The only limits we have in life are the ones we set

My father passed away when I was very young, at five. I was adopted. My mom, there was a 45 age difference there so she didn’t understand a lot. We lived off of Social Security because she didn’t have much, education wise. She did what she could, she was an amazing person. But we grew up with bare minimums, sometimes a little less than bare minimums. I decided that I was going to start to build an empire. I always strove to make my mom proud. 

Back in ’09 my mom passed away. When my mom passed away that was one of the biggest turning points of my life. At that point in time, you know, I wasn’t happy where I was. I was just doing the mediocre things. I decided that I was going to rise above all that and nothing was going to stop me. So I came back here, settled here in a small town in Ohio and decided that I was going to really get into my tattoo career. Since then, with that drive, I have been able to take things…I broke world records in tattooing. My whole thing is to never let anything stop you. And I firmly believe that the only limits we have in life are the ones we set for ourselves. With that being said I turned around and broke a world record, I opened up a world famous tattoo studio. I tattoo all over the place, now. I’m gearing up in February, Im actually due at the Pittsburgh Tattoo Expo to break several more world records. I spent the last few months in really intensely training and work out training. 

I learned very young, even though my mother wasn’t very educated, she was one of the wisest woman you would ever meet in your life. I learned self empowerment from my mom. Even though we didn’t have much growing up, I was kind of outcasted. I was a different one, I was the artist. As artists we see the world differently and it’s in recognizing that. We even see shapes, colors and the way things move totally different from everybody else. Then trying to fit into one of their standard, one of their “roles” isn’t where we’re happiest. And when you’re kind of outcasted like that it’s about finding that peace within you and who you are. And that I was able to find when I was very, very young. I am truly blessed that I was able to find that.

I have a teddy bear, a beat up teddy bear that is just like Wilson here. When my father was sick and passing away, he had cancer. He wasn’t very coherent and he was in the hospital. It was about time for him to go and my mom took me up there and there was a little brown paper bag that was sitting by the door of the hospital and it had this teddy bear in it. It was dressed up and I called him Goodnight Teddy. He had a little sleeping outfit on. She told me a story that my dad got up and went to the gift shop and got me this teddy bear. I carried this bear, after he passed away, for years. Even through high school that bear stayed in my room. Right now to this day at 37 years old that teddy bear, mind you his hats gone, his clothes have been shredded, He looks like Wilson here, that teddy bear is sitting in my room, right there on a shelf. Even me, big and bad…I love my teddy bear to this day.