My introduction to tattooing was after high school while working at Mesa Boogie Amps. There were a lot of guys from Laos with traditional tattoos of prayer and other images. Until this point in my life I paid very little attention to tattooed people, as though they didn't exist. About a year after leaving Boogie I went to the local tattoo shops and talked to a few artists which was a new thing for me as I had never even been into a tattoo shop. I decided to go to Rob Reed of Altered Images in Guerneville. After receiving my spider an web I got a second tattoo shortly after. My third tattoo was soon to follow, at that point I began thinking of becoming a tattooist and asked my artist how I could get into the biz. He responded by being rude and tried to convince me that I wouldn't make a good tattooist,which was lame considering I was a third-time repeat client. If he was trying to discourage me he could have done it without loosing me as a client, which he did. After this disappointment my next step was to go to the only other shop in my area. The guy told me he charges $5,000 to teach the “art of tattooing” and after looking at his work I was curious exactly what he could teach me; his work was weak.

Art classes at the local Junior College was my next step, as I felt I had hit a brick wall. School and I have never had a great relationship and so I soon dropped out after a friend of mine introduced me to Roland Eddy, the grandson of “Pop Eddy” of San Francisco. Roland was an old-school trained tattoo artist from San Diego. He had very interesting stories about his life in San Diego tattooing at a shop owned by the people who own Ace tattoo shop. Though these stories were not the kinds of things I wanted to experience, I was still interested in becoming a tattoo artist. He and his brother John were helpful, they helped me order some gear and soon I was ready to begin. A few weeks later I received a very disappointing phone call in which I was informed by Roland that he and his brother were moving to Portland Oregon! Man was I bummed out. He told me that I should try tattooing my leg and find some friends to do practice work on. That's exactly what I did. The tattoos I was doing weren't coming out very good but I felt I had no other direction to turn. I fumbled along doing this for a few months and then someone told me there was a new tattoo shop in Cotati called “Tattoos By J&D”. A few of my friends and I went into the shop to meet J.D. the owner, who looked at the work on my friends and some photos I had. He must have seen the potential because he hired me despite the poor work I had done. I started working at J.D.'s place and boy was I stoked! I did all sorts of flash tattoos, which is a great way to begin tattooing because you just copy without trying to be creative. I was there for about a year and was growing kind of tired of doing the same tattoos all the time. I needed a change and would soon find it.

Kelly Miller of Reno did a tattoo on my leg and while I was there he offered me a job; this was the change. Giving my two weeks notice was hard, J.D. had given me a great opportunity. My plan to move to Reno fell through shortly after I did a guest spot in Kelly's studio. Reno was not the town for me! I had already quit my job and given notice on my house so now the change was concrete. Fortunately for me Solmon and Lucy, my fiends who owned a piercing studio, offered me a booth space in their new studio in Santa Rosa. Now my only problem was finding somewhere to live. I had very little money and couldn't afford to move into a place. John, who was my landlord, told me I could camp out and use the main house for kitchen and bathroom for $50 a month. I was in no position to tun this down. Now my new path was set.

Working with Solomon and Lucy was great. It was slow and not much money came in but I was willing to make the sacrifice. I was now doing custom-only tattoos, which was way different than sitting and doing walk-ins in a flash shop. People were unfamiliar to entering a tattoo shop with no design sheets on the walls. I was telling people that I would draw them what they wanted and most weren't used to this. Still, I was having fun. We worked together for about a year. Solomon told me he was closing the shop so I went to work for Joe Leonard at Monkey Wrench Tattoo, which was called Secret Raygun at the time. It was nice to be around another tattooist, it is a bit boring being a tattoo artist who works alone. I enjoy the trade of creative ideas that happens when working with other artist. I learned a lot in the eight years of my stay at Joe's place. He is a very talented painter and does some awesome tattoos.

In the desire to walk my own path I had to strike out on my own, easier said than done. The struggle to be a artist and run a business is no easy task. After eight years I'm starting to get the hang of this. I love having my own place and working with a great crew. The most recent addition to my shop is Nate Glomb. My feeling is that he is going to be one of the futures great artists! As for me, I am constantly being inspired by new art and life. I'm glad that I'm still getting better as an artist and loving tattooing.............