This tattoo is a tribute to my Appalahian family heritage. I come from a long line of Irish-American coal miners. The Molly Maguires were a secret society of militant vigilante miners, that existed in the area I’m from during the 1800’s. They used tactics of intimidation and violence against powerful industrialists in response to obscenely unsafe working conditions and unfair wages. They existed for quite a few decades until the coal companies had them all murdered and their families killed. My own family has since been able to part ways with mining for a living, but my heart goes out to those who still have no other choice but to risk death every day just to put food on the table. This tattoo is for my family, for other mining families, and for those, throughout history, who were struck down for daring to question the coal kings they were slaves to. This tattoo was done by Chris Triantifilou at Wild Zero Studios in Morgantown, West Virginia.

This tattoo is a tribute to my Appalahian family heritage. I come from a long line of Irish-American coal miners. The Molly Maguires were a secret society of militant vigilante miners, that existed in the area I’m from during the 1800’s. They used tactics of intimidation and violence against powerful industrialists in response to obscenely unsafe working conditions and unfair wages. They existed for quite a few decades until the coal companies had them all murdered and their families killed. My own family has since been able to part ways with mining for a living, but my heart goes out to those who still have no other choice but to risk death every day just to put food on the table. This tattoo is for my family, for other mining families, and for those, throughout history, who were struck down for daring to question the coal kings they were slaves to. This tattoo was done by Chris Triantifilou at Wild Zero Studios in Morgantown, West Virginia.