had finished the move into the new location. The private studio located at Suite 1, 2216 Dundee Road is located in the House of Wax. I work next to some amazing professionals, and the space is super nice. I’m excited to create a unique tattooing experience that everyone can enjoy. I’m relieved to say that I feel free from the worries I’ve struggled with all year. Naturally I have been presented with a brand new set of worries, but this time I am the one responsible for pretty much all of them. So once again, I will continue to change and adapt to become a better artist and better business person... and a better person all around.

-gonna try to get better balance-

Life as Art as Tattoo

My life has always been about making art. As a child, my ma would buy giant rolls of paper that I would spend hours doodling on. I was given my first easel by the time I was 4, by 6 I was taking art classes in and out of school. I was mostly learning how to draw from life, instead of imagination or recreation. 

Throughout my early schooling art was always at the center of my interests, by middle school I had gained an obsession with tattooing. The school I attended had to make rules against drawing on yourself, because I would spend hours in class making semi permanent tattoos with sharpies. 

In high school I spent most of my time partying, but always took art seriously. I was in advanced classes and was somewhat involved in the artistic community. This trend continued throughout most of my college career.

During my last year of college, I dove deep within myself. I was scared, of not living a life worth living. I did an internship, got my degree, and tried everything I could not to get “a job”. 

I spent a year after college doing freelance graphic design, and working on a few projects that never seemed to be beneficial.  During this time I was beginning to understand that I needed to start thinking about things differently. Art became my means of survival.

This is where the story gets long (scroll down to read it), but I’ll make it short: I completed my obligations, packed my bags, headed west to learn the art of tattooing. I lived in Los Angeles, and spent a year learning how to apply tattoos. Once I had figured that I was capable of standing on my own two feet, I left LA and headed east to build my tattoo career.

Once I was back east, things began to happen at lightning speed. Within a year of moving across the country, I went from living in an RV with no real business, to settling into a home and handling what is essentially a small business. This has been an absolute dream come true, but at times stressful. Art has transformed throughout my life as fun doodles to serious tattoos as a means for survival. 

Art now pays my bills, feeds my belly, and is my means of acquiring what I was out of life. So naturally I will take it very seriously. Though I’ve come to let money and clients force me into submission. The business requires that I am firm, and my soul requires I find enjoyment. The greatest conflict in my current position, and I find it hard to make a choice. 

There’s a chance I don’t have to make a choice. I can decide to enjoy tattooing, art as business. I will no longer let tattooing or art create stress in my life, or make me feel trapped. I will only make art when it is comfortable, and tattoo with people who are as serious as I am. This may or may not work, but I will not let the art of tattooing as a means of survival consume my entire being. I love tattoos, but I also love my family and friends (not to mention myself). 

Lately I’ve let tattooing and art get in the way of other areas of my life. Which is unhealthy, and will be changing. There is more I want of this life, and I very much intend on getting it.

Prologue

Today's special for me, it marks my 26th birthday and is the only time in my life when my birthdate date will read the same front to back. This is significant for me because recently I've been looking a lot at my past, and thinking a lot about my future.

Three short years ago I was a college graduate without much direction, now I sit in a position that seemed like it could only be a dream. Yet, a dream is always more desirable than reality. I feel like this new seating arrangement has pushed me from what I was, and made me eager to become what I will be.

My past has been a lot for me to process. I've been broken, lost, and bound; now I'm fixed, found, and free. The great conflicts in my life have been resolved. I spent over half a decade searching for a place to belong. Within the last year that long search ended, I settled in a beautiful city and hold a position at a reputable tattoo shop. These new factors have created a boundless amount of new opportunity, almost overwhelming at times. Though I often can't help but feel like something's missing. This is a void of my own creation, and I think it's healthy. I want to be a better artist, a better tattooer, and a better person. 

When I come home after tattooing/ anything, I critique everything: myself, my art. It's rare I am as good as I want to be. The struggle is that I need to understand that these things will come with time and patience. The only reason I am where I am is because I wanted it, and that's the only way I'm going to get where I want to be. So I carry on, down the rabbit hole. Wise from my past, this is the prologue to my future.

Chapter Summary

Here is a summary for the last year of my life, for the purposes of comparison at a later date, and to previous dates. This time last year I was in Los Angeles, working as a 'tattoo artist' in Hollywood. In April, I packed up my RV and drove east, making a few stops along Route 66, landing in Louisville, KY. There were a few things that happened which ended up with me driving my ass back to Kentucky. Although, I can say my California experience was super beneficial and helped me grow & learn a lot in a very short amount of time. 

In LA, had determined that I would move on from Louisville to settle in Nashville. Once I reached Louisville, I was super surprised by the amount of steam I had generated coming into town. I was able to keep myself busy for 3 months, then I stopped taking appointments in Louisville and headed north to Michigan's upper peninsula. I was there for 3 weeks, (drinking/drawing) soul searching & fishing. After Michigan I went down to Nashville to try to jumpstart my career in a brand new city, bustling with creativity. I met a group of incredibly cool people and learned a good bit about the city, also that I was unable to legally tattoo in Tennessee. This was because I haven't been tattooing long enough (only a year and some change to date), so I ended up settling 3 hours north in my hometown Louisville, Kentucky. Sold my RV, got myself a nice little place in the Highlands, and reserved myself a seat in a new shop being opened by a prestigious tattooer.

Since I knew I was going to have to put some serious time into this new shop, I figured I'd drive to Los Angeles for 9 days. I was fortunate enough to do a guest spot at a friends tattoo parlor, with major success/ personal accomplishment and some drama (sorry i have secrets too). I was able to get myself busy tattooing & manage to spend time with friends I had made during my time living out west. This trip reinvigorated my love for travel and respect for tattooing. 

Upon my return I have nothing but excitement for the future and a feeling of content upon my current situation. Once this new shop opens I'll be working full time as a somewhat well-travelled professional tattooer in a (pretty badass) spot. I continue to receive support from family, friends, and fans that never goes unnoticed. I'll keep on keepin' on and livin' and learnin' and all the other ones of those they got, comin up next... 2018.

Chasing Dreams

I never wanted to be a 'typical' American. The 9-5, white picket fence, has never been something i wanted from life. I always felt a separation between myself, and society. At a young age, I knew I was meant to do things differently. 

After high school I had a longing to go somewhere else, I was in the midst of signing up for the Marines. Once ma found out, she said it was a bullet in my foot or college. I went to college (3 different colleges) did an internship, got my degree. These things brought nothing into my life worth keeping. So this is when I decided it was time to chase my dreams. 

My biggest passions where: art and the environment. These passions manifested into a clothing brand. I made organic clothes with messages of environmental friendliness. I did everything within my power to get my brand off the ground. That wasn't enough. So after a few trials and failures, I decided to put my time and energy elsewhere. 

Failing is hard, especially when you fail at something you're passionate about. After I decided to abandon my brand, I needed to search my soul. Looking within myself for a way to use my passions in the real world.

I found that if I looked closely enough at life, I'd witness signs that will lead to where I want to go. I was getting tattooed pretty frequently at this point. Also making a lot of personal artwork that looked a lot like tattoo flash. Learning that tattooing is a serious way for artists to make a living. I thought about it a lot, and decided this was my next course of action. 

I created an image of myself, becoming a successful tattooer in a place other than where I'm from. I decided I was ready to chase another dream. I travelled, in search of the things I needed to manifest the dream into reality: advice and apprenticeship. My travels took me literally coast to coast; and on the west coast, in a neighborhood called Hollywood I found my apprenticeship. 

I had obtained what I worked and travelled for, I was a tattoo apprentice and made a life for myself in a foreign place. Once I started tattooing, I instantly realized that was what I was meant to do with my life. I was the king of my world, ready for what my life would throw at me.

Yet, I wasn't really happy in Hollywood, I got what I wanted and was looking to grow further. I decided I was going to head for Nashville, another city booming with creativity, home to some incredible tattooers. I wanted to make a name for myself in a new place, again. Along the way, I planned on stopping in my hometown and possibly a couple other places, planting roots for future endeavors. 

I tattooed in my hometown for two months, as a guest in the shop i got my first tattoo. It was an incredible experience. I had returned home, a champion of my endeavors, with an ability to spread my passion with others. Making a name for myself in the city I'm from for the first time, and something happened inside myself. I didn't want to take the next step, I was content with the life I had made for myself. Yet, when the time came to hit the road, I left the good thing I made, to make something else. 

Once I arrived in Nashville, I knew there was one thing I wanted to accomplish, so I chased it. I wanted to insert myself into a culture I respected. At first it was working, and soon after, it just wasn't working out. As I sit here now, typing this, I know that maybe this wasn't meant to be. At least right now, because it doesn't feel good. The curious desire that has pushed me for so long, is gone.

Maybe I already found what I've been looking for this whole time. I think what I had in my hometown, was what I need now. So I've found myself in a dilemma, do I continue to chase this dream even though it doesn't feel right, or do I return home to grasp what's left of the good thing I had. 

This pickle has raised a lot of questions within myself. Am I lost? Have I given up? Am I abandoning my dream, or had I already abandoned it? Is it acceptable to abandon one dream, to chase another? Am I going to make the right decision? 

I'm going to let the universe decide, I cannot force myself to continue this pursuit. Especially when it feels like I've already found what i'm pursuing. 

I have tried to make all of my dreams become my reality. Truthfully this endeavor has taken a lot of energy from my soul, and has made this next step very hard to take. I've given this everything I have, but if it isn't going to manifest, I will not force myself into a situation where my dream could become a nightmare. 

I feel like a failure, but maybe i was just reaching too high. It could be my timing is off, perhaps the right thing to do is go back to where i'm doing well. Take time to perfect myself, and once I'm ready to move on, I will. 

The lesson to learn here, is that I should make sure that my dreams don't disrupt my reality. If something feels right, i need to hold on to that as long as I can. Once it doesn't feel that way, then I let go, and move on. 

It could be, chasing my dream created a reality that was better for me, it's just different than I expected.

Life on the Road

The question today is: Why do you live in an RV?

Well, I have lived & worked in 5 different cities since 2011 and don’t seem to be slowing down. I know this isn’t a huge number, but consider I never intended for any of these places to be temporary. Life on the road is a dream for most people. My experience is a bit different, I saw some potentially good opportunities, that ended up not lasting long. So, I prepared myself for these short lived opportunities by moving into a RV. Makes moving from place to place much easier. Now after 6 years on the road, I’m starting to realize I don’t really belong anywhere.

Not belonging anywhere is strange. Don't get me wrong: always being somewhere new is fun, but it really spreads you thin. There are places I’ve called home, and places I’ve loved; but none give me a reason to stay. There’s never really been a particular part of the world I really wanted to be. I don’t really have a plan, other than do what works. I’ve tried to really implement a new philosophy into my life: go with the flow. Whatever the hell that means, I’m doing it. Basically if it feels right, it is right. I will say one thing about this ‘go with your gut’ practice, it works. Pretty well anyway, as far as I can tell. So that’s what I’m doing, I am literally wondering around going from place to place doing whatever I can to maintain my preferred lifestyle. 

I do plan on continuing this until I go somewhere that catches me body and soul. My only hope is it doesn’t take me too long. 

Little insight into the life of a rambler.

Becoming a Tattoo Apprentice

So the question I'm answering is: How do you become a tattoo artist?

There was a point in my life I wanted an answer to this question more than I wanted to know what comes after death. I never really thought about becoming a tattooer until my friends made me think I'd be pretty good at it, so upon this thought I decided to figure it out. I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and got tattooed by different artists in that area. I'd ask the artists how they got into the craft, the more I asked, the more I learned there is no real sound way to become a tattooer. The only constant among these tattooers was that they had all completed some sort of apprenticeship, and I needed to do the same thing. In search of some outside perspective, I took a trip to Portland, Oregon; where there were a lot of artists I had found and come to respect. I had a list of all the tattoo shops and artists in Portland I wanted to see, and I checked out every item on my list. I met a lot of awesome artists and got a ton of information, but they don't do apprenticeships in Portland anymore, and most the people I talked to told me I'd be better off getting into tattooing back in Kentucky, so my path to an apprenticeship lead me straight back from where I came. 

At this point, my understanding was that I needed to create at least 20 pages of flash, establish a relationship with a decent tattooer, and weasel my way into gaining an apprenticeship. So I started painting flash and trying to get tattooed by as many people as possible, hoping to build that relationship that could become an apprenticeship. After a few months of this dive into tattoo culture, I had a few light leads on an apprenticeship, but nothing that really felt significant enough for me to invest a ton of time.

I had this idea that I was going to get into an apprenticeship at a great shop, under a great artist, in a super cool place. This just wasn't happening for me in Kentucky. I started feeling discouraged and I felt like I needed drastic change in order to get where I wanted. It felt like no matter what I did, I wasn't going to get where I wanted to be, so I decided I needed to chase the dream, literally. I had heard a lot about the tattoo scene in Los Angeles, and knew there were a ton of talented people there. So after some planning and research, I bought an RV, packed up my shit, and headed west.

(The trip out west was magical.)

Upon my arrival in LA, I was completely overwhelmed. The culture shock was pretty intense, luckily I have some friends in LA I was able to link up with and make the transition a bit easier. With another list of shops and artists I needed to see, I started my search for an apprenticeship immediately. I was going around showing different artists my portfolio, literally full of flash I had obsessively created over the prior months. I talked to some of the best tattooists in the country, showed them my artwork, and asked if they had any advice or information that could lead me to the apprenticeship I wanted so badly. I met some great people and got some great advice, and I even had a few guys tell me they'd call me back about apprenticeships, but nothing really solid. Eventually I got down to the last name on my list, so I went and talked with him and gave me some sound advice and sent me down to Hollywood. 

There are two good tattoo shops in Hollywood, True and Old Tradition. Old Tradition was the last shop I went into, and the first time I had gotten a solid offer on an apprenticeship. So needless to say, I jumped right on board ready to set sail.

After it all, I'd say the only real way to get a tattoo apprenticeship is to completely dedicate yourself to tattoo culture and never give up. I was in and out of over 50 tattoo shops before I found 1 willing to bring me on. I think the only reason any of these guys even took me seriously is because I actually had a full portfolio, and I approached these artists as a student, not an equal. Attitude is everything when it comes to getting an apprenticeship.