247 Ink Magazine (December/January) 2016 Issue#12 | Page 241

5 because those 5 I was blessed with .
How did those patterns come about that you made ? They are passed down from people who it was passed down to also . So it ’ s kind of like a lineage . It ’ s not like I saw it , I mimicked it , I copied it and it has no meaning . That ’ s where the blessing comes from . The person who is doing it understands it and the person who wears it , wears it not in ignorance , but with the same meaning . And I respect all of the other tattoo artists that say , I can ’ t do that . It ’ s outside of my realm because there ’ s a spiritual connotation to the tattoo . Like they say in Samoan culture when you die , you will be recognized by your tattoo . If you ever see a Samoan tattoo , the pea that comes up here , it ’ s actually a canoe and the canoe is into the spiritual realm . In the spiritual world . The afterlife that gets you there .
Do you have any other projects that you are working on outside of tattooing ? Cars . Let me give you a background . The reason why I went to jail was because I was carjacking back in the 1990 ’ s . When people were catching life sentences . I took the deal with violent offender with multiple felonies . I ended up with 2 strikes . By getting the deal , it was 10 years for 2 strikes . I said that I would never return back . I don ’ t drink , I don ’ t smoke . Anything that is going to impair me , or make me think that I can do this one more time , I don ’ t do it . I always got to keep a straight head . I don ’ t let anybody influence me . But the cars never changed . I thought it was like an addiction . Driving a
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