After 20 Years of Tattooing - I Decided to Quit
My journey to finding my inner artist again.
Have you ever felt like you lost yourself in something?
I did.
For 20 years, tattooing was my identity.
It was my world, my purpose, the thing that defined me.
I poured everything into it. Every project, every late night, every ounce of energy—outward. Never stopping. Never once looking up.
Never asking… who am I without this?
Then burnout hit. Not a slow fade, but a collapse.
A realization so heavy it took me two years to fully accept: I had lost myself in the thing I loved.
I had been running on fumes for years, convincing myself I just needed to push through.
But one day, I got home, sat down… and felt completely empty. Like there was nothing left inside of me.
My body was done.
My mind was done.
I was so burnt out that even thinking about tattooing made me feel sick.
And in that moment, I realized—this wasn’t passion anymore.
It was survival.
And that’s not what I wanted my life to be.
After 12 years of owning a studio, I decided to close the doors.
This wasn’t an end—it was the first time I gave myself permission to begin.
To sit in the quiet.
To listen.
To ask myself the questions I had ignored for so long.
Who am I, beyond my work? Beyond what the world expects?
And so I adjusted.
To a new life.
A new version of me.
A whole version of me.
I became a dad to two little girls, and embraced every bit of it.
I fell in love with my best friend, married her, and learned what trust really means.
I gave myself permission to create—not just for others, but for me.
To explore, to get lost in curiosity, to see where my imagination could take me.
I painted.
I read.
I told my kids stories that made them see the world differently.
And for the first time… I saw myself differently too.
No longer lost, but a leader.
I never gave myself space before.
Never allowed myself to just exist outside of what I did for others.
But now?
Everything flows. Because I’m not just creating things. I’m creating myself.
And the most unexpected thing?
The more I’ve accepted every part of me—the artist, the writer, the dad, the husband, the brother, the friend—the more I’ve become the person I was meant to be all along.
Have you ever felt like you’ve lost yourself in something?
Maybe it’s time to start finding yourself again.
Because you’ve always been more than just one thing.
