I was born in Jacksonville, Florida in the bi-centennial year of 1976. After a short trip to Pennsylvania I arrived in Muskegon, Michigan where I have pretty much stayed to this day. I have a wife, two sons, and a daughter. I love all of them deeply and appreciate them more than they know, even though my schedule would say otherwise.

I have been tattooing professionally since 1998 with six years of private tattooing on top of that. Private tattooing means "scratcher" for anyone that didn't catch that. I started when I was sixteen, what do you expect? Hehehe. I am currently located at A.W.O.L. Custom Tattooing LLC. I specialize in tattoo cover-ups and reworks, but I love doing new custom tattoos in any style as well. My usual choices are demons to angels and everything in between, sometimes together, whatever. You can view my cover up and/or re-work tattoos, realistic tattoos, custom and/or freehand tattoos, and tattoos done from flash at www.awolct.com.

I love art in many forms but tend to stick to drawing on bristol board, paper, or with my computer. I have worked with 2d and 3d computer graphics, web site development, screen printing, and dabbled in comics. More recently I have been slowly learning to tool leather and to oil paint. It is a long process fitting it in between everything else, but very enjoyable once I get there. I also do freelance work drawing pretty much anything that people ask for, including company logos, t-shirt designs, album covers, or portraits. My drive to draw landed me a contract with Flash2xs.com in late 2003. I have been learning more and more every year since then. It is almost creepy how the more I learn the less I know.

In September of 2007 I was fortunate enough to attend the Thunder in the Rockies event in Loveland, Colorado and be a judge at the Crossroads Tattoo Contest along with Lyle Tuttle (That's short for Lord and Emperor, holder of the keys to the past, Lyle Tuttle, who is the same guy as the "Oh My God I can't believe that you own that many heaping mounds of tattoo machines from aeons ago not to mention that those don't include the displayed models", Lyle Tuttle, just in case you were wondering, Hehehe), Friday Jones (Very classy and talented lady), and Ben There (Slow rollin' mellow man). All of them are incredible artists and very cool people in their own rights. The event was sponsored by TattooFinder.com and Main Street Tattoo from Longmont, CO.

I am also an active member in the Artist Legal Alliance. This is an organization that protects the legal rights of tattoo flash designers worldwide. Thieves basically piss me off anyway, so when they are stealing from me or mine it pisses me off more.

Favorite saying: I'd rather live the truth in sorrow than happily in a lie.

2nd Favorite saying: Build a man a fire and you will warm him for the night, set a man on fire and you will warm him for the rest of his life, hehehe. You have to read that in W's voice for it to be completely funny.

I have so many influences that it is impossible to name them all and I honestly don't even know half of their names. I only know that without them I would probably not be doing what I am doing for a living today. I am still learning the roots of my trade and those roots grow much deeper than I had originally thought. I'll start with Filip Leu, Paul Booth, Tom Renshaw, Deano Cook, Sailor Jerry Collins, Don Ed Hardy, Lyle Tuttle (The most humble man that I have ever met considering his position in the business.), Jack Rudy, Shane O'Neil, Endo (whether he likes it or not, hehehe), Joe Capobianco, Mike Cole, Bob Tyrrell, Tramp from Detroit, Jay Morton from Grand Rapids, Lou Bardach, Robert Pho, Guy Aitchison, Ed Lee, Rand Johnson, Mario Barth, Jay Wheeler, Kari Barba, the guys from the Texas Custom Irons forum, Paul Rogers, Percy Waters, Sam Riley, and the man with the accidental plan, Thomas Edison. There are so many people that have given to the tattoo industry through their art, technology, dedication, and business ethics that they are difficult for me to list, and there are many out there that I am not even aware of yet. I would like to also say thank you to C.W. Eldridge for making some of my learning our history a little easier.

Those are just my influences within the tattooing industry that I can think of. Man, artists that knock me back, Boris Valejo, Olivia, Sorayama, and Luis Royo for the gothic/fantasy/futuristic stuff. I like H.R. Giger, Salvador Dali, and MC Escher for their insanity. Da Vinci for everything; The man was a genius in art and technology. Olivia, Elvgren, and Vargas are incredible for the pinups that they do. I think that my biggest influence though, is that hairy guy with the burnt stick in a cave somewhere a very, very long time ago. Not only can I relate to his hair coverage, but without the beginning there is no now and I would like to go from now to the ability level of some of the artists that I have named here. I hope that you enjoy the level that I am at now though and go get some ink!

Life is a highway, and I am currently stuck in construction. hehehe

Later Days,
Ray

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