Is there such thing as destiny? Why am I so compelled to put lines on a piece of paper? Am I that insecure that I have no choice but to alter reality to my favor with a piece of paper and a pencil? I’m your typical starving artist, a typical man who is terrified of conforming to the corporate world, and a man who is obsessed with creating visual stimulation. Growing up I asked for paper instead of toys, the huge bricks of computer paper that had about five hundred blank sheets were like gold to me. They wouldn’t last long, and I used to go to church a lot when I was little, about three times a week and for about four hours each session. Mom was always one of the first ones there so I had a lot of free time on my hands to draw. And when I would run out of paper to draw on, I would sneak swiftly around the benches undetected and rip out those useless blank pages that every bible have. One bench after another you’d hear a subtle blasphemes rip of paper from the book of the Lord, only to be used to satisfy a child’s boredom.

Those bad habits did not go to waste; they eventually made me the artist I am today. My relationship with art has always been sort of maddening; I even lose sleep over it. At nights, ambitions or ideas for my next creation go haywire. Sometimes I’ll entertain a thought for hours until I have no choice but to leave the warmth and comfort of my bed to write it down or make a quick sketch of it. You would not imagine the things I’ve gone through, the things I have risked for the sake of self expression. And you would not imagine the things I am willing to risk and willing to go through, to be able to live off my self expression.

As an artist, I thrive off unpredictability but everyone needs some sort of plan for themselves. Quite recently I stumbled upon finally, the answer to that utterly annoying question “what do you want to be when you grow up”. “A tattoo artist” is my answer to that question. I hope to very soon, finish my portfolio and get an apprenticeship by a well respected artist and be shadowed by him. A typical apprenticeship is about a year long, by then I will be a knowledgeable and certified tattoo artist and automatically get a job in the shop I apprenticed at. I am determined to be the best tattoo artist that I can possibly be, and be as objective and open minded to progression as I can possibly be.

I am not looking for security; to me satisfaction is death for an artist. The beauty of art is that the only scarcity it has is your imagination.