247 Ink Magazine (December/January) 2016 Issue#12 | Page 223

Nothing about season one was ever repeated. My season was the first season they limited the time you had to draw. The other seasons they had all night to draw. We had a time limit to prepare the tattoo. So when the judges said you messed up at the drawing table, well yea, I messed up because I had 2 ½ hours to consult, draw and eat before the 6 hour tattoo. You want me to draw a fuckin lion morphing into a human heart, so it’s not gonna be the greatest design with an hour and a half to draw. What about your childhood? Basically, nobody has the perfect childhood. Nobody made the perfect choices throughout life, and those choices and mistakes define us, and better us if we know how to better ourselves from those mistakes. So I wouldn’t change anything about my past because I wouldn’t be who I am today on that successful climb I’m on today. There’s still a climb, I’m still on that mountain, I have tons of weights on my back but I’m still climbing that mountain because I see there is a tip and I want to get to it. It might take me 20 more years but I’m gonna work for it. There’s always another goal. I’m just passionate about my work and traveling and meeting all these great artists and awesome tattoo collectors. My big thing is a tattoo artist needs to be passionate about their work. They need to care about what they do. If You’re gonna tattoo something you aren’t passionate about you’re short changing that client because you’re thinking about the money instead of the art work. If not, you should be honest with the client and say that’s not for me, no matter how much you might need the money, you are now permanently ruining that person’s skin because you didn’t put your best effort because you’re not 100% into it. If I’m not into it, I’m not doing it. I’m not short changing myself, my work or the client. 221