I was about 8 years old when I saw a bunch of bikers, Hell's Angels to be exact, cruise through our little city. Unbeknownst to me, my city housed a hubbaloo of rebels, outlaws, and hooligans. These "heathens" had long, wild hair, beards that resembled my dad's ZZ Top album covers, & a remarkable thing... their arms were colored. Swastikas, grim reapers, skulls, and naked women flew by my car window in a blaze of excitement. At that point, I wanted to be just like those "Angels". Another thing unknown to me at that time was a church so naturally my first semi-pro body art by use of a ballpoint pen about the age of 10 on my arms were distorted skulls, upside-down writings, spider webs, and drawings that resembled old school prison tattoos. I always wanted sleeves. I never looked at possibly getting one small tattoo & leaving it at that.

The next year my parents decided it was best if we all go to church, whether I liked it or not. This turned me even farther away & I would design flash for people of demons, devil heads, naked women, you name it, I most likely drew it. Around the age of 15, I got into the greaser scene as an offshoot of my earlier punk days. For anyone involved in the greaser scene or has been around it, it's nostalgia at it's finest. The amount of truly old school tattoos in the culture sent me back to that day when I was 8. Rockets, anchors, skulls, stars, pictures, scantily clad women, sparrows and doves and eagles, roses, webs, hearts, and daggers adorned almost every square inch of their body. It was at this point in my life where it was solidified, I was going to get a tattoo. I actually had offers to get them done when I was 16, but fearing my parents' backlash frightened me out of making that decision thankfully or else I might have an anchor on my arm...

oh wait, I do....

...anyways.

The next year of my life was painful torture and joyous salvation. I was majorly depressed. I was drawing the old school tattoos for friends as well as the demons of the past. I felt empty however. It was later in that year that I became a Christian. All those devil heads & demons and naked women I wanted to have tattooed had to be trashed or sold to whoever wanted the flash, and all for this newfound faith. At this time I discovered that there was a primarily underground group of people with tattoos of Biblical proportions and meanings. Crosses, sacred hearts, praying hands, images of the Crucifixion, Bible verses, and more were worn on the body of believers. So I had to start designing my own tattoos. The first one I came up with was an image of Jesus on my inner right forearm. To this day, I haven't got it done, but one day, it will. I got my first tattoo days after my 18th birthday of "The Crucified" logo, 3 nails forming a cross wrapped in a crown of thorns.

Now I have a tattoo artist, Southbay Mike. He tattoos our favorite band, P.O.D. We did a skull n' crossbones in a web on my shoulder to represent death to the world (Romans 6:11 & Romans 12) as well as an anchor underneath with a banner with the words "Psalm 23". The anchor represents God, His holding me steady in rocky waters & Psalm 23 is my favorite Psalm of David.

And in an act of either stupidity or Holy Spirit, I'll vote the latter, the words "JESUS SAVES" under my collarbone in old school blood red & black lettering.

I go back in 2 months to visit Mike to get praying hands on the inside of my left arm to finish the half sleeve & we'll probably do a stomach piece or a big cross in the middle of my chest. What can I say? Some of the old stuff stuck with me like the old school designs, but with entirely different meaning to me now.

So now I lead the Jr. High Youth Group at my church. But I still listen to that "satanistic" punk music as my father would call it and still dig the world of body art. It never ceases to amaze me how we can actually change our appearance with a simple a thing as ink. I plan on being a Youth Pastor and doing outreach programs and possibly starting a venue so the tattoos will have no effect on the work I will be doing, but whatever God has planned is fine by me. Music has always been a huge thing in my life, I've been wanting to start a band for a long while now, you never know. I'm glad you came to the site. It is truly a blessing for me and my colleagues.

Much love and God bless -Jay