I'm a couple weeks late in posting this- life has been beyond crazy...It's my 25…

I'm a couple weeks late in posting this- life has been beyond crazy...It's my 25th tattoo-iversary. ❤️ This is the only photo (that I'm aware of) of my apprenticeship under Ricky Reyes at Thee Ink Cup in October of 2001. 18 year old me, so absolutely determined to start a career involving art, and so grateful and happy for the opportunity. Holy shit I worked hard....making needles, scrubbing tubes, tracing every piece of flash in the shop, cleaning the shop top to bottom every day, learning how to maintain and tune machines...cleaning Ricky's classic cars, scrubbing toilets and sweeping the sidewalk. I paid 5k for that apprenticeship,and it was absolutely priceless.❤️ Brenda (Ricky's wife at the time) kept me fed with a home cooked meal almost every day, and her nephew would tip me $5 to clean his station...with that $5, I'd buy a sack of potatoes and a bottle of ketchup to eat for the week (hence me being so grateful for Brenda keeping me alive.)😆 I am still grateful, always learning, and so appreciative for all of you sticking with me all these years. I never thought I'd still be doing what I love all these years later. ❤️

@doctah_jones · 0 likes