Nautical stars tattoos. I got these when I was 18. My mother took me. I’d always wanted a tattoo. I got the big star first. Then years ago, I was in my buddy’s kitchen and wanted to add to it. He was a practicing artist. I added the two smaller ones on the left side and right side. I always thought nautical stuff was cool; it was popular at the time.

Since 1986 tattoo: I was born in 1986. This one has the Famous Stars and Stripes and Blink-182 in it. I am a huge Blink-182 fan. My grandmother collects angels. I got a little collaborative on this one.

Navy tattoo. I served in the Navy special ops for about ten years. Traditional Navy tattoo at 19 years old. I went with the boys and got a Navy tattoo.

Love Kanji

Hate Kanji

Kanji on my shoulders. The left one says love, and the right one says hate. Love is closest to your heart. I am right-hand dominant.  You can’t have love without hate. I got these in Singapore while I was drunk.

Only God Can Judge tattoo. This one is a coverup of a cross that was underneath. I had a drunk buddy in his house, did a cross tattoo. It can out bad. I got it covered up with the skull and hat that says, “only God can judge me.” I like skulls, so I got this tattoo.

Cleveland Indians tattoo. I got this in 1995. I was 18 years old. This was my first tattoo. At the time, the team was looking pretty good for a world series run. This was an excellent way to commentate this time.

Barcode tattoo. I always wanted a barcode and was not sure how to do it. I worked for Walgreens after college for about eight years; while working there, the barcode had an additional significance. I chose the digits. The first half is the same barcode as a lot of Walgreens private brand products. The second half is my birthday.

Roman numeral eight tattoo. My hash name is eight minutes down under. About a year after I got my name, everybody started calling me Ocho.  I decided time to get another tattoo. I was with a bunch of people getting tattoos. I decided yes, I would do it. I got my name on my chest.

Strawberry tattoo. My sister has the same tattoo on her reverse arm. So we can be next to each other, and they are right next to each other. There are two strawberries because there are two of us. We got it as an homage we would do as an activity with our family. Our parents would tell us strawberry stories to help us fall asleep. In these stories, everything was made from strawberries. There would be strawberry people that lived in a strawberry house that went to a strawberry school (as an example). The repetition of the strawberry over and over would lull us to sleep. This was a positive memory that included everyone in our family. This was important to my sister and me. We decided to get this as a tattoo to connect us even more and have a positive memory.

This was my first tattoo. I designed it. It is a lotus flower with an eye and three dots. The lotus flower represents peace of mind, and the eye symbolizes wisdom. The tree dots are mind, body, and soul.

I also designed this one myself. This symbolizes my connection to nature. The eye represents humans. There is a female tetrahedron Merkaba on the top, which symbolizes mother nature. There is a male tetrahedron Merkaba connected to the eye with points going in all directions, saying I am connected to everything around me.

Wisteria. This was because I am a botanist. It was in the month where I became a tattoo. I also got this tattoo to convince my fiance to get his first tattoo.

Unalome. I got this when I first arrived in Portland, Oregon. I saw the trees, and this made me cry because it was so beautiful. The Unalome symbolizes your path in life through enlightenment. When I got back to Raleigh, I added a tree because the tree made me feel enlightened.

Chris Sheehan, the tattooist, is out of Asheville. He helped me design this tattoo. It is two connecting mandals. One represents logic, and the other represents emotion and how they intersect. There is also a Mother Universe cross that shows the struggle between reason and emotion.

Sun and Moon: My daughter drew this. We went together for her 18th birthday to get matching tattoos.

Heart: These are the years my kids were born.

HDEU: This means “head down, eyes up.” I am a huge Chase Rice fan. This is his motto. I was going through a rough time. This motto was what Chase used when he was having a rough time, and I wanted to see it all the time.

My friends and I call ourselves a tribe. We picked this out four years ago, and we all got this tattoo. There are like 9 of us.

Do Not Disturb: This is to connect to the song by Drake, “Do Not Disturb.” I listen to this song every day.

Good Days: This is connected to the song by SZA, “Good Days.” I also listen to this song every day.

Sun and Moon: This was the first tattoo I got to match with my mom for my 18th birthday.

The flower tattoo was to decorate and add to the rest of my tattoos.

Dragon: This is to connect to my Chinese birth year.

Fairies: My best friends and I all have fairies tattooed on us. They live in Ireland now, and we got them before they moved away.

Mandala Sun, with the word shine written in Hebrew in the middle. It was a memorial tattoo for my cousin, who passed away.

Watercolor mountains. I lost my best friend a couple of years ago. The mountains are what helped me heal from her loss. I love watercolors.

Chainsaw daemon. There is a record label called sick chainsaw productions. I used to do some work with them. At my old job, I was a lumberjack. The chainsaw was my tool. They used to call me chainsaw Charlie. That is why I got this tattoo.

Daemon sitting on a throne with an m60. This was back when I was in the service. We called our squadron the Luciferian Warlords. I carried an m60. I was a heavy machine gun carry, and that is why I got this one.

Vic Rattlehead from Megadeth. I got this one because I like Megadeth a lot.

111. A couple of my friends that I grew up with went to prison. They are still my brothers. Something unfortunate happened to them. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They had to protect themselves, and now they are in prison. 111 is the Highway in Goldsboro where we grew up.

919. This is the area code I’m from in Seven Springs, NC. I got the outline of the state because I am from North Carolina.

Rednexican. This is because I am a country redneck Mexican boy. I liked the name, and I got it tattooed.

Aztec skull. This connected to my culture. I am Mexican, and they had Aztecs in Mexico. I liked the look of it, and I got it.