Category Archives: Family

100 DAYS SOBER

So, a few days ago I hit a huge milestone in my existence on this planet . 100 days without dependance on any substances for the first time in my entire adult life. It’s also ironic that it comes only a few days after I celebrated my 20th year tattooing. I don’t think words can ever express completely the feeling of immense gratitude that I have lately, so I’m not even going to try. But I really am so thankful to everybody who believed in me, supported me and stuck by my side through all those tough past years. Most importantly my beautiful girlfriend and my family. I now know how rough it must have been sometimes and also how ridiculously hard it is to see someone you know just blatantly throwing away their talents and life to drugs or alcohol.

Bobby Rotten  tattoo artist   100 days sober

All I know is that is I have achieved so much in these first 100 days and it’s been an uphill kayak battle to get where I am right now, but honestly just wait because I’m only getting started and with the help and support of my loved ones and friends I am striving to reach my full potential both in my art, tattoos and most importantly my life. Everyone knows I’ve wasted enough time and I’m so blessed to be where I am today: I have a job tattooing full-time that I love, at a shop that I love working at, in a city that I love being in. I couldn’t imagine a better situation to come back from being a total mess of a human being to. I know that there’s definitely a reason why I am still alive and where I am in my life today and I hope that I can grow into the person that I knew I was capable of being and to grow old into the tattoo artist I’ve been preparing to be for the past 20 years. Ok, enough mushy bullshit: let’s make some art and tattoos and catch up on lost time.

Advertisement

What to expect when dating a tattooed woman?

image

Oh America, your racist, sexist, closed-minded past full of hate and murder makes me sick sometimes.  I’m not sure of this is real or not,  but I honestly wouldn’t put it past The United States Department Of War Information to put out some ridiculous propaganda like this.  I’m so glad there is a generation of wonderful tattooed women blatantly refuting every point made on this page.  Good job ladies. 

Family First

“To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.” – Confucius

Being the oldest of 9 brothers and sisters I jumped at the chance to freehand this tattoo for a client today. I wanted to do something different rather than the usual “family first” tattoo, so I came up with this design.
While I was doing this tattoo it made me really miss my little siblings; a few of them I haven’t seen since my dad’s funeral over three years ago, but thank God for Facebook and text messaging to keep in contact with them all.
My siblings are some of the most amazing people I know and every time I hear from then I am in constant awe to think that these are the same kids that I used to spend everyday with playing baseball in the yard and riding bikes, or in the younger kids cases, swimming and riding around on quads.
My family seriously means more to me then anything on this earth, and I have been thinking a lot lately about getting a “family” tattoo so I think I’m going to bump it up a few spaces on my tattoo-to-do list.
This tattoo would serve as a permanent reminder that in order to have greater peace within my own life, I need to put my family first all the time.