No Separation Between Art & Life

Circles, Spirals, Liberation and Tattoos

Feb 20, 2025

Welcome.

Some of the best storytellers I’ve ever known have also been tattooers. I’m really hoping to hone my practice of storytelling through this newsletter. There’s so much potential with this style of communication and I’m excited to share my thoughts, tattoo work and other projects here. So please bear with me as I give this sub-stack thing a shot.

Me, getting my neck tattooed by Hassan in Ed Hardy’s station at Tattoo City this past October

Like so many of us, I've been struggling lately to find balance. Balance between motivation and despair, doing the work and taking time to rest, staying informed and not overloading and shutting down. The world is really fucking bleak right now.

But even still some parts of my world have managed to thrive. I love the people in my life so very much. We do the work together and hold each other through the hardest days. Utopia in the midst of dystopia - its not a novel concept. We’ve found hope in the midst of intense suffering and we’ve found ways to resist in impossible situations.

Young men celebrating in Gaza during the ceasefire, image from Instagram

After October of 2023 I took a major step back from tattooing. My priorities shifted and all my time was dedicated to mobilizing my communities, being in the streets, doing political education, participating in direct action, doing jail support, hosting fundraisers and more. I was organizing full time out of dire necessity while trying to find time to run a tattoo shop, make tattoos, paint, stay on top of emails, feed myself, be in a band, be a good partner, friend, and sibling in the midst of crisis after crisis - I couldn’t find the balance. I burnt out harder than I’ve ever burnt out before. Multiple times. I don’t regret taking the time to refocus. It actually felt super necessary and a way to resist the constant dissociation from our reality that surviving capitalism so often requires.

Burning out taught me about my limits. Traditional tattoos have taught me that longevity is something you can learn from studying the past. I’ve spent years studying this style of tattooing and why it works. Bold lines, simple designs, intentional shading, bright colors, clear silhouettes - these are the components that make traditional tattoos last a lifetime. Similarly, I’ve been studying my own organizing history trying to find the patterns that will help me to do this work better and do it for a very long time.

I’ve been reading “Tip of the Spear” studying histories of Black Radicalism and Prison Abolition from the 70s and spending time with revolutionary elders who’ve been doing this work much longer than I’ve been alive. Studying Ghassan Kanafani, Basel al-Araj, George Jackson, Leonard Peltier, Assata Shakur and learning from my comrades by doing the work alongside them. Making meals for my friends who are fighting cases for protesting, nursing their wounds after being shoved by cops, doing regular tattoo fundraisers for families from Gaza, going to bed when I’m too tired to stand up, taking shifts at jail support and doing the dishes after meal distro are all vital practices of sustainability.

Leila Khaled says so beautifully “I have learned that a woman can be a fighter, a freedom fighter, a political activist, and that she can fall in love, and be loved, she can be married, have children, be a mother...Revolution must mean life also; every aspect of life.”

Mural of Leila on the apartheid wall in the West Bank, Palestine

A huge part of my life is tattooing. It’s the craft I’ve dedicated the past decade of my life to studying. There is something so grounding in pulling a clean line and knowing you can do it, when little else in life offers such certainty. I love tattoo history and pouring over old photos. I love my tattoo family, the network of tattooers all over the world that I call friends. I love sitting down with a client and learning about their life. I love the conversations we have while I’m tattooing. I love making beautiful things and working to perfect a craft. I love that this is my job and I never want to take it for granted or loose sight of my place within it.

Photo by Dianne Mansfield from her book Eye of the Beholder

Recently my brilliant friend and coworker Tamara noted that tattooing was the vehicle that brought so many people into their life that they needed to meet. And I completely agree. I’ve had incredible conversations with so many of you. Tattooing has been a welcome gift in a year full of so much suffering and uncertainty. I’ve built relationships with tattooers who share my values, inspire and encourage me to continue learning. Part of finding the balance I’ve been seeking is continually recommitting myself to this work - both organizing and tattooing. Knowing where to put my effort where it’s most effective. And letting both worlds be endlessly enriched by the other.

As V. Vale says in his Goals of Life: No separation between ART & LIFE

Thanks for reading. Here’s some tattoos I’m really proud of: