247 Ink Magazine (December/January) 2016 Issue#12 | Page 154

plan falls apart… S: you reach a certain point and you realize your parents don’t even know.. C: Totally. If I was listening to what my parents told me right now, I wouldn’t be tattooing right now. I would be working in a factory. They told me not to get tattooed. I said I was getting a job in a tattoo shop and they told me no way Jose. I was already a successful tattooer, the golden goose at the shop I was at and I told my dad “hey, I’m gonna open my own shop” because I’m sick of giving it to this dude that snorts it every day.. M: My mom cried when I first told her (laughs) C: He told me don’t even open a tattoo shop, it’s stupid, why would you do that? Stay where you are. I was like I’m the only one keeping that guy’s doors open, he’s riding my coat tails, and I was only 20 years old. M: I would be working at a design house. I went to school for product design. I would probably be designing napkin dispensers (laughs) The cool stuff everyone thinks about is the ipads, but the problem isn’t what you’re working on, it’s the system you’re working in. You don’t get credit for your work, the design director does, and you’re getting paid as little as possible, and someone else is making a lot of money off of you. S: What did your parents think about you being a tattooer? M: My dad’s really cool and we’re really close and he was more stressed about it than my mom, and I was his little girl and now I was putting ink on my skin, and he thought I was perfect the way I was, so he was a little stressed out, but then he turned it around and got a tattoo from me. His first tattoo, and he wanted to show support for me. C: That’s how my dad was too. He was like fuck you, you loser, and I was like fucker, I just bought you a car! Then he turned around and got a tattoo too. Went from one extreme to another. M: Parents realize if they can’t stop it, they might as well join in. This has nothing to do with what we’re talking about, but what’s so weird about life is we’re in this time and age where marriage and relationships don’t al152