gangs, everyone looked up to me
as the big brother. So by saying
where is “Tha Kuya” at, because
Kuya could be anybody. Just
like saying where is a rock, but if
you say where is “The Rock” you
know that’s specifically Dwayne
Johnson. So it was a trip that I
spelled it with an “a” because you
can google me and I’m the only
one that pops up. If you google
“Tha Kuya”, you got people from
Japan and you got people from
everywhere. It’s “Tha”. It’s Kind
of ghetto. Cause I started off in a
garage. I didn’t know how to get
an apprenticeship. People said
it was so hard. I’m not going to take rejection. So I kept on pushing until I
finally got noticed by a legitimate tattoo shops. And when I finally decided to
go get a job, I was like, let me apprentice under you and they were like, nah.
This is my space. Nah, you have more followers than me, you tattoo more
than I do and you want to me my apprentice? You’re trippin’. That’s beneath
you. And I was like, dude, now, I just want to do it right. Because MySpace
back when MySpace was cracking, Bug had put out a video on you tube. He
was in a dark room with a light in the back, and he was like, hey man, I just
want to say fuck you to all you guys. And I was like, hey man, he’s talking
to me. I felt like that connection. He is saying fuck you, because he did the
books, he did his drawings, he did his time, he paid for his way to conventions so that he can sell his books, so that he can sell his art. And finally,
started tattooing. So When I ran up with him last in Philly, with Millz, Millz
got a tattoo by him. And I knew, I wanted to thank him, and then apologize.
I want to apologize for starting off as a scratcher. I said when I heard what
you had to say to the public about tattooing that way, I stopped for a while
and then I started my apprenticeship. But being that I came out of prison,
I needed a job. My job wasn’t cutting it. I was a chef. They call it chef, but
I was a cook for the employees. So making $10/hr, breaking my hands, I
was like I can’t do this. So I was doing drug counseling and cooking at the
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