Me and my crazy companions, Sonja and Odin

As this winter is actually a real winter here in California for once in a decade, it's created for some interesting energy and mind sets to say the least. Maybe it's me or perhaps not but as it's been cold with weather that is dampening the earth, it seems as though the spirit has been dampened as well. Many of my clients have been needing tattooing in a different, transformative, loving way in which your damn right, I can deliver. I told my Oracle today who I see every Thursday (I gotta stay on my toes too) that if I have too much unnecessary bullshit in my life then I am not as present for my clients or my daughter and that is the main indicator that something has to change. I take pride in my care for my clients and they need me more then ever. And I need them too! I am  noticing when I am spending time with these amazing people that I tattoo, if we open and allow we talk about humanity and for me to hear many different types of people throughout the days- teachers, nurses, linemen, mechanics, paper pushers, hair dressers, coast guards, college students, stay-at-home moms, disabled people, cops, you name it. It often comes back to humans and how we feel and what we think. In a nutshell I will summarize that we all need and want to love and be loved. We are all just trying to be ourselves. We need to accept ourselves as we are and be comfortable with the way we choose to live. Everyone just wants to be happy but with so many outside compounding influences, people are feeling the weight. Not to mention if one is a bit off their center or never found it in the first place your like a fish out of water...what does all this have to do with tattooing, you might ask. Well, I have to pinch myself ever day that I get to sit with these people that share with me something that they are going though in the inside, and they want it portrayed on the outside of their body. A tattoo on the outside of the body can convey so much as to how one might feel in the inside and if you take a moment to calm your mind- you look at something, it can reveal so much to you if your not going a mile a minute in your cranium.

I am so honored and flattered that people find me trust worthy and they invite me into their lives. It's not even about the tattoo sometimes. The fact that there are so much humans out there that are whole hearted, trusting, appreciative, genuine and loving- and they are so different from me. That is what keeps me feeling so proud to be a human here. Despite all the negativity and hate that goes sadly around, there are people from so many different walks of life that are all communing in my presence, in my world. In our world. That alone is worth everything.

My other crazy comrades, two birds one stone kinda thing. 

Another painful initiation for this rad chef. Father to a sweet daughter. 

A first timer here choosing the lion as an emblem to honor his up bringing. 

Hopefully I can finish this soon. She was a sweet mama.

I leave this right here. I hope this sentiment consoles any uncertainty.