The future is fuckin terrifying, the idea of the unknown is something that haunts the thoughts of countless who meditate on the subject, myself included. But in the infinite number of paths and doors both our own and the other conscious vessels there’s a horror show of beauty, pain and knowledge waiting to be acquired.
No mystic we seek in the world can come to a conclusion, even with a glimpse through the eye hole, just suggest the best wisdom they have available. I love it. The future is a never ending learning process and it’s forever changing. Even when you feel you’ve come to know it, other factors are introduced and your spiral back to the terror that is square one. All the knowledge you’ve gained from the past seems to evolve with every second your mind processes more information, so in a sense the future is humbling cause it reminds us about how little we actually know and how far we are willing to push ourselves to continue.
My future so far is nothing I thought it would be and I’m nowhere I thought I would. But the places I’ve been and experiences I’ve had have all been fucking amazing. But the steps i’m taking now have me pacing like a maniac thinking of where I’ll be headed next…
Meditate on whats happened, whats coming and what to do to get there. Don’t dwell on past mistakes, embrace the ones coming. Fuck the mystics that tell you your path is set and who you are, you are who you make yourself.
We often go through so many faces, we are not happy with what ever life or destiny sets up on us. We want to break free and long for things to be different. This differs from person to person, but at the end it is all the same we want to be unique and acknowledged. We want the feeling of assurance and knowing that we exist. Hence the transformation of one self, there so many ways we can help our selfs when facing this task we can become better friends, sons, fathers, listeners, artists and learn to be more understanding and empathetic. To see the world through the eyes of some else is sometimes the best way to understand people and their needs. Im faced with this amazing opportunity when dealing with so many people, my job demands it and I learn so much by doing those things mentioned above. Sometimes it is the other way around Im the one who needs understanding and there has always been some one there to help. Thats where the magic lies transformation of one self is continuously happening and everything around us contributes to that change.
The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.
Last night I had a dream, it had a tale to tell, I dreamed I saw an Angel the poor thing wasn’t well. His body bruised and battered, his wings were ripped and torn, he looked as if he wished that I was never born. I walked up to him and I asked, “Angel how can this be”? He turned around and paused a bit then spoke these words to me. I am your Guardian Angel a great task as you can see, You’ve run a muck all your life look what it’s done to me. These bruises are from shielding you in times both dice and I’ll, Those dangerous things you had used I often paid the bill. See my wings are ripped and torn, a noble badge that I wear, How often they have flown you from evil unaware. Each Mark is its own story of deadly wounds destroyed, You’ve made me wish more than once that I was unemployed. If only you could make it and stand up on your own, Oh don’t you fret or worry you shall not be left alone. But please try to remember that I’m getting old and frail, we’ll see if you can help yourself only time will tell. I could not believe all I’d heard let alone how much he cared, I sat and wept upon his shoulder then left in despair. The next morning I pondered all the things that I had done, And that’s when the transformation hit, my life had finally begun. So I made a final decision to change my life and try, and in the distance I thought I heard a frail old Angel cry…
I have been gifted with the power to contribute to so many peoples transformation. I do this everyday and it brings me so much joy to be able to help some one get closer to being that person he longs to be.
With every poke of the needle this transformation begins to take place it is a right of passage something that is earned. Its not easy but nothing worth while in life is easy. I have so much admiration for all those who come to the studio and endure so much pain for it takes great courage and strength to go trough this difficult and often painful process.
I often hear “I will not kill my self over this”, and then I hear Drake say “last night I made the decision I would die for it.” So I don’t know what the fu(*&**^&% to think lol. All I know is that if you die doing what you love that death will be a beautiful one.
I want to write so much more luckily this picture above explains it all, I guess it is true pictures speaks a thousand words. I only wish I had been a tattoo artist back when I was in high school, I would have just turned in five tattoo pictures instead of an 5000 word essay.
A lion, which is strongest among beasts,…. For what is stronger than a lion, or more courageous and undaunted? it walks with great majesty, very slowly, step by step, the left foot first; shaking its shoulders as it goes, and as here intended, and this without fear;
and turneth not away for any; it does not go out of its way for any creature it meets with; nor does it hasten its pace when pursued, nor show the lest sign of fear; nor does it turn its back to any; This creature is an emblem of Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who is stronger than the strong man armed; who never turned his back to any of his enemies; nor turned aside from the way of his duty, or the work of his office, on account of any; not Herod the fox, who threatened to kill him; nor Satan, the roaring lion, when he knew he was on the march to meet him; nor any of those, who, though they had a band of soldiers, that came to take him; and also it is an emblem of righteous men, who are as bold as a lion; and cannot be moved from their duty by anything they meet with, but remain steadfast and constant in it;
Business just like Respect has to be earned … You must demonstrate your values and beliefs even if you have to break the rules. There is not only one way to do things and get results. We are all unique, We are all capable of making the impossible Possible. Once having earned some ones Business or Respect you must not expect it but rather welcome it with the same humility you started with, and those Men of Honor shall notice the Honor in you. So make your self a promise, keep that promise and honor those who will honor you and in the process earn their business, earn their respect.
So once you have endured the test of time, then you can sit back for a moment of peace with a nice cigar on one hand and a firm grip on your rifle on the other.
The last few weeks were very memorable to me. I got to hang out with my boy Michael Fellner for several sessions to complete his beautiful tattoo idea. We spent a lot of time together at first going back and forth trying to figure out what would be the best composition for his tattoo and after three hours we came out with the perfect lay out. I have to say this has bee one of the most fun tattoos I have done lately. We had really good conversations through out the whole tattoo process. With different playlist playing and changing like the weather, from fast pace Salsa Music to very slow Romantic Chicano Oldies with out forgetting the Gangster Rap I kept chiseling trying to get through the outlining part of the tattoo.
I keep referring to we, because it took the two of us to get through the tattoo, not only the two of us but also all the boys at the shop the help make every experience a pleasant one. Chris, Krystal, David, Justin, Cesar and my brother Steven all helped out not only with this tattoo, but with all the people who walk through the doors of Lowrider Tattoo.
I began with the Epic, Super Iconic Hollywood sign which sets the whole mood for the entire tattoo sleeve that follows. Michael wanted a sort of passage through memory lane to revisit a part of him that has passed but will always remain in his mind. Having lived in Las Vegas and Hollywood really helped when it came to finding good references for his tattoo idea.
What followed was just as impressive as the Hollywood sign. The LA skyline next to the Capitol Records building gave the the tattoo the true west coast tattoo feel. The 6th street bridge did just that, it served as a bridge when combining the Las vegas scenery. I picked the Bellagio Casino with the dancing waters for its majestic feel and some dice flying through the air along with the Luxor Casino to complement the two.
From the beginning I kept pushing forward a very special part of the tattoo. A Lama, a pet for the company Zappos for which Michael worked for several years of his life. The Lama named Cusco always stayed with him even after he moved on. I waited to the end to add the final touch and I got to say it was very rewarding seeing it all come to life. If you are wondering about the rose it represents that special someone in our lives.
Right before we did the Lama I put Michael through some more pain to complete the inside of his sleeve. We choose a Beautiful Show Girl to complement the rest of his tattoo. The Welcome to fabulous las vegas Nevada sign and Michaels vintage Mercedes Benz fit perfectly right next to the Royal Flush of cards. Damn some things are just meant to be, I want to thank Michael for sharing so much with me it was a true bonding experience working together and realizing some thing so special to him, The beginning of his life. A few years ago Tattoos were not so favored and now they are changing peoples lives around the world. “What an Irony’
Life is one of the greatest gifts that has been bestowed upon us. Life is also very kind and sometimes very unfair, It brings good and bad to our lives depending on our actions and the decisions we make. The greatest good lies in reason and virtue. While the bad can come in many forms such as Unpleasantness, unhappiness, misery, affliction, discomfort, ill and sorrow. All which eventually lead to suffering. One should consider liberating one self from suffering and instead replacing it with the practice of compassion, and the aiding and understanding of others as a basic for leading a holy life and attaining nirvana. One should begin with one’s self. We must change from with in to be able to project healthy emotions on to others. “You cannot give what you don’t have”
Aristotle contemplating the bust of Homer by Rembrandt
Continuing my discussion of my faculty book group’s current work, Elizabeth Spelman’s Fruits of Sorrow: Framing Our Attention to Suffering, today I look at what Aristotle teaches us about how we approach suffering. A key work is hisPoetics, where he explores what constitutes a tragic hero. Spelman says that Aristotle’s influential formulation blinds us to much of the suffering in the world because he considers only a small number of cases to be tragic:
An Aristotelian tragedy, then, is about exemplary human suffering. Not all suffering is exemplary, not all of it is representative of important facts about human life. By Aristotelian criteria (and here of course he is not alone), suffering is not tragic in and of itself. It cannot be trivial: it cannot be that of an insignificant or base person, nor even the minor trials and tribulations of a good if not “preeminently good” man. What makes a poetic account of such suffering universal is that it is about important kinds of things likely to happen to a certain kind of man; but such an account is not tragic unless it arouses the pity and fear of those who hear it.
It’s a big deal for our suffering to be labeled tragic, Spelman says. That’s because tragedy snatches suffering out of its “threatening, chaotic horribleness.” As tragic figures, we no longer, in the words of poet Audre Lorde, experience “unscrutinized and unmetabolized pain.” Instead, as Spelman puts it, our suffering is “diluted to some manageable degree by its riveting intelligibility.”
Labeling something tragic, in other words, allows us to make a certain kind of sense of it. We understand the flaws of an Oedipus or a Lear and are thereby able to fit their suffering into some kind of framework.
Spelman contrasts Aristotle’s approach with Plato’s. Where Plato worries that we will be engulfed by our own grief as we watch a tragedy, Aristotle says that tragedy teaches us the appropriate way to pity and fear. Spelman quotes Martha Nussbaum on the subject:
Through attending to our responses of pity, we can hope to learn more about our own implicit view of what matters in human life, about the vulnerability of our own deepest commitment.
Spelman elaborates, “One leaves a good tragedy not so much having spent one’s emotions as having enlarged one’s understanding of them and their appropriate place in human life.”
Bacchus By Caravaggio
“IN VINO VERITAS”
They say that Little kids and people who are Drunk seldom lie. They always seem to tell the truth about things or as they say they have no hairs in their tongues. While on the other hand us as adults we tell our selfs so many lies, we create horrible stories of discouragement for our selfs. We tell our selfs we can’t do this or that. We constantly bring down our self-stem instead of becoming our best friend. We need to become the person who can understand us the best the one who say yes it is possible, yes you can do it. Only then can we take a step forward towards success and begin the beautiful and sometimes difficult road to attaining abundance of peace and happiness.
What motivates you, what drives you, who do you love , what do you live for, who loves you. Ask your self the right question to get the right answers and most important be very honest with your self and good luck on your journey in search of what makes you happy.
In the last months, tattoos of beautiful women have been the most popular. They look amazing especially when done right. Here at Lowrider Tattoo we take pride in what we do and women is one of the type of tattoos we enjoy doing the most. Me myself, I love doing hair. There is something about it that really moves me and gets me in the mood. It is very difficult to pull off but with lots of patiences and endless practice, its all that is needed to master this style. I have spent 22 years doing this and I’m still learning more about it.
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After you master the hair there is still so much to learn. Facial features like eyes, lips, and the thing that is the most important a nice gangster touch which is what gives the tattoo the final genuine LA fine line tattoo feel.
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Whether it is a gangster girl, a beautiful traditional señorita or a simple girl with smooth flowing hair it makes no difference as long as you capture the essence of fine line black and grey. Try to get involved and make a good choice when choosing the right image. It will make you happier at the end and so will the artist doing your tattoo. Heres a special shout out to our boy Hans from Belgium for always supporting us every time we are in Europe putting it down, we could not do it with out your help. We have a lot of stuff in the works so please stay tune and visit our Facebook and Instagram for more updated pictures and news.