If security is an impossibility and happiness can’t come from money directly where does the motivation and passion for life that drives us come from and how can we support and harness it? When it finally hit a spilling point, I was sitting at my 6-figure job one day in Santa Monica and had had enough. I got up, and walked out the door determined to take my destiny into my own hands. I didn’t understand why at the time, but I drove to one of my favorite beach spots and sat in contemplation for a while. It was during this meditation that I received the phone call that would change my life: it was the tattooer who had taught all the best tattooers in town and he was willing to meet me to talk about an apprenticeship. I started with him that day, and my life was never the same.

Since then I have been homeless, travelled thousands of miles over years, built studios to work in, met countless new friends and now understand the world in an entirely new way. Some of the time since I left my last job to become a tattooer and artist I have felt insecure about my decision. It is that very insecurity that has pushed me to become the artist that I am today. Every painting and tattoo is a challenge to overcome the doubt and questioning I have about whether I am doing a good job and contributing to a better world. I do not believe that I could make art without feeling insecure. So I don’t fight it, and instead I embrace the uncertainty and accept the challenge to do something I have never done.

Now I live in a new city, having picked up and moved my entire life and business to a new place is full of challenges. I love Tempe for a lot of reasons and I feel like my art has the ability to flourish here. But I’m basically back to square one: meeting new clients and making new friends. It is uncomfortable at times but the insecurity of it all makes for some great creative motivation. I share this with you because I know there are a lot of people who want to take the leap into the unknown to follow their dreams. You have nothing to lose. No amount of money or control over the minute details of daily life will every make the insecurity go away so embrace the feeling and let it push you to become the best version of yourself.

Hawaii is a beautiful place and I am grateful for the opportunity to go there with one of my favorite bands of all time. Friday we got in a little early and rented a car to explore Oahu. Here’s a few photos from our time off the day before the shows.

There was some controversy when I created the cover for “Yours Truly” for Sublime with Rome and a couple people have commented here asking what the cover means. As I wrote back in June, the cover that was chosen was one of twelve concepts I created for the band. This one was chosen without much consideration otherwise. I worked on a couple variations of it but ultimately the original was selected.

Initially, Rome called me up one morning and said, “What if we did a guy in a Joker suit”? I am a big fan of the Batman series and punk artwork from old posters and skateboards and already had an idea in my head as soon as he mentioned that. The tattoos were something I added to convey an obvious sense of going against convention. I can’t speak for the band about why they chose this cover over the others, but I can explain what it means to me.

Over the last few years and even more now, there has been a lot of people in news for fucking everyone else over: bankers, politicians, corporate executives. These assholes all wear suits, and even more importantly are involved in clandestine conspiratorial organisations that the tattoos on the neck illude to. These are used not as a specific reference to occult organisations but to arose distrust in convention. The Joker says is best in The Dark Knight when he says, “Why so serious?”

We take ourselves seriously, and as a collective are overwhelmed with anxiety and fear. That anxiety is completely manufactured by the 1% to keep the masses under submission. I say FUCK their fear and negativity. We are living breathing beautiful creates of love, who want nothing more than to be happy and have fun. By using imagery that connects to our natural fascination with evil, we are exposing it and turning it into something funny that can no longer scare us.

In the end, there is no great conspiracy about the cover art or the tattoos on the neck. The main reason they are there is because they are symbols that I use in the majority of my art. Most often, for the reason I mentioned above: that when you face what you are scared of fear can not control you any more and you become free.

There is however a secret hidden in the artwork. In the PDF file you get when you download the cd from iTunes, there is a hidden link (that I guess I hid too well considering no one has found it yet). This link plays off the masonic conspiracy and extends the content of the album a good deal further. The only clue I’ll give you is: What is the name of the Producer of “Your’s Truly’s” band?

Happy Hunting :)

I haven’t surfed since I was 16 but I’d love to get out there again and catch a few waves myself next time.

If you’ve been following my work you know that I love getting out in nature and taking a lot of landscape photos. Yesterday while on tour with Sublime with Rome I took this picture of the sunset at Red Rocks in Colorado. It was built by the Civillian Conservation Corps in the 1941 into the side of a mountain between a natural red rock amphitheater. It was an amazing and magical night I feel lucky to have shared with everyone. We fly out to San Diego tomorrow morning for the last week of tour for the summer. I can’t wait to be back in my home state California!

Eric Freedman got everything organized and helped me shoot the video in the back of Rome’s tour bus and I edited it while driving over-night from Boston to New York. The response has been rewarding and we are happy so many people were able to connect with the song and video. Download the song below:

Rome Ramirez – Rehab (right-click and save file)