Then between my two deployments I did my back piece -- a large tribal phoenix -- my friend Nate Hudson at Optic Nerve designed it -- it was a difficult time frame for me -- I felt very displaced coming back from my second tour -- reality was so much better there -- the sun came up, you woke up, you did your work for the day -- it was very hard but you had an idea of what you needed to be doing, there wasn't so much ... clutter, or distractions -- once you did your work, the sun goes down, you go to sleep and you get up the next day and do it all over again.

Coming back here, the lights, the sounds, were so much more intense. So many more factors that are bombarding you all of a sudden -- I felt out of place and was dealing with some difficult times -- one of the reasons I wanted to get a phoenix was because of it's deep, meaning -- internationally ,with many cultures -- the idea of rebirth.... and I had some scarification done to go along with it -- I like to look at people's tattoos, but I really like when they have a story behind it.
 

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