“Here and now are enough to bring everything...

“Here and now are enough to bring everything meaning

Be your own god”

Growing up I’ve always noticed myself to be a “little different” than other people. Because I was kind of “strange”, I never really had any friends, as you can imagine, this made Middle and high school some of the most difficult years of my life. To make matters worse, my dad pushed me very hard to fit his model of the “perfect son”. For 10 years of my life I pushed myself to be the best, hardest working, student, athlete, and human being I could be, and for 10 years I spun my wheels. I was doing the right things for all the wrong reasons; I was trying to prove my worth to my dad, and to “fit in” with the wrong people. I couldn’t understand why my grades were so mediocre, or why I never got off the bench, or why I didn’t have any friends. I was so frustrated with life, and truthfully, I had lost hope in everything. There many times where I was minutes, even seconds, away from taking my own life, but right before I was about to crash my car into a wall, I’d hear this faint voice in my head telling me that someday I’d be happy, that someday things would get better, so I didn’t do it and I’m glad I didn’t. Today I’m happy with who I am and I’ve found what I was meant to do (I know it sound cheesy, but I believe that every person has something that is the reason for their being). I had always had a passion for art, but never explored it because I though people would think I was weird, but I gradually started immersing myself in it as a way to express myself, and I never looked back. Next fall I will be attending The Academy of Art University, in San Francisco, pursuing a degree in graphic design. I got this tattoo to remind myself that I very well could have been dead, but the fact that I’m not is enough to “bring everything meaning”, and to, above all else, believe in myself for the rest of my life in everything I do.

It was done by Jeremy at Body Graphix in Salem, OR.