I first started collecting tattoos in highschool. During art school at university of Nevada Reno in 2001 and 2002 I began an apprenticeship with a guy at a studio called wild West tattoos. I only worked there for a day. And was told the apprenticeship had a zero pay and would need to find a way to pay for living expenses. So, I returned to school and got a job as an automotive technician. A few years later after opening and closing my own auto shop and a brief stay at rehab I decided to just do what made me happy. So after rehab, which taught me a lot about mental health and happiness, I began a more formal apprenticeship in 2007 with an artist in Phoenix AZ. The artist name is Eddie C. Workman. He ran a couple shops in Glendale and around Camelback. I worked with him for a little while did some tattoos until someone else offered me a paying position as a full time artist. So without finishing my apprenticeship I left and worked as a artist for an artist named Antoinette Morgan who has been tattooing since the 60s or 70s. She and her family have many shops and I began working at one on 48th avenue in Glendale AZ. A few months later I was moved to another shop of theirs, this one an upstairs studio on 85th Ave in Peoria. A while later I was invited to her main studio where she does her own tattoos, at 43rd Ave in Glendale AZ. She offered me a position there and moved a friend of mine, the guy who hired me,an artist named Ebon, to manager at the 85th Ave shop. I worked for her and those shops for a while moved back to South Carolina in 2009 or 2010. I met a guy named Micheal Turner who ran a shop in five points Columbia SC. He offered me a management position at a shop in Myrtle Beach but I was young and stupid so I said no. I tattooed at some houses and threw a lot of things away. Drank for a while. Went back to school and earned a BA in Anthropology emphasis on culture and hopes to do some work with tattooing and rituals. After my BA from USC 2014, I sobered up and went back to Phoenix AZ and worked for Antoinette Morgan at Alley Kat studios. This time the primary shop was on Glendale avenue and 43rd Ave. Might be wrong about the ave it's been a while. I stayed there for about 6 months living and working in Glendale. I moved back to South Carolina in the summer of 2015 and began working at a shop in Elgin, named Rose Street Tattoo. The owners name was Eddie Kane who had just expanded and opened a tattoo shop in the Sandhills area named Copper Finch Tattoo. I worked at Rose Street for a little while tattooing with a guy named Ron and when asked if I wanted to take over as owner with my own art he would pull out and be at his other locations I said sure. So I chose a name that reminded my of the ocean and called the shop Salty Dog Tattoo, and opened my doors in 2015. We were in business for a couple years and moved locations one time. I closed that shop and went to work for a friend of mine at a shop on parklane road in Columbia. After that I worked for a shop on Jackson boulevard called bone deep tattoo. I presently have an associates of Applied science, a Bachelor's of arts in Anthropology and I am returning for a master's of arts in art and technology.
