NOVEMBER 9TH, 2020
year of the pandemic
I wanted to start this blog in response to the current COVID pandemic. I think it goes without saying that this virus affects us all in some way. This year, I had originally planned on traveling and tattooing at multiple conventions and guest spots. I was working on putting out my second sketchbook volume, producing prints, and editing videos. Needless to say at this point and time conventions and traveling is not a reality for the tattoo industry. For me, it became difficult just to create anything again. All I could think about ~ were all my friends and family who continue to run their tattoo shops, small businesses, or just trying to work and hold it together through this impossible time.
I'm not really sure where writing this blog will lead my tattoo career. If there's anything that I have learned throughout this mess, is that I'll never stop creating or being an artist. It took me weeks to even consider painting again, and months to even pick up a paintbrush again. Even though I started painting and creating again, it felt different. I have always said that creativity ebbs and flows, comes and goes in waves. For me, that was expected. What seemed to bother me this time was the endless white noise on social media. What was once a place to gain inspiration, converse with other tattooers, inspire others, and just express my art, was gone. Maybe it was just how I was feeling at the moment, or maybe it was just a poor reflection of the chaos of reality. Whatever it was, I felt like social media venues have waned from their previous glory. At least for me it is becoming meaningless.
So here I am, writing this blog instead. It is a start for me to in a way express my thoughts, catalogue my life, and leave something that feels a little more permanent than a ten-second video clip or hashtag. In the end, I hope that it holds a little more weight to whoever decides to read through this and inspires them in some way.