I'm pretty sure I came out of the womb with a sharpie, 'cause I've been drawing on stuff for as long as I can remember. Hell, I even remember getting in trouble for drawing on myself as a kid... and that didn't turn out the way they had hoped for at all, haha. 

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     Although I've always liked art and drawing (especially on stuff), a career as an "artist" wasn't really in the cards because you couldn't make enough... or at least so "they" said. And after a brief and incomplete stint in college, I found my way into the Marine Corps. 4 years later, I had no more of an idea regarding what I wanted to do than before. But I had messed around with tattooing in the barracks a little, and was able to get hired on at a shop (an absolutely terrible one, working for someone with less experience than I had). But I didn't know any better at the time, so I decided to give it a go... and figured it would at least work until I worked something else out. What I didn't expect was to become so obsessed with everything involved with tattooing that I immediately wanted to make it my permanent career. I had never loved doing something so much and been able to be paid for doing it... still blows my mind almost daily. 

 

     That was in 2010, and as the years went on, I began to do conventions, as well as guest spots, around the country and eventually overseas in Europe. In August of 2015, my better half dragged me to Columbus, Ohio, so that she could get some fancy "Masters Degree" while I continued to travel. She finished up in 2018, and we high-tailed it back home to where it's warm and there's no such thing as snow. That's where I opened my studio (The Howling Dog Collective) in Columbia, South Carolina that same year. Been kickin' it ever since.