Mickey Myers

Hello everyone! Ive been lurking here for a couple of years and signed up and posted an introduction but couldnt upload it of off my tablet and gave up. I just got my first laptop and decided to try again so here I am. This is a pretty long bio, so just warning u first. I am a beginner tattooer starting in September of 2012. I started drawing as early as I can remember, when I was living in Sydney Australia with my Dad, him and my mom broke up after I was born in Austin,Tx and my Dad took me around Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Australia for 5 years. I remember hanging with the older kids and jumping off a bridge and breaking my leg and staying in our apartment drawing the cartoons and sunday comics all summer. We moved back to the States and I shuffled around between Grandparents in San Francisco, to Rockford, Bryan Tx, Cincinnatti and eventually to Seattle. I was always drawing and painting and getting praise from my teachers. I left home at 14 and started traveling the country. Id sell my drawings state to state and was strung out POS junkie. My high school Contract teachers made me a deal that if I saved all my drawings and logged the time spent on them I could use those hours towards my math, english credits I needed to graduate. My teachers applied to a couple of art schools for me but I wasnt interested. I remember going on a tour of the Art Institute of Seattle and feeling so intimidated. So needless to say I continued down the path of Drugs and Crime. During those years, I had a few offers to apprentice that I turned down. My first introduction to tattoos was in prison, where I got my first tattoo. Well to try and keep it short, I gave up my art for 10 years. I worked a regular job, had a wife and 2 kids together and 2 of her kids. After one bad night I ended up in prison again. This was the first time being in trouble for 10 years, and I was going for 3-6 years. When I went I decided to pick up my art again and try to get back the one thing that made me happy through all the ups and downs. See even when I was strung out living under a bridge I was happy if I was painting or drawing. At least thats what I told myself or maybe it was the drugs. I really believed that artists were meant to suffer to produce great art. I dont even create great art, but thats what a doped out head will tell you. I really worked hard on my drawing in the joint, it kept me busy and out of trouble, and was a good way to become a member of the prison society. I did not tattoo in there because I was trying to do everything to get my reconsideration and get back to my family. When I got out my wife had left me and I got full custody of my 2 kids. When I was at one of my classes, a guy saw me drawing and ended up giving me his unused tattoo kit. I started studying tattooing, and ended up getting a job in a shop. This past year and a half have been an up and down struggle for me. I have worked and kinda apprenticed in 3 different shops. My biggest hurdle for me has been managing my family and a new passion that requires everything out of me. I got a very late start tattooing but am so glad I finally made that step. I know I was so scared to start tattooing because I thought I was a good artist and that I didnt want to suck at something. I still feel like I m trying to catch up to where I was at as a teenager in my drawing ability. But tattooing has given me something that Ive always wanted and thats a quest. An artistic quest, a high that no drug could give me now. the journey has been so exciting for me, seeing progression in my work. Seeing great work of other artists, feeling pride in myself and the craft, something thats not artificial or based on money or material or illusion. Joining LST has introduced me to the work of the greats and I hope I can be a good member here.