Ep. 209 "An 80's Kid" (Diary Entry 1:2 with JD Brosius)

[00:00:00] Hello Diary listeners! I'm excited to introduce to you all today my friend JD. He has a two-part diary entry and this is part one. We are calling it an 80s kid and you're about to see why. It's very evident. Makes my little 80s baby heart happy. So here he is JD. Enjoy listeners.

[00:00:28] Welcome to the Apprenticeship Diaries where raw meats refined. Let's be real we're still working on refined. What it took, what it takes and the stories that are made. Join us as we learn from professionals about how their stories begin.

[00:00:41] Oh Diary listeners I'm here today with JD Brocious. I just found out that's how I say his last name. It's very, it's very cool. And I wish you guys could see the setup that he's got in his basement but it's very cool.

[00:01:12] You work at Rapture tattoo my friend. I do. Hello everyone. Thank you for coming on the show. Absolutely thank you for having me. Of course I was told that your story was a must to get. So really? Yes, yes.

[00:01:32] The fellow peeps at Rapture were like oh you got to get JD and I was like oh and I have to. Wow. Does that mean I'm going to be famous? Well I'd be famous after all this. No.

[00:01:48] I mean I can't ensure that but if that is what you want I will put prayers in. Fair enough. That'll work. You will have done a thing. I don't want to be famous so.

[00:01:59] Well I mean at the end of the day you will have done something that very few people do which is something with your time and recorded it. Yeah.

[00:02:08] You have a podcast of your own too. Shout that out at the top. I think that's pretty dope.

[00:02:15] So I am part of a group called the realm of collectors and it's all like you know pop culture collecting adults like like minded adults you know. Yeah.

[00:02:29] That want to be kids. But yeah every other Wednesday on the realm of collectors YouTube channel I do a show my wife and I do a show together with a few friends of ours and it is called Shelf Gravy.

[00:02:46] And it's I mean basically it's like a live tutorial I used to paint a lot. I like custom figure pieces and stuff like that like stuff that was 3D printed and I'll just like paint them and then we would give them away you know like we'd have like a trivia time at the end of the show you know after I finished painting it and then we would give it away for like the last year or so I've just been

[00:03:14] building stuff for our own. You know purposes I guess I don't know.

[00:03:22] Has it been fun.

[00:03:24] Yeah it's a lot of fun. I mean we just there's there's usually like four or five of us so it's like my wife and I and then a few other customizers and the one guy that pushes the buttons he just he does stuff that he you know picked up from all the rest of us.

[00:03:47] But like we'll just sit there and bullshit you know it's it's a good time.

[00:03:52] We go around.

[00:03:54] We go around and just like oh so what are you working on today and you know everybody will show what they're doing and then from there.

[00:04:02] Yeah we just kind of Matt the one guy he

[00:04:07] he's got quite the mouth and we get into some pretty heated conversations and

[00:04:13] he gets all like like how does this guy not like how's his heart not exploding at this point is blood pressures up and he he's screaming at the at the mic and all that.

[00:04:28] And then before we know it like two hours went by and was like oh well.

[00:04:33] We'll be surprised if anybody's still out there watching but

[00:04:38] here's what we did tonight and then we'll end it you know that's what makes it entertaining though is the personality behind everything that's

[00:04:47] Oh yeah especially when you are if you're you know in the beginning giving away these little figurines that are a product of all of this individual heat.

[00:04:59] Yeah, that's awesome.

[00:05:02] It's it's it's something.

[00:05:05] Yeah, it's awesome.

[00:05:07] Yeah with the channel we try and have something like every night.

[00:05:12] So Mondays my wife does like a news based show and if you're watching it for the news you're watching it wrong.

[00:05:23] Tuesday we used to have like a topic based show but we don't really do that anymore and then every other Wednesday I alternate between like a live tour of you or the shelf gravy.

[00:05:38] Got you so and then Friday we have the realm how round realm Hatten project which is a bunch of other guys that they do show on Friday and it's they cover all kinds of shit on that one.

[00:05:51] That's awesome.

[00:05:52] Yeah, that's awesome.

[00:05:54] How long have you been doing this.

[00:05:59] 2017 maybe started on it.

[00:06:06] Awesome.

[00:06:07] Yeah.

[00:06:08] Did you have an inspiration.

[00:06:11] I'm really I just like I joined the group and yeah like right now my my my phone just went off and says watch Roman collectors live in 30 minutes right out of the box.

[00:06:25] Like some of the guys will get together every now and again and they'll just do like they got something new they open it up and it's like first impressions right out of the box.

[00:06:35] Oh right on.

[00:06:36] Yeah.

[00:06:39] I don't.

[00:06:41] It was the question.

[00:06:43] Oh just how long you've been doing it what your inspiration was.

[00:06:47] So yeah I didn't really.

[00:06:51] There wasn't really any inspiration I've always been a collector of sorts.

[00:06:56] You know between like Star Wars and Transformers and you know all the 80s stuff you know 80s kids.

[00:07:04] Yeah.

[00:07:05] So I don't know I just joined the group and then the guy that started the group message me and he was like hey jump into one of our hangouts and I was like okay.

[00:07:18] I don't know what the hell I was doing but I just jumped on there and of course you know he's like who's this guy and he like boots me out and and then I joined again and because I was like trying to figure shit out I didn't know what I was doing.

[00:07:32] I joined on a cell phone didn't have headphones or anything like that you know.

[00:07:36] So my audio is probably.

[00:07:38] Yeah that's right.

[00:07:40] You got you're not popping any peas.

[00:07:47] Yeah man it advances that's why I was asking because you know a lot of why I'm doing this is to confront technology and to not be so behind on it or at the very least not be feel like I don't have a place within any of it you know.

[00:08:08] Sure.

[00:08:09] Yeah it can be really fun if you demystify it and kind of.

[00:08:14] So with the with the collector group one of the things like there's a lot of lonely people out there.

[00:08:23] There's a lot of people that are shunned because they like care bears or transforming toys whatever you know what I mean so like that genre in itself.

[00:08:38] Like there are a lot of people that really don't have a lot and that's why we try to provide as much content to them as possible.

[00:08:47] Oh I love that.

[00:08:49] Yeah yeah no there is there is.

[00:08:52] And his friends stays family.

[00:08:54] Oh I know that's our motto.

[00:08:56] Well it's kind of like what we do as a profession to I mean tattooing is collecting you know where is the semblance of it that's healing for people obviously they wouldn't be getting what they get if if not for that I think very need that attachment to it.

[00:09:14] Yeah.

[00:09:15] Yeah how long have you been a tattoo artist then.

[00:09:20] So since 2012.

[00:09:25] All right.

[00:09:27] 2012.

[00:09:29] And then my apprenticeship was roughly like eight nine months long.

[00:09:36] Okay before that so I started that in 2011.

[00:09:41] Right on.

[00:09:42] So our timelines are not too far away from each other honestly.

[00:09:46] That's pretty cool.

[00:09:47] I guess not.

[00:09:49] Because my my second time learning to tattoo started like 2010 ish but it was like on the edge of it like it was like leaving so about the same time that's cool.

[00:10:03] Nice.

[00:10:04] Yeah man what would what brought you into tattooing.

[00:10:11] Well I've always drawn painted sculpted whatever whatever I get my hands on.

[00:10:20] I mean it did mold making and I got pretty involved in like a local comic book scene around like Lancaster Harrisburg Maryland.

[00:10:35] So I got pretty into that.

[00:10:39] And then like probably a year after I got into all that kind of stuff.

[00:10:45] I got laid off my job or actually no no no that didn't happen yet.

[00:10:52] I was working as a plumber and then I'm just like.

[00:10:56] Plumbing right.

[00:10:59] Did you save me not too long I mean it black fired on me but but you but you helped for a significant amount of time so I'm sorry.

[00:11:09] No no no no no no I'll derail myself like six times between now and then so.

[00:11:16] Good man.

[00:11:17] Yeah.

[00:11:19] I guess so.

[00:11:21] It just means there's a lot there's just a lot.

[00:11:24] There is a lot but yeah so I was just like scrolling through Facebook the one night and I'm just you know I'm like in the middle of divorce and.

[00:11:35] You know almost losing my home and all this stuff I'm like you know what.

[00:11:40] Like I see this in the other guy up the street says.

[00:11:44] Looking for artists three year minimum experience better have a strong portfolio blah blah blah blah blah.

[00:11:51] So I just I'm like what's he gonna tell me to go fuck myself.

[00:11:56] You know I mean yeah so I just messaged him and.

[00:12:02] He was like oh right on so.

[00:12:06] You have a portfolio it's not online paper rate I'm like no.

[00:12:11] I got portfolios so he's like all right cool bring your stuff in this day and we'll sit down and talk.

[00:12:19] And I took like literally everything that I had three different portfolios of all just like illustration and painting and all that stuff I took a bunch of my sculpture in.

[00:12:29] I took my laptop in which had a bunch of digital art on it and nice and then a few of the actual like paintings paintings that I had done.

[00:12:40] And he's like well you didn't need to bring all this.

[00:12:45] But like I mean if you're serious you have what it takes.

[00:12:50] You know like it's something you want to do.

[00:12:53] How did it start like did he give you an opportunity at that point.

[00:12:57] Yeah.

[00:13:01] Like he sat me down he was like look it's going to cost this much money.

[00:13:05] I want this up front and then you know we'll start we'll start your your training so to speak from there and.

[00:13:19] Like literally it was like the next week he had me in there and he was.

[00:13:24] He was like all right well I had some stuff preplanned.

[00:13:28] So I'm not going to be here this day this day and this day but I'm gonna have you sit down and like watch these videos and.

[00:13:37] And I mean he had he had stuff planned out which was cool.

[00:13:41] It wasn't from the seat of his pants.

[00:13:44] Right.

[00:13:45] I'm super grateful that he gave me the opportunity.

[00:13:48] Yeah.

[00:13:49] Shout out to you Chuck.

[00:13:52] How are you?

[00:13:54] But.

[00:13:56] Yeah from there it was just like I ended up working the other half of my apprenticeship off.

[00:14:04] So like he didn't you know he saw all the other things that I could do and he's like hey can you do this for me.

[00:14:10] Right on.

[00:14:11] So.

[00:14:12] That's cool.

[00:14:13] Work out that way.

[00:14:15] Was it more of like a gentleman's agreement for the whole thing.

[00:14:19] Yeah.

[00:14:20] Like.

[00:14:21] Okay.

[00:14:22] No I don't think so.

[00:14:23] I don't think there was any there was no contract or anything like that I had to sign.

[00:14:27] That's awesome.

[00:14:28] It was pretty much a handshake and.

[00:14:31] That was pretty much it.

[00:14:32] That's wonderful.

[00:14:34] And it was it.

[00:14:36] I mean.

[00:14:37] Did you get any kind of sense about him that like made you feel very confident that that was not going to be a problem or anything like that.

[00:14:48] Yeah I mean like.

[00:14:50] He runs a legitimate business you know a clean place.

[00:14:58] A lot of people know him.

[00:15:00] Yeah I mean it's like so.

[00:15:05] Yeah from there it was just.

[00:15:08] It kind of felt right everything worked out the way it needed to do so yeah you know what I mean.

[00:15:14] Now did you.

[00:15:16] Did you do a lot of the front end kind of stuff for him had how did your duties look what was that kind of like.

[00:15:24] So starting out I did a lot of tubes scrubbing a lot of tubes scrubbing more tubes.

[00:15:34] And then more tubes.

[00:15:37] And then in the shop.

[00:15:39] I mean.

[00:15:41] Answering emails and phone calls and trying to try to do all that we we for most of my time there.

[00:15:50] Even after my apprenticeship we we did have you know there was like a front desk person.

[00:15:57] Okay that was usually there so a lot of that stuff was handled most of the time but like if that person wasn't going to be there you know I mean it was.

[00:16:06] It was solely up to me to do it you know which is fine I don't mind.

[00:16:12] I didn't know what I was doing at the time you know so wasn't like I could actually sit back there or make money or anything.

[00:16:19] So I drew a lot.

[00:16:23] A lot more.

[00:16:24] I did some sculpture and you know like is it I don't care what you're doing just as long as it's constructive you know I mean I don't want you to sit in here playing video games all day.

[00:16:36] Right, you know.

[00:16:37] Yeah.

[00:16:40] You work another job while you were doing this because you were paying.

[00:16:43] Yeah I was I was a plumber.

[00:16:48] And then right up to the end of my apprenticeship I got laid off.

[00:16:53] Like it kind of balanced itself out you know I mean I had like I had like a.

[00:17:01] It was like nine weeks of no work.

[00:17:05] So that's not bad.

[00:17:07] That's not bad at all man that's awesome.

[00:17:10] Awesome awesome.

[00:17:12] Yeah because I mean I'm sure that wasn't easy to like do an apprenticeship on top of doing plumbing.

[00:17:18] Oh no.

[00:17:19] Yeah, no.

[00:17:21] You know I did it and he was cool with a new.

[00:17:27] You know I'm working getting up at like six in the morning being a work by seven.

[00:17:35] You know digging in shit and piss and God knows what else what else yeah.

[00:17:42] Or blood borne pathogen.

[00:17:44] Yeah yeah yeah.

[00:17:49] Yep.

[00:17:50] Gloves and respirators are very, very important.

[00:17:55] Oh yes.

[00:17:58] But I'd get out of work you know it would be like I don't know three four o'clock in the afternoon.

[00:18:04] And then I would just go into the shop and hang out there till nine.

[00:18:10] Damn dude.

[00:18:11] Pick up what I could.

[00:18:14] How long before there was a tattoo machine in your hand?

[00:18:20] Probably about three months, three months, four months somewhere around there.

[00:18:30] Right on.

[00:18:31] Yeah.

[00:18:32] He wanted to make sure that I understood all the.

[00:18:36] You know like how it worked.

[00:18:39] I watched him a lot you know what I mean.

[00:18:41] Yeah.

[00:18:42] So there was a lot of me over his shoulder.

[00:18:47] You know people who don't ask him questions.

[00:18:50] Gotcha.

[00:18:51] You know why do you do this? Why do you do that?

[00:18:54] I got you.

[00:18:56] You do as best to explain.

[00:18:59] You know.

[00:19:00] No, I'm assuming if there was a lot of tubes was a coil what he used.

[00:19:05] Yep.

[00:19:06] Yeah.

[00:19:07] Yeah.

[00:19:08] Is that what you started on?

[00:19:09] Yep.

[00:19:10] Right on.

[00:19:11] Repairing your own.

[00:19:14] You know, don't want to maintenance repairing whatever you had to do.

[00:19:19] So the top and the, I don't use coils anymore, but like.

[00:19:23] I still have them, but.

[00:19:26] To this day they're still a little, you know, like a little tool case in there with.

[00:19:31] All the essentials got some extra springs and.

[00:19:35] You know, things like that pass it or stuff. Yeah. Just in case you never know.

[00:19:42] Do you think that plumbing was a good.

[00:19:47] Lead in for all of that.

[00:19:49] Yeah.

[00:19:50] You know, just because you had a kind of a background knowledge about how to fix

[00:19:55] things and tinker like that.

[00:19:57] I mean, I've always kind of been that way.

[00:20:00] Yeah.

[00:20:01] Yeah.

[00:20:02] Like, you know, an old video game system would.

[00:20:05] Crash or whatever I'd tear it apart.

[00:20:08] But I like not to fix it or anything like that.

[00:20:11] I'll be like, ah, I can use these wires and this and I can make this out of

[00:20:15] it.

[00:20:16] Like making costumes and shit like that. I don't know.

[00:20:19] Nice.

[00:20:20] Um, yeah, my dad was, he was quite the tinker.

[00:20:24] He loves automobiles.

[00:20:27] And he still does it.

[00:20:29] I grew up with him always in the garage.

[00:20:32] Hey, hear me that tool. No, not that one stupid. This one.

[00:20:35] You know, there's a lot of that.

[00:20:38] So pretty much nothing, uh, nothing that you were going to get for a tattoo

[00:20:42] apprenticeship was going to rock you. I'm sure with that.

[00:20:45] No, no, no.

[00:20:47] No, the thick skin was pretty much already there.

[00:20:52] Oh, I imagine. I would imagine.

[00:20:55] What about, um, like what brought you into plumbing just to go back even

[00:21:00] further just for a second? I was just curious.

[00:21:02] Ah, so, um, my dad worked for a supply house pretty much.

[00:21:10] So we did plumbing, heating air conditioning, roofing,

[00:21:14] and we supplied all that stuff. But my, my dad would,

[00:21:18] he was always on the road and he would go to job sites and

[00:21:23] actually like quote out like you need this equipment.

[00:21:26] You need this much PVC, you know, he would draw all that stuff out for them.

[00:21:30] Um, and if they had any problems, he would go out help them service,

[00:21:36] all that kind of stuff. Um, and I mean he was there.

[00:21:41] He started there when he was like nine clean toilets and shit. Yeah.

[00:21:46] Like my whole family worked there pretty much my grandfather and

[00:21:50] my dad and his three brothers, they all worked there.

[00:21:54] And it just kind of became like both my brother and myself ended up

[00:21:59] there. Um, I was there like 12, I was there for like 12 years.

[00:22:04] I wasn't making shit. Not even making $12 an hour, you know? Yeah.

[00:22:09] Yeah. Working, working like 65 hours a week at this place.

[00:22:14] And it was, yeah, it was ridiculous. So I got to know a lot of

[00:22:20] the people that were out there in the field.

[00:22:23] Right. Um, I did, uh, I worked for a company that did HVAC.

[00:22:29] So, and it was pretty much all new install stuff. So it wasn't a

[00:22:33] lot of service. Um, so I did that for a few years and then I ended up

[00:22:40] uh, working as a plumber after that for a couple years.

[00:22:45] Right. And um, yeah, that was, that was, that was a cool job though.

[00:22:51] I did like it as dirty as it was. It was fun.

[00:22:56] Awesome. I mean, we would do boilers and you know, so there was

[00:23:01] still like some of the plumbing with the heating in there, you

[00:23:05] know? Yeah. That's awesome. So multifaceted. Um, how was your

[00:23:11] art received by your family? Um, so growing up, my brother and I

[00:23:18] always drew together. You know, we always loved to like, oh

[00:23:23] my gosh, did you see this comic book?

[00:23:28] You know, like there was a lot of that going on and when he became

[00:23:34] a teenager, like he's two years younger than I am. When he became

[00:23:38] a teenager, he went to music route. He saw, you know, your

[00:23:43] nirvanas and all that kind of stuff was like, I want to be a

[00:23:47] rock star. Yeah. And like, nope, I want to draw and paint

[00:23:51] and sculpt my hands off. Yes. So um, my mom was always very

[00:24:03] supportive of it. Um, when I worked at the supply house, of

[00:24:11] course, like I'm drawing comics, you know what I mean? On

[00:24:17] boards, all that kind of stuff. And you know, I'm like writing

[00:24:24] my own stuff, sketching it all out, inking it. Right. And then

[00:24:29] I would scan it in the computer and then I would, you know, I

[00:24:32] just did like black and gray stuff. So I would just do that

[00:24:36] grayscale stuff. But like both my dad and my one uncle,

[00:24:43] they're like, what are you going to do? You think you're

[00:24:46] going to draw for a living? You think you're going to make

[00:24:49] money at doing this? And from that point on, it was kind of

[00:24:56] like game on motherfucker. Oh yeah, I am going to watch. Yeah.

[00:25:02] So it's amazing. I never really I don't know. I don't I

[00:25:14] guess I just don't understand that because I never got it. My

[00:25:18] mom was very, very supportive of my artistic talent and she was

[00:25:24] just like you make money at anything if you can't if you

[00:25:27] can't make money at it then you're you don't know the

[00:25:30] first thing about like doing that, you know, like it's not

[00:25:33] rocket science, you know, right? You know, there's simple

[00:25:37] ways that you go about it but she was like, as long as you

[00:25:40] educate yourself and you invest yourself and you put

[00:25:42] blinders on to everything else, you can succeed in anything.

[00:25:46] Yeah. So it's I've never understood the the naysayers or the

[00:25:52] negative Nancy's are the people that try to less and shine

[00:25:55] in others. Yeah, well, I don't know. In my experience, it's

[00:26:00] been those people are the people that only know one

[00:26:07] thing. Yeah, they they have the blinders on for everything

[00:26:12] except for that one thing and that's be a man responsible.

[00:26:19] You know, man does this like the total 1950s way of thinking.

[00:26:25] Yeah, you know what I mean? If you lack it or not, you're

[00:26:29] gonna do it. You know, I don't have to and like my

[00:26:35] brother of all people, he was the one who told me he's like,

[00:26:37] kid, I don't care what you do. You can work for you can work

[00:26:40] with us or you can do whatever you want. You can work for

[00:26:45] one of the plumbers wanted this and that and go do your

[00:26:49] own thing, you know, whatever you do as long as it makes

[00:26:52] you happy. That's gonna make me happy. That was him

[00:26:58] telling me, you know what I mean? Yeah, my grandfather

[00:27:01] was a very, very, very, very, very smart person. And he

[00:27:06] was very supportive. He was actually Joe's witness too.

[00:27:10] Crazy. Yeah. I miss him. He's a good guy. Yeah, he wasn't

[00:27:16] he wasn't like pushy with it or anything like that, you

[00:27:19] know? Yeah. But yeah, he was a very supportive person

[00:27:23] and yeah, I'm glad that I I hold his advice

[00:27:30] out of anybody that I've ever met like he's he's at the top

[00:27:35] of my list. He's he's the person that I've held on to the

[00:27:38] advice. That is awesome. That is awesome. Well, I'd have

[00:27:42] to imagine that there's a lot of fear on the opposite end

[00:27:47] of the of just you know, like making sure that you

[00:27:50] don't stumble too much or get too hurt. I would have

[00:27:53] to imagine that's I don't know in my opinion, that's

[00:27:58] that's part of the like taking that risk is you know,

[00:28:04] that's kind of part of the fun of it. Agreed. Agreed. Yeah.

[00:28:10] I don't know if this is going to work, but we're going

[00:28:12] to find out and if it does, fuck yeah, if not, I'll

[00:28:17] either try it again or I'm moving on. Yeah. Yeah. No,

[00:28:21] I'll be on to the next thing. Totally agree. I mean,

[00:28:26] but you know, the parent versus child perspective, you

[00:28:31] know, like it's a it's a really awesome I guess mentor

[00:28:36] and parent that can be like, wow, you know, I know you

[00:28:39] can really hurt here, but I can also see that you need

[00:28:42] to do this, you know, you need to risk this. Yeah. So

[00:28:44] like yeah. So my mom was that way. That's awesome. She

[00:28:48] even when I was like, I might have been like 19. She

[00:28:54] she ordered me that it's like Art Institute thing. It's

[00:28:58] only like the infomercials. Do you do you enjoy to

[00:29:03] draw? Yeah, you like the paint. Yeah, I mean, no, I do

[00:29:09] stuff. So I have like, I have that whole workload

[00:29:13] of of the pamphlets that they would send you in a

[00:29:18] big binder that she got for me. And it was like, okay, cool.

[00:29:23] That's awesome. That's really cool. I do that too for this

[00:29:28] podcast. I do it for Gaiachisons reinventing the tattoo

[00:29:32] system. Yeah. Yeah. I plug him so it's kind of it sounds

[00:29:37] a lot like that kind of you like to draw. Do you want

[00:29:40] to learn how to draw better?

[00:29:43] And like, let me back up a minute. Like I can't I can't

[00:29:50] say my dad was totally unsupportive. Yeah, he was a

[00:29:56] guy. He wanted me to do guy things and yeah. Well, my dad

[00:30:00] too. I mean, if you call me my dad, I'm fairly certain

[00:30:05] he was very supportive of me but he I know that it

[00:30:09] would have been easier and something he would have

[00:30:12] appreciated more had I taken over his business of

[00:30:15] hair, you know, being a hairstylist and I am trying

[00:30:18] to doing that. So that would have been that would

[00:30:21] have been convenient if I had my rhythm there. So

[00:30:24] people can go to you and they can get tattooed

[00:30:27] and a haircut. Yes, just like you can go to you

[00:30:30] and get plumbing work, HVAC and a tattoo and

[00:30:33] get to play video games and talk about it. That's

[00:30:37] an expensive venture right there. I know.

[00:30:42] Nothing compared to that. Yeah.

[00:30:45] Well, I mean it could be. Are they are they getting

[00:30:49] color? You know, I mean you feel good after it.

[00:30:52] I probably better than you feel after I mean you

[00:30:55] feel relieved after plumbing's fixed but I

[00:30:58] don't know how sexy you feel. Yeah, not at all.

[00:31:03] It's just I need to take an alcohol bath and

[00:31:08] get the grime off and for the person that you

[00:31:14] service. I think they're just like you're going to

[00:31:18] kill it with fire. That's really the only thing

[00:31:22] you can do. I'm saying though the last time

[00:31:26] I was at Rapture, it was a pretty fun thing. You

[00:31:29] were starting a back piece on this guy and

[00:31:31] he was playing old school Mario.

[00:31:34] He's getting a back piece and I was like this is

[00:31:37] the shit right here. He's like the third person

[00:31:43] that's actually used that thing. That's crazy.

[00:31:47] It's been there for, I don't know four years.

[00:31:50] Oh my Lord. I would totally use it. I would be

[00:31:53] worried because I tend to like when I'm jumping

[00:31:55] I tend to like move my whole body. Yeah.

[00:31:58] You're trying to jump with him. Trying to

[00:32:01] direct which way you're jumping. Oh, absolutely.

[00:32:05] I'm very engaged with the activity.

[00:32:11] But he was doing good even for getting his

[00:32:17] back done while doing that. He was doing

[00:32:19] pretty good. I felt like I was messing him up

[00:32:21] after a few times. He put it down a few times

[00:32:23] though. He was just like yeah, I can't

[00:32:27] concentrate on that right now. Like you're

[00:32:30] getting like when I would get close to the ribs

[00:32:32] and yeah, yeah, he wasn't having a good time.

[00:32:36] Tetris would have been fun. I would play Tetris.

[00:32:39] Tetris would be easy. I love Tetris. I love Tetris.

[00:32:43] I know. Not kind of shit. More people need to

[00:32:46] play Tetris. I agree. There's a lot that

[00:32:49] I think more people should do but I'm absolutely

[00:32:53] engaged. I can get an old. Yeah. These kids these days.

[00:32:58] These damn kids. So, okay, do you remember

[00:33:06] your first tattoo that you ever did? Yep.

[00:33:09] What was it? It was on Chuck. The guy who

[00:33:14] apprenticed me was on the front of his shin

[00:33:19] and he was like, close to his ankle. He was like

[00:33:24] just draw something. I want like whatever you

[00:33:27] want to draw. I'm like, oh, okay. He's like,

[00:33:31] you have this much space to work within

[00:33:35] and he gave me whatever the measurement or he

[00:33:38] showed me rather. So I ended up drawing

[00:33:43] this toxic keystone because of course we're

[00:33:47] going to be on the same spot. Yeah.

[00:33:50] Right? I had like eyeballs and hair

[00:33:54] and shit growing all over it. And he's like,

[00:33:58] all right. I dig it. I dig it. And it'll

[00:34:01] work. It'll work for a tattoo. So, you know.

[00:34:05] But I know you're comfortable drawing stuff

[00:34:08] for tattoos. So that was the first thing

[00:34:13] Yeah, it was fun.

[00:34:15] I mean, he had me do it start to finish.

[00:34:17] So this color and everything.

[00:34:19] How long did it take you?

[00:34:22] Uh, I want to say like an hour and a half, two hours.

[00:34:26] I bet for first tattoo.

[00:34:28] No. Yeah.

[00:34:29] It was funny though, because he's like, you know, I put the stencil on

[00:34:33] and all that stuff and he's like, all right.

[00:34:36] So.

[00:34:39] You're going to you're going to pull your first line here.

[00:34:42] You know, and he's like talking me through it.

[00:34:44] And then I'm like being and I start going and I'm hitting the skin.

[00:34:48] He's like, what do you want to do here?

[00:34:50] You know, he's like trying to trying to talk through it, but he's just like

[00:34:55] because it's like on the front of this fucking shin.

[00:34:58] Yeah. Ankle to like close the ankle.

[00:35:00] Yeah, it's not great.

[00:35:01] It's not great. No.

[00:35:04] So that's that's one of the things that will that'll always stick with me.

[00:35:09] There's hilarious.

[00:35:10] Do you find that, um, but that your artwork coming off of comics

[00:35:15] and all that stuff transcended really well into tattooing?

[00:35:19] Line work. I love line work.

[00:35:20] I love it. I love it. Love it. Love it.

[00:35:22] I am so opposite you.

[00:35:26] I mean, I like all the other stuff too, but.

[00:35:29] Man, there's nothing like sitting for like three, four hours,

[00:35:34] just lining out a piece and.

[00:35:38] Yeah. Whether they end up coming back or not, it's like, man, I like,

[00:35:44] I'd be happy if they just left it.

[00:35:47] Yeah. If they left it like that, that's fine.

[00:35:50] I'd still be happy, you know, it surprised me because you do do a lot of full color work.

[00:35:55] Mm hmm. I love color too.

[00:35:57] Yeah, I do love color.

[00:36:01] Right on.

[00:36:03] So what transpired after that?

[00:36:06] How long did you work for?

[00:36:07] Chuck?

[00:36:10] Yeah, so.

[00:36:12] My like I said, my apprenticeship was only like eight, eight, nine months.

[00:36:20] You like he said that I picked everything up really fast.

[00:36:24] And of course, like lion weight and color theory.

[00:36:29] And I'm like a lot of the other things that he would have had to taught me.

[00:36:33] He didn't have to teach me those things.

[00:36:34] So I already I already had a plenty of grasp on it.

[00:36:41] You know what I mean? Yeah.

[00:36:44] Is those Institute documents that your mom got you?

[00:36:47] Yeah, right, right?

[00:36:48] Yeah. No, no seriousness.

[00:36:51] No, they were great.

[00:36:52] I had so this was weird in elementary school.

[00:36:57] We had our classes.

[00:37:00] And the teacher for that class, Mr.

[00:37:05] Starner, he followed our class all the way to high school.

[00:37:11] Oh, wow.

[00:37:13] He stayed with us the entire time.

[00:37:16] Well, which was awesome.

[00:37:17] So like from like second grade to fifth grade, I had him that whole time.

[00:37:23] Then he came to middle school with us.

[00:37:25] So like, you know, six, seventh and eighth grade,

[00:37:29] we had him that at that school because I went to three different schools.

[00:37:32] Wow, because of like the way they have our area split up.

[00:37:36] It's it's it's kind of nutty.

[00:37:38] But here I am a freshman in high school who's there.

[00:37:44] Mr. Starner. Wow.

[00:37:46] And he would do consistent teaching.

[00:37:48] Yeah. So same dude from like everything from ceramics, computer graphics,

[00:37:56] illustration, cartooning.

[00:38:00] He did all that shit.

[00:38:01] That's rad. Yeah, it was awesome.

[00:38:03] So like.

[00:38:07] Yeah, I think that kind of plays into like everything, you know?

[00:38:12] Oh, yeah. Now, were you just to kind of touch on that?

[00:38:17] I would imagine with that the recognition of your talent was,

[00:38:21] you know, he was able to long term watch you and like.

[00:38:25] Yeah, he.

[00:38:27] I mean, not that I really think I'm all that talented, but

[00:38:31] I'm just like an idea guy, but like.

[00:38:34] He would always.

[00:38:36] Oh, why don't we put this in the scholastics?

[00:38:39] I'm like, what's that?

[00:38:41] Oh, it's like you're going to, you know, people will judge it on how good it is.

[00:38:47] Right. Oh, OK.

[00:38:49] And here, like in the same class, there was a kid and he

[00:38:53] all he did was like still life.

[00:38:56] That's all he did was still life.

[00:38:58] Damn, it was a great artist.

[00:39:01] Yeah, there's there's more.

[00:39:03] There's more to it, like.

[00:39:05] Wow. And still.

[00:39:07] Just you can't just do one thing.

[00:39:10] Well, and it's intense too.

[00:39:11] Like still life is for that age group.

[00:39:16] I don't know.

[00:39:17] That's that's pretty.

[00:39:20] I I'm just not a big still life person.

[00:39:24] So like I'll do it either.

[00:39:26] But but I kind of consider it kind of boring,

[00:39:30] but they're not boring if they're done well.

[00:39:33] You know, they're really good.

[00:39:34] But I just think that's very.

[00:39:39] I guess adults and mature for somebody of that age group to really be.

[00:39:43] Right. I know.

[00:39:44] I'm like, I'm doing, you know, pictures of the transformers and dinosaurs.

[00:39:49] Yeah.

[00:39:50] Crazy stuff, you know, there's this guy like.

[00:39:54] Doing an American flag draped over a chair.

[00:39:57] And who was he living with?

[00:40:00] Where are you? 70?

[00:40:02] Your grandfather was Jehovah's Witness.

[00:40:04] Yeah, I mean, I know, right?

[00:40:09] But, you know, my my teacher recommending me to,

[00:40:12] you know, put stuff in Scholastic Ward against shit like that.

[00:40:17] And it's like.

[00:40:19] Everybody's going to vote for my stuff.

[00:40:21] I'm not going to win anything.

[00:40:23] I did. Yeah.

[00:40:25] Just, you know, strictly illustration stuff.

[00:40:29] You know, yeah.

[00:40:30] When you don't know until you to put yourself into those running.

[00:40:34] Yeah, exactly.

[00:40:35] You always think you're not going to.

[00:40:37] But that's what, you know, kind of keeps you protected in case nothing

[00:40:41] happens and just kind of, you know, you're doing it for love of the game anyway.

[00:40:45] So yeah, yeah.

[00:40:48] But it does.

[00:40:48] It kind of gives you a perspective.

[00:40:49] We're like, oh, shit, I actually am talented.

[00:40:52] Other people think so too.

[00:40:54] I did something right for once.

[00:40:56] Holy shit.

[00:40:57] Yeah.

[00:40:58] Well, I would imagine that helps when it comes down to moving

[00:41:00] it into a professional realm because, you know, if you didn't do that,

[00:41:04] you wouldn't think that you'd be good enough.

[00:41:06] Yep. Yeah.

[00:41:07] I wouldn't be here.

[00:41:09] Yeah.

[00:41:10] Yeah.

[00:41:12] Doing many days, like, you know, resubmit

[00:41:15] and to different kinds of art modalities, which is really cool.

[00:41:19] I'd love to join you one day for your podcast and just feel like a

[00:41:24] throw in, see how I float.

[00:41:27] I mean, whatever, like we

[00:41:30] we're always welcome to guests.

[00:41:33] Yeah, I would love to have.

[00:41:34] We have a guy that just joined us.

[00:41:37] He is an illustrator and works in the animation field and all that stuff.

[00:41:41] So I mean, the more the merrier,

[00:41:44] actually we have a show tomorrow.

[00:41:46] You want to join us?

[00:41:47] Yeah.

[00:41:48] Right on.

[00:41:49] I'm tattooing tomorrow, or there are as I would.

[00:41:51] But the next Wednesday I have.

[00:41:53] Like nine and 15.

[00:41:54] OK. PM.

[00:41:56] Yep.

[00:41:57] All right.

[00:41:58] All right.

[00:41:59] Next one.

[00:42:00] It's live.

[00:42:01] It's not recorded.

[00:42:02] That's cool.

[00:42:03] And and could it I mean, could it be any

[00:42:06] could it be anything like whatever?

[00:42:08] Yeah, whatever.

[00:42:08] You can just sit there if you want and make fun of everybody.

[00:42:12] No.

[00:42:14] I get my get my everybody.

[00:42:15] Yeah.

[00:42:16] When when when Chan asks everybody,

[00:42:19] hey, what is everybody working on?

[00:42:21] You can say, well, I'm here just to make fun of everybody

[00:42:24] working on my humiliated tricks.

[00:42:26] Yes, there you go.

[00:42:27] Next life.

[00:42:28] You go perfect.

[00:42:30] Just just just a call girl who makes fun of people gets paid.

[00:42:36] I always said that was the only form of BDSM that I could do.

[00:42:41] It's just like, if you need me to belittle you for an hour, I got you.

[00:42:46] Hey.

[00:42:49] All got to make make her.

[00:42:51] Are we in this world?

[00:42:52] Make a piece on that.

[00:42:52] Yeah.

[00:42:53] Hey, man, if it brings pleasure to someone else, who am I?

[00:42:56] Sure.

[00:42:57] Sure.

[00:42:58] No, I mean, you know, I say that, but I don't I

[00:43:02] really don't know if I have the heart for it to be honest with you.

[00:43:05] I'd probably like feel really bad after.

[00:43:08] You're a fat jerk.

[00:43:09] No, I'm really sorry.

[00:43:12] I didn't really mean that.

[00:43:14] And I think it would be fun if like I went to Goodwill

[00:43:17] and like got some figurines and repainted them.

[00:43:21] That'd be fun.

[00:43:22] Sure.

[00:43:22] Hang out with you guys and do something weird.

[00:43:25] Like I've gotten many people to venture into that realm.

[00:43:32] And that's how I told them to do it.

[00:43:33] It was like, good, good, goodwill or like five below.

[00:43:37] Oli's.

[00:43:40] Yeah, Marshall's shit is always discounted.

[00:43:43] Yeah, I also like doing those dots.

[00:43:46] Have you ever tried the dot thing where you like you do these mandalas of dots?

[00:43:51] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:43:53] It's really fun.

[00:43:56] Yeah, I cried that stuff.

[00:43:58] I ended up like, no, I want to blast like crazy colors through this shit.

[00:44:03] I don't want to.

[00:44:04] I don't want to sit here and do that.

[00:44:06] I don't want to sit here dot after dot after dot.

[00:44:10] It's so meditative to me.

[00:44:11] I'm just like, oh my God, it satiates my.

[00:44:16] I can dumb meticulous brain.

[00:44:19] I mean, any more if I do black and gray work, I'm doing the pendulum.

[00:44:23] You know what I mean?

[00:44:24] Yes, yes, yes.

[00:44:27] To get that effect, I guess.

[00:44:29] Yes, I do like I do like the all the versatility of the new.

[00:44:34] Well, the old machines did it could do it too.

[00:44:36] Yeah, I think you just had to know how to run them.

[00:44:39] But yeah, I love all the versatility of tattoo machines.

[00:44:43] Is there anything that surprised you about tattooing that like.

[00:44:49] Was way different.

[00:44:53] Hmm.

[00:44:54] Anything that surprised me.

[00:45:00] I mean, I don't know, people bleeding and stuff like that.

[00:45:05] I was surprised that didn't really bother me.

[00:45:09] Right on. Yeah, you know, it's not much.

[00:45:12] Yeah, it's not much.

[00:45:13] Yeah, I'm sure after all the shit that you literally had been through

[00:45:17] by that point, it probably was not that bad.

[00:45:20] Yeah, yeah.

[00:45:22] It's just another, you know, human fluid, bodily fluid that.

[00:45:32] Just I mean, well, actually, it's still have to fix stuff

[00:45:35] because people get dumb tattoos and then there.

[00:45:38] Yeah. Can you can you rework this or cover it up?

[00:45:44] Like, you know, yes, I can.

[00:45:47] Yeah, okay.

[00:45:50] Okay.

[00:45:53] And while you were at Chucks,

[00:45:57] did how did that go?

[00:46:00] How did the advancement of you?

[00:46:01] I mean, before you ended up moving on because we were talking about that.

[00:46:06] We have it.

[00:46:07] I realize they probably missed a lot of in between stuff.

[00:46:11] Well, you know, in asking that question,

[00:46:14] I guess talk about what your tattoo life was like.

[00:46:17] How did that go? Were you a walking guy?

[00:46:19] Like, how did how did the formulation of your clientele?

[00:46:22] You basically like anything that he didn't want to do.

[00:46:28] I did right on.

[00:46:30] So I was the dumping ground.

[00:46:32] I got you. Did you like that spot?

[00:46:36] I mean, it wasn't bad.

[00:46:38] It kept me busy, you know,

[00:46:41] but you can only do so much lettering.

[00:46:45] I guess that's not art.

[00:46:46] That's not our people.

[00:46:47] I mean, it can be.

[00:46:48] But it can be if that's what you specialize in.

[00:46:51] And if you make an art form,

[00:46:53] but if you're printing it off a computer now, no, no, no.

[00:46:56] And that's what everybody wanted to walk in there.

[00:47:00] Yeah. No, I know.

[00:47:02] I know I lived in those days, man.

[00:47:04] It was it was crazy.

[00:47:06] I mean,

[00:47:08] well, and I find too that we kind of existed in the period

[00:47:12] when schools were experimenting

[00:47:15] with not teaching kids handwriting anymore.

[00:47:18] And I found there was a gross uptick

[00:47:21] of written tattoos that were kind of asked for in that time frame.

[00:47:26] And I had to like

[00:47:30] kind of challenge somebody who is,

[00:47:34] you know, basically saying,

[00:47:35] oh, what do you need to ham right for everything's on a computer?

[00:47:39] And that was that was the philosophy was like,

[00:47:41] oh, everything's going to be digital anyway.

[00:47:43] What do you have to do?

[00:47:43] And I said, well, I'll just have you guys know

[00:47:45] that as a professional artist, you know, in this realm,

[00:47:49] what it did was like create like a separation of accessibility

[00:47:54] to kids that didn't understand their own ownership in that way.

[00:47:59] So they started looking at the written word in this very,

[00:48:05] you know, evocative way.

[00:48:06] And they really cling to it because they didn't have their own.

[00:48:10] They didn't they didn't have their own expression for it.

[00:48:13] Right.

[00:48:14] Though they were so enamored by it that when they came to us,

[00:48:17] they were like, oh, I want this like,

[00:48:19] you know, a huge phrase on my ribs.

[00:48:21] And we were like, dude, this is not going to look good in like 10 years.

[00:48:25] Like, you can't do this.

[00:48:27] Like, you can't do this.

[00:48:28] And if you did it, you'd have to do it way bigger.

[00:48:31] And they never wanted it big.

[00:48:32] I always I always tell people, I'm like, look.

[00:48:36] Usually, no matter what font you go with that you want,

[00:48:42] like it's going to like each line is going to have to be an inch tall.

[00:48:47] Yeah, at least that big.

[00:48:49] Well, if you wanted to look nice.

[00:48:51] Yeah, yeah. Maybe there's another way to

[00:48:57] portray what you're trying to say here. Yeah.

[00:49:00] Well, we draw that in pictures.

[00:49:02] Yes, exactly.

[00:49:03] Pictures. I'm an artist.

[00:49:05] Yes. In pictures.

[00:49:07] Right. I do the drawings and the paintings.

[00:49:10] Right. I'm not I'm not a writer.

[00:49:12] Not the readings and writings.

[00:49:14] Yes, exactly.

[00:49:16] Well, that's that's a that's what I basically said.

[00:49:19] And I said, you know, the reason why it's valid is because

[00:49:24] you know, as far as I can tell when it comes to teaching

[00:49:29] and anybody you want as many tools in a toolbox that you can possibly give a person.

[00:49:34] Absolutely.

[00:49:35] And if they don't know the analog way,

[00:49:38] that's really bad for ownership and confidence and all of those things.

[00:49:42] And, you know, we're already exist in a world where,

[00:49:45] you know, we own our cell phones, but we don't really own them

[00:49:49] so much as other people used to own cars and things like that.

[00:49:53] Where if it broke, they could fix it now.

[00:49:56] You own a cell phone and it breaks, man.

[00:49:58] You got to call in some expert.

[00:50:00] You got to pay out the wazoo.

[00:50:02] There we don't have access to really control the happenings of our lives

[00:50:08] as much now. So anything that you can give a person

[00:50:11] that allows them to create and express and be

[00:50:17] in a more tactile world and connect them to their environment,

[00:50:21] that will be a happier human.

[00:50:23] Oh yeah. Yeah.

[00:50:25] And I think for that.

[00:50:27] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:50:28] I mean, it's nothing.

[00:50:30] I think there's beautiful passages and writing, but as you said,

[00:50:33] you know, we're illustrators so we can take that conceptually

[00:50:36] and bring it into a beautiful image.

[00:50:39] And I always think to an image combined with with writing,

[00:50:44] it feels more like an advertisement than it does.

[00:50:47] Yeah. You know,

[00:50:50] you know, our can have heard, but let's

[00:50:54] let's create a picture that's going to cause

[00:50:57] a conversation that you may or may not have with somebody you don't know

[00:51:02] because they're curious about what this means.

[00:51:05] Yeah, you know, whether it means anything or not.

[00:51:08] It's like a joke or whatever, you know.

[00:51:12] Yeah, but it spawns that conversation.

[00:51:14] Yeah, that connection rather than.

[00:51:18] Well, I'm out there for everybody to be able to

[00:51:22] I saw I saw this this tattoo today that was down a girl's spine

[00:51:28] and it was written this way, like so you had to go like this

[00:51:31] to like your head to read it.

[00:51:33] Yep. I'm going to do a few of those.

[00:51:36] Yeah. And it said something about to love and be loved.

[00:51:41] And I and I was like, yeah, in order

[00:51:45] to love and be loved and read it, I have to look like a dog

[00:51:49] who doesn't understand what you're saying. Confused dog.

[00:51:58] I was just like, man, this is a choice.

[00:52:00] Like, why are people still doing this?

[00:52:02] But I get, you know, I shouldn't yuck somebody's young, but

[00:52:07] there's so many things that you could have done. Yep.

[00:52:10] You know, so yeah.

[00:52:12] Yeah, those are definitely the cover ups.

[00:52:14] Fortunately for this one, it was all done in red.

[00:52:16] So, you know, that's not that's not going to be hard.

[00:52:19] No.

[00:52:23] That's not going to be hard at all. Nope.

[00:52:26] So you did a lot of the things that he didn't want to do,

[00:52:29] which was a lot of like walk in stuff and like

[00:52:33] not as creative because I was thinking, wow, you know, if it was like me

[00:52:37] when I first when I first apprentice, the people that I worked with,

[00:52:40] they they just did flash.

[00:52:42] They didn't really know how to draw.

[00:52:43] So if it came down to drawing something,

[00:52:46] I would be putting the seed of drawing it and then they tattoo it.

[00:52:49] Or, you know, I was the idea person that like could actually formulate

[00:52:55] what was going on.

[00:52:56] So I didn't know if that was what you meant.

[00:52:58] I'm sure on some respects that is.

[00:53:01] I mean, yeah, not really like I still drew stuff, you know what I mean?

[00:53:07] But it was I went to stand your line with the

[00:53:12] seeds blowing in the wind and turning into birds.

[00:53:17] Yep, there was a whole thing, man.

[00:53:20] There was a whole sheet of them of dream catchers and infinity knots.

[00:53:26] So yeah, yeah, things exploding into birds.

[00:53:30] Yep.

[00:53:34] Penises blowing up into birds.

[00:53:36] I feel like I feel like there was some album covers

[00:53:39] that might have influenced a lot of this stuff, too.

[00:53:43] Maybe I don't know.

[00:53:44] It was kind of like, I don't know.

[00:53:47] I feel like it was the vibe of the time, like very.

[00:53:53] I don't know.

[00:53:54] I don't know how to describe it, like.

[00:53:58] Punk rock that was real happy.

[00:54:00] But like when you listen to the lyrics, they were heavy kind of deal.

[00:54:04] You know, like thing like cranberries or.

[00:54:09] Yeah, yeah, like that kind of age.

[00:54:12] Interesting.

[00:54:14] Yeah, did you do a lot of what was the what was the most?

[00:54:19] Because in my time, it was when I first started, there was barbed wire.

[00:54:27] Like wild cat paws that you've had on your chest.

[00:54:32] Oh, Cherry Creek Flash.

[00:54:34] Cherry Creek. Yeah.

[00:54:36] Yeah. Praying hands that said only God can judge me.

[00:54:41] So I've only actually done that twice.

[00:54:46] And I did it.

[00:54:47] The first one I did was like in my first year.

[00:54:51] And I think it turned out, I mean, I was very, very happy.

[00:54:57] Nice. Like I was very happy with it.

[00:55:00] And yeah, I feel like.

[00:55:03] That's not a bad thing to like hands are.

[00:55:08] Hands are one of the worst things to have to draw.

[00:55:12] Oh, we were getting proven with that because I can't do it for shit.

[00:55:15] No, you can tell that people overall have a hard time.

[00:55:20] What's what's AI?

[00:55:22] What's AI artificial intelligence?

[00:55:24] No, what's AI? No, what's AI?

[00:55:26] What is it?

[00:55:27] It doesn't they can't do fucking hands.

[00:55:30] I can tell you that right now.

[00:55:32] They can't.

[00:55:33] Every hand, they can't spell words.

[00:55:36] They can't know what a shit that they can't do.

[00:55:40] Anyway.

[00:55:41] Um, you're like, what is that now?

[00:55:46] No, I'm with you.

[00:55:47] It drives me nuts.

[00:55:48] It drives me nuts, too.

[00:55:51] Which leaves us.

[00:55:52] I'm like on these ninja turtle pages and that's all these people post is like.

[00:55:58] It's like a room.

[00:56:02] Ninja Turtle Room, Ninja Turtle Computer Room, you know what I mean?

[00:56:06] And it's like it's all AI stuff.

[00:56:09] It's like there's a there's a keyboard there.

[00:56:13] With like three keys on it.

[00:56:16] No monitor.

[00:56:18] You know what I mean?

[00:56:18] It's like are you fucking people stupid?

[00:56:21] Like.

[00:56:23] Yeah.

[00:56:24] Yeah.

[00:56:25] Yeah.

[00:56:26] A lot of a lot of it.

[00:56:27] I mean, you wonder, I don't know.

[00:56:30] I.

[00:56:32] It does cheapen everything, but.

[00:56:37] I think I'm more upset, honestly.

[00:56:41] In the destruction of older art.

[00:56:44] And I am about the creation of AI.

[00:56:48] Like I would be OK with AI if we weren't getting rid of and trying to,

[00:56:52] you know, like society itself was having all these assaults against.

[00:56:55] Well, I think art itself.

[00:56:59] So I think for me it.

[00:57:04] It's it's bastardizing everything that came before us.

[00:57:10] Because, you know, you want something painted in a certain way

[00:57:14] and you want the AI to do it that way.

[00:57:16] What's it going to do?

[00:57:17] It's going to rip that shit off.

[00:57:19] Yeah.

[00:57:20] Yeah.

[00:57:21] Well, I mean, even down to like, you know, you have.

[00:57:25] You have these beautiful statues that are being taken down

[00:57:28] for whatever reason, people feel offended by them, but it is a statue.

[00:57:32] And then you have these AI generated things of statues

[00:57:36] of different things with the hands fucked up.

[00:57:38] And I'm just thinking to myself.

[00:57:41] What? I don't.

[00:57:43] I don't understand.

[00:57:44] And then the statues that they're putting up in the place are abysmal.

[00:57:47] They're really bad.

[00:57:48] They're really not good.

[00:57:51] They're really not good.

[00:57:53] And I'm like, I would I would be

[00:57:57] I would be OK with AI

[00:58:01] if there was a recognition and a high appreciation for the latter,

[00:58:07] you know, but there isn't.

[00:58:09] There will be losing it. We're losing it.

[00:58:11] It will never be. Yes.

[00:58:12] You have you have.

[00:58:15] Like tens of thousands of people out there using this

[00:58:18] and claiming it's their own shit.

[00:58:20] You know what I mean?

[00:58:21] Getting fucking Facebook famous and all that

[00:58:25] because their post is being shared, you know,

[00:58:29] twenty three thousand times and it's like, this shit isn't even real.

[00:58:34] Yeah. But how stupid are you people?

[00:58:36] Like this is not real.

[00:58:39] No. Nobody. Nobody painted it.

[00:58:42] Yeah, nobody cares. Nobody cares.

[00:58:44] Nobody cares.

[00:58:46] Which is really sad because that's what I mean, is that like the level of apathy

[00:58:50] that I see happening to people, the despondency and the

[00:58:56] the richness that life can have.

[00:58:58] I feel like is is.

[00:59:01] Not there for some and that's that's sad.

[00:59:03] And I really hope that, I don't know.

[00:59:07] I really hope I can help like, you know, keep that alive in some way.

[00:59:11] If my life can come to something, it would be to show a different perspective

[00:59:16] or turn on a spark in somebody, not less and shine uplift.

[00:59:19] But yeah, that's what I see is that with the adoption of like things like AI.

[00:59:27] It's always what you're trading, right?

[00:59:29] You know, like, what are you trading to save what time and then for what?

[00:59:33] You know, for what exactly?

[00:59:35] And if you haven't answered those questions, I don't think you have any

[00:59:39] business, you know, adopting things like that.

[00:59:43] That's all right.

[00:59:44] Yeah, even this podcast like service on pod being they apparently have a new AI

[00:59:52] assisted thing that takes out all the different, you know, sound

[00:59:56] ambiguities and things like that.

[00:59:58] And I was like, you know what?

[01:00:01] No, I don't.

[01:00:02] I don't want to do it.

[01:00:03] I like the little raw things.

[01:00:05] I like the real things like it's those things that really matter in the end.

[01:00:10] Like one of the girls that I I.

[01:00:14] I interviewed here.

[01:00:16] She was interviewing and her dog was still with them.

[01:00:21] And then when her interview aired, the dog had had to be put down.

[01:00:25] She was they knew that her dog was, you know, struggling.

[01:00:30] But the dog was in the podcast.

[01:00:32] It was recorded as a background sound.

[01:00:34] Yeah. When she finally heard the podcast, it meant that much more, you know?

[01:00:40] As a timestamp and that's what if you're trying to make everything just so perfect,

[01:00:46] you don't get those little awesome things that happen that means so much later.

[01:00:51] I mean, for me, it's just the.

[01:00:54] I'm scraping my roller on my cutting mat and you'll probably get some water

[01:00:59] running through these pipes.

[01:01:01] At some point.

[01:01:02] Yeah, at some point.

[01:01:03] I don't know.

[01:01:04] You use the bathroom upstairs and.

[01:01:07] So like I'm drowning down here.

[01:01:10] There you go.

[01:01:10] My microphone cut off just for a second.

[01:01:12] Speaking of that, I moved too quickly and it kind of kind of arrested it for a second.

[01:01:19] You know, perfect timing.

[01:01:21] But actually zoom, I don't know if we'll hear it because zoom does

[01:01:25] a fairly good job of like background sounds.

[01:01:28] It does.

[01:01:29] It does take that out.

[01:01:30] I didn't do anything.

[01:01:31] They just that was something that they integrated naturally.

[01:01:35] Oh, so it's like they implemented it.

[01:01:37] Yeah.

[01:01:38] Yeah.

[01:01:38] I think it was for, you know, a superior meeting space or whatever.

[01:01:41] I don't know, but I'm not mad about it, but I didn't do it.

[01:01:45] You're the kids screaming in the back and.

[01:01:49] OK, listeners, that's the end of part one.

[01:01:53] Definitely go check JD out.

[01:01:55] You can follow him at Realm of Collectors.

[01:01:59] That's his collectors page.

[01:02:01] Definitely go and check out his podcast.

[01:02:04] I want to be a part of all of this shelf graveness, you know, decorate some really

[01:02:09] cool items and hang out with my friends and do an art day.

[01:02:13] So go and check out shelf gravy as well.

[01:02:17] You also can find him at Pigment Surgery.

[01:02:22] That's his Instagram.

[01:02:24] I really like that.

[01:02:25] You know, it says nothing about his name, nothing about tattooing.

[01:02:30] I mean, you know, Pigment Surgery is his IG.

[01:02:34] So go follow JD if you're in the PA area, Rapture, Tattoo and Porium.

[01:02:40] It's an epic shop.

[01:02:41] They're they're really really great humans and the quality work is just like none other.

[01:02:48] It's really like.

[01:02:50] I mean, it's Rapture.

[01:02:51] I mean, it's really like this awesome gem in PA that I'm not sure if a lot

[01:02:57] of people understand how cool it is.

[01:02:59] So go definitely check out JD.

[01:03:02] He is I mean, none of us tried to be cool.

[01:03:05] We're just nerds who just kept going.

[01:03:09] But I think that's actually the magic of coolness, I guess, is just being

[01:03:15] obsessed and passionate about something beyond all rationale and doing it

[01:03:20] regardless of what anybody says.

[01:03:24] So that's how cool JD is.

[01:03:26] I mean, it's it's like on a thousand for him and his wife.

[01:03:30] They're awesome people.

[01:03:32] I can't wait to be on their podcast with them or at the very least just have

[01:03:36] an art day. Come back next week.

[01:03:39] There's more JD gives out great advice about.

[01:03:44] I mean, it's like epic advice and I'm not going to give it away.

[01:03:48] So come back next week and check it out.

[01:03:51] Love you listeners have a powerful week.

[01:03:54] I'm going to be traveling to Oklahoma, so there might be some stuff coming out of

[01:03:58] that. I'm not not sure what will transpire.

[01:04:01] I'm traveling with my father, so please send us prayers and blessings

[01:04:06] and safe travels and all of that.

[01:04:08] We're we're looking forward to having a great time.

[01:04:10] JD, thank you, bro.

[01:04:13] Brocious.

[01:04:16] Bye, everybody.

[01:04:17] Bless you.

[01:04:24] Thanks for listening.

[01:04:25] You can find the apprenticeship diaries on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

[01:04:29] Our IG is the underscore apprenticeship underscore diaries.

[01:04:33] If you would like to offer constructive criticism or an interview,

[01:04:36] drop us an email at the apprenticeship diaries at gmail.com.

[01:04:40] We look forward to hearing from our listeners.

[01:04:53] Yeah.