The Good, the funny and the stinky!

Being an apprentice was pretty fun for me :c) I loved the crew, the environment, the only scary thing was really the boss man who lurked in the background of our minds but was never actually around.  Usually I only saw him at outings and heard his voice over the phone.  Until this day, if the phone at the shop rings more than twice I get anxious.  If this happened at the shop we would get majorly yelled at O.o

Simultaneously, I had found the man of my dreams and our relationship was flourishing.  I met him only a couple of weeks after starting my apprenticeship.  Truth is he was nothing like anyone I had dated before, not quite "my type".  I had decided to give up on these ideals I had built because it was not working.  Granted I was only 20 years old, but my longest relationship had been 3 months! LOL So after a bit of hesitation, and a mind expanding journey ;c) I had fallen in love. Very shortly after becoming official, I moved in with him <3  Fernando has been one of the strongest forces pushing me and supporting me throughout my entire career.  Every day he pushes me to be the best and expand my horizons <3 He is my hero ^.^

Being the apprentice of course meant that everyone could mess with me.  When I was stretching my septum, which is terribly painful, one of my co-workers Nicole would love to flick the tip of my nose O.O uuuuggghhh sooo painful but it never bothered me too much because it was expected.  Nicole loved to mess with me but she was never a dick about it.  I had one tattoo that I got at the shop one day and refused to disclose to anyone what it meant.  It was a mysterious set of 3 numbers on the inside of my finger LOL. She decided to fart on me every chance she got in an attempt to get me to tell her. I could never be bothered by Nicole though because she was just so hilariously silly about everything.  The only time I believe we ever had a problem was when she asked me to do paperwork for her while I was in the middle of watching J.D. do a piercing.  I was meant to be the piercing apprentice so my doing something for the tattoo artists when I was trying to learn was not my job.  Maytee got a little peeved with her so Nicole got a little peeved with me but we definitely got over it though, it was no big deal.  Of all people I think J.D. was the most upset by it.  He hated when I let people "take advantage of me" and I always did Nicole the favor because I usually was not busy.  This time I was though and it bit me in the butt and so he got defensive on my behalf. 

J.D. and Nicole were pretty close though, even kind of played the "cool kids" role and made fun of one of our other co-workers for being "cheesy" and bitched about hearing all his same "lame jokes".  They were a little cliquey sometimes but in the end we were all family.  They loved to put me in uncomfortable situations though.  Like making me have the awkward talks with customers and making me pierce those J.D. did not want to deal with.

There was one man who we are pretty sure was homeless.  He had a layer of grime on him, was a bit stinky, a little out there and awkward.  He had quite a few different piercings and every once in a wile came in for another.  One day we saw him walking up to the shop and Nicole and J.D. quite literally told me "this ones on you!" and ran out to Nicole's car to hide.  Oooooohhh man! I had done maybe 1-3 Navel piercings and it just so happened this is what he wanted to get pierced.  This was a much older man with a big pot belly btw.  Here is a picture they took as they laughed at my misery LOL

 

So now add to the normal stress of a piercing the fact that this man had Alligator skin!! I literally put all of my body weight into it and could NOT break his skin.  After many embarrassing attempts I had to bring over J.D.  Even he couldn't do it for a bit at first but eventually got it through.  It was quite terrible but it was part of the learning experience.   

There were also fun little rituals we had like watching Cheaters every day at 3 PM! This was a must for Nicole and myself, I still love this show haha!  My mentor Maytee and I also would watch Beavis and Butthead DVD's whenever we got bored <3 One of our favorite clips was from the episode Beavis and Butthead Take a Lap.  Beavis and Butthead run to the phone after being completely brain washed by this commercial and their faces and sounds just made Maytee and I laugh HYSTERICALLY! 

Overall I loved my apprenticeship <3  It had its ups and downs, the struggles of being broke, trying constantly to impress and make myself seem worthy of the knowledge I was receiving.  Many have had it much worse than myself but I was lucky.  It was still tough, don't get me wrong.  My apprenticeship lasted a whole year almost exactly and I finally became head piercer at the second location on February 13th, 2009.  It was Friday the 13th actually and boy was it a crazy welcoming on my first day. We continue the journey next time! ^.^

My most personal post yet

This was the crew... this was the family I wanted to be a part of. 

You will notice I never mention the name of the shop because I no longer associate with it.  The most important person, Maytee Bringas, now owns Sunset Tattoo Parlour which is the only one I will endorse.  She took most of the crew with her anyway <3

My apprenticeship began pretty laid back.  Maytee only worked 3 days a week so I only worked 3 days a week.  Maytee was an excellent piercer despite the fact that she only did it part-time and was mostly a tattoo artist.  Over time, the main piercer, we'll call him J.D., became my unofficial Mentor.  He was always tight lipped and rarely answered my questions.  It was my job to watch his every move though, learn with my eyes. He would always tell me to research and join forums to seek out knowledge.  I was a bit spoiled by Maytee because we had an instantaneous bond.  Thus, J.D. made me work even harder to learn from him. 

One example is the fact that I HATED wearing shoes.  I would wear flip flops constantly and it is not healthy in a shop environment.  I really felt like I had claustrophobic feet though so Maytee let it slide for a while.  J.D. told me once, "if you were my apprentice you would be wearing shoes".  I really wanted to be his apprentice though, so I finally bought myself some real shoes. (I believe I only wore them constantly once Maytee said I had to though, yes I know I was a bit of a brat) Now don't get me wrong, I loved Maytee as my mentor, and her practices are really the ones that have stuck with me the most, but J.D. had a higher range of skills when it came to more difficult piercings.  Also he was so mysterious I felt like I needed to crack him, I wanted him to let me in!

 Little picture I made for Maytee <3

One time, and I get teary eyed thinking about it, J.D. got stoned enough to tell me practically his whole life story.  He had followed Phish around the country for a couple of years and took me through the journey he had.  I had always been fascinated by that communal lifestyle and the adventure it would be.  I felt, honestly, honored that he had let me in enough to spend so much time telling me about it.  At the end of the story, he told me he would now have to kill me LOL jokingly of course.

I always watched him work intensely, always asked questions, was always curious.  Often times he would just answer my questions with a question or a shrug.  I would not give up though, I would think it over, and start suggesting answers to my own questions.  I always assumed this was his brilliant teaching technique, forcing me to work out the answers on my own.  Sometimes I wondered if he just didn't care to be bothered by me.  

Honestly, it really saddens me to even talk about him these days.  He was my hero, and for some reason he turned on me.  He cultivated some idea of me and seemed to have falsely understood a statement I made and told me I was a two-faced P.O.S.  He never understood just how much respect I have for him, til this day.  One of his clients even asked me to apprentice him and I told him to go to him first out of respect, despite it being a year after he cut me out of his life.  The sad thing is, I was always so submissive to him as a student, I never even bothered defending myself.  I have yet to bother contacting him.  The pain of the initial rejection was so hard for me that I am too fearful to feel any more of it. 

It's interesting how this post ended up being all about him, but truly its hard to discuss my apprenticeship without feeling all these feelings again.  Maytee was always there for me, was a huge support, always encouraged and pushed me to keep striving.  She was even at my side, dabbing the sweat off my forehead at my first live play piercing performance, even though it was long after I had to leave the shop to work elsewhere.

J.D. was not though, he did not even come out, and that always hurt me.  I went to 5 different elementary schools so I guess I have issues with making sure everyone likes me.  I had to constantly make new friends or end up being the lonely new kid. Because of this if I have to really work for your attention you definitely have mine, and he definitely did. I truly looked up to him, and I feel like he threw me away. 

I'm finding it hard to focus on my apprenticeship and all the other great and funny things that would happen so I will save all the positive stuff for next time.  I guess I just had to get this stuff out of my system.  I only hope one day J.D. and I can be friendly again </3

Three years of dedication paid off!

As a teen every so often we had early release day on Thursdays.  Every early release day my friend Angela and I would either go to Goodwill and Salvation Army (to shop) or walk down Bird Rd which was a main road by our school that was pretty saturated with tattoo shops.  We always ended up visiting one shop the most.  The people were cool, it was very clean, they were around the end of our trip and had kickin' AC and a comfy couch LOL.  I was about 17 when I asked the owner for an apprenticeship.  He spoke about wanting to open another shop at the end of the summer and I should call back then to see.  I figured I would be almost 18 by then and hopefully I could get away with it.  When the time came, he said he had absolutely no idea what I was talking about :c/  Despite this I still felt more comfortable in this shop than any other.  Once I turned 18 I came in to get my first proper tattoo.  My first was the 34 stars I have from my shoulder to my lower back. These I got from the flea market when I was 17.  I was determined to get it before I was 18 because of some unknown wanting to be "cool" type of reason.  Now I have amazing tattoos and wish it was gone! LOL

 I am just blessed I did not catch any nasty diseases! Any who! I became a very good customer here.  I'm not going to lie, a lot of the guys were cute ;c) One had the only proper pomp I ever saw in person and I had a huge crush.  It's really awkward to talk about now because they became like family but it's only fair I be honest about some of my reasoning he he.  I came in more and more for tattoos, continued to bring my friends and keep my face in their heads.  I grew quite close to one person in particular which was the amazing Maytee Bringas.  Finally one day when I was 20 I got a message from her on Myspace.  They finally opened up the second shop and had me in mind to be apprenticed!!!

Now I should give a little back story.  All through high school I was a very dedicated member of my marching bands Color Guard.  I still love this art til this day and keep my flags to take out and spin from time to time.  In college I was still at it but part of the Independent Winter Guard which is more artistic and I actually really miss it.  I have never been a quitter at anything but had to give this up when I decided to become a piercer.  At the time I was actually the Captain along with another veteran member.  The only reason I did quit, was because the team did not want to be there, they didn't care about our success, and I decided to follow my dream.  Had I not quit on the spot my apprenticeship would have been available to anyone else who wanted it.  Here is a video from the year before I had quit. 

Honestly, as much as everyone hated me at the moment, it was the best decision I ever made.  Maytee is truly the most amazing human being I have ever met.  She was an amazing Mentor and is still a fantastic support system for me today <3  More on the rest of this odyssey another time, I promise we will catch up to my current life soon!  Until next time <3