Speaking into the past.

Ghosts, lost and small.

In time things change.

Under an eclipse .

Everything changed. Our son was coming. I had to figure it out—time, work, what kind of person I was going to be. Leaving the shop, starting my private studio, making space for something bigger than myself. The night he was born, the world cracked open. Then the city went silent. Holding him at the window, watching it all shift.

We left Connecticut with $5,000 and no safety net, free-falling 3,000 miles into a city that only existed in our minds. LA was noisy, overwhelming—white paint covering the dust filled cracks, Megan worked at a gym shadowed by Scientology, I tattooed in a shop that felt like a Victorian brothel swallowed by a garage sale. Tension pushed us forward. Isolation became a studio, then something bigger. That one-year plan stretched, and by 2018, with Azi in our arms, LA wasn’t just an idea anymore. It was home.

What was I really trying to express? Where was I headed? I reflect on early influences, from my father’s crude hand-poked tattoos to the lessons learned in my first shop. I talk about the creative battles, the shifts in my style, and how moving from Connecticut to Los Angeles reshaped my approach. This episode is about evolution, adaptation, and finding meaning in the work we choose.

The bent line of time. Some memories blur together, overlap, bleed into each other like watercolor paint. This episode is about the years when hardcore shows, art, and tattooing started pulling me toward something I couldn’t yet define.

I talk about finding my way into tattooing, the intensity of the hardcore scene, and the people who shaped my early years— There were moments of clarity, moments of chaos, and long stretches of uncertainty where tattooing had to wait.

But tattooing was patient with me.

This episode is a look back at the winding road that eventually led me to where I am now. Thanks for listening, and if you have any thoughts or questions, I’d love to hear from you.

Nothing is promised. The weight of identity, struggle, and self-discovery shapes us in ways we don’t always understand in the moment. In this first episode of COMMIT, I share my story—growing up in the a housing project in New Britain, Connecticut, navigating the in-between space of a multiracial background, and finding escape through art, skateboarding, and punk.

This is about more than just looking back. It’s about tracing the moments that shaped me, the people who pushed me forward, and the ways we carve out meaning in a world that doesn’t always make it easy.

No answers. No promises. Just the first step.