Ill be back in a day or 2…im working on some shit….
Lets hope you like it.
I know y’all have been patient…it’ll be ready soon enough.

Ill be blogging at the Pleasure & Pain blog for the next few days.
Check me out there until Im back here.
Im sure you guys know what this is all about.

Love.

Adam tatted up my right wrist yesterday…and did it ever hurt…but when does it ever NOT hurt.

Its so interesting…like the human mind when you’re getting tatted.

You’re voluntarily putting yourself through pain, resisting urges to flinch and twitch while you’re bleeding, swelling and sweating, sitting still for hours on end listening to a high pitch buzz in your ear while your skin gets scraped up by as many as 45 needles at one time which can feel like a million and 10 fat dirty cats are clawing at you…I have no idea why the crack I deal with it sometimes besides the fact that I love how it looks a week later. lol.

What I realized is, tattoos only hurt when I think it hurts. Ive learned to realize pain is a just a state of mind. Its a psychological thing. Trust me, thats usually all I think about…how to forget the pain. lol. So I put on movies, bbm ppl, fall asleep, sometimes have a brewski or just start getting all philosophical about pain and the human mind. lol I dont blaze, but I sure sound like I do right? lol

Ive always been a person who has said, I only want tattoos if I can hide them, because I dont want people judging me before they get to know me. Well the tatt we worked on yesterday, actually comes down my hand a little bit. So even if I wear a long sleeve, you’ll still see my tatts. Ive come to realize that I will only ever be truly happy if I do what I want to do in this life. My actions should define who I am and dictate my worth as opposed to just solely on the way I look. And if someone wants to just judge me based on my tattoos, I dont care, because I wouldnt want to work for anyone thats that ignorant anyways. No dollar can buy me out of my pursuit of happiness. Im not an extremist or a hardcore rebel or anything, I just want to live how I want to live, and if I couldnt, Id rather die. Life is way too short to not be happy.

Im working hard so I dont have to put all my eggs in one basket, Im basically the brand manager for the shop, handling the image of the shop and the employees, working on advertising with Rob figuring out how to revamp perceptions of tattoos and take this industry to the next level. Im still doing my photography for events and portfolios. Still running my blog and the shops blog. Im still planning events both here in Toronto and in the Bahamas. Still trying to get some business deals popping in LA. My homie/ business partner just landed his own reality show with Much Music. Im working with people in the city to work towards a stronger and better Toronto (politicians/business men and artists). Im still working with youth when I can, like Concrete Willderness.

This list isnt to brag, but its more to show that Im always willing to go into overdrive for the things I love and believe in. My personal life sometimes suffers from it but its something the people around me have learned to accept and a price Ive almost become very accustomed to paying.

My mind has changed a lot in the past year or so. I have lost the understanding for the word success. The only word that holds any meaning to me now is progression. The idea is to always be better than we were yesterday. Everytime you see me, I better have some new news. Success to me, means satisfaction. But Ill never be satisfied, because once you’re satisfied you slow down. Ill always want more and Ill always believe I can attain it even when its difficult. Mind over matter right?

“Whats the point of having an imagination if you cant do what you imagine?”

Anyways, this is probably too much preaching for a Friday afternoon.

I just do a lot of deep thinking during tattoo sessions. lol.

I hope this was some food for thought.

Peace and Love.

T’s and O’s.

Shout outs to my homie, Auggie who came by to get tatted by Ryan at the shop yesterday. Homie came all the way from Scarborough…on a bus! lol. Thats like a 3 hour bus ride each way! I appreciate the support homie!

He got his anime girlfriend from Cowboy Bebop with a pair of the cement 3’s on.

In case you guys are wondering where you remember Auggie from, its probably from Livestock or Adrift. Shout outs to both shops as well.

I didnt get a pic of the finished product because I had to bounce, but Ill get another pic of it when I see him next and its all healed.

lol.

Where’s Wildo?
Can you find me? Im not wearing a red and white striped sweater, but I still stick out like a sore thumb.

Welcome to my grade 8 year (1998-1999) at Amesbury Middle School.

Before Amesbury, I lived with my mom in Sauga where there were only 3 black kids in school and everyone else was basically white…and then I moved to North York with my dad and it was the total reverse. There were 3 white kids, and everyone else was black or spanish. It was a bit of a culture shock to say the least.

Amesbury was so interesting. I had a slight crush on my French teacher, except she had only 3 fingers and a thumb on one hand which creeped me out. I was never into black girls when I was growing up in Mississauga because we didnt really have any out there, but boy oh boy did my mind change when I got to Amesbury. I became the biggest sucker for the caramel complexion (I had previously referred to them as lightskins but I guess it was offending people. My bad. Ive been saying that all my life and no ones every corrected me.), booty, hips and small waists. lol. Jeeze!!!

Lawdamercy! lol

I remember the first day of school. I didnt know anyone, so I just decided to friend up the white girl in class. I figured we were minorities so she would be down to be friends with me. lol. Im not being ignorant or racist, Im just giving you an honest account of what I remember thinking in Grade 8 when all this stuff happened. So please, dont be offended by my 13 year old mind.  Anyhow, I spoke to her for a little bit in class…I was gonna need a buddy for lunch right?  At lunch, I had no idea where to sit in the cafeteria, so I walked over to her table and sat beside her. I reached into my knapsack and pulled out my sandwich (my dad didnt give me any lunch money) and just before I bit my sandwich, the girl goes “you probably dont wanna sit here. all the guys usually sit over there.”

I looked up from my sandwich and realized I was sitting at the loser table…lol. I looked over to where she was pointing and it was the table full of guys with their pants low, bandanas, du rags, tommy gear skull caps, tims and jordans. They were all kinda loud and I wont lie, I was pretty intimidated. I figured Id take my chances being rejected at a table in that vicinity over being caught at the ‘loser’ table. lol. I swear, it was just like a movie.

So anyways. I went over there and sat down, a guy comes up to me and was like “yo, man! whats good man! havent seen you all summer! did you dye ur hair a different color because I didnt recognize you.”

I looked up and he says…”Shit, I thought u were someone else.”

…
lol.

Give me about 2 more days and I would fit in and be chilling with all the cool kids and sitting at their table in the cafeteria.  How did I do it? I dont really remember, but I was one of the few kids in school with a Sony Walkman. lol. So everyone was always tryna listen to what I had playing. Most of the time, it was DMX and Jay-Z. Most of them would like what I had playing and then would tell the next dude and so on.  The music made me cool…or maybe it was the cool colored and parted hair with the undercut…or not. lol

Anyways, next thing you know I was catching onto all the tricks of the cafeteria. Everyone always bought fries for lunch from the cafeteria. And there were always those few random guys with no money that would always mooch someones fries. It was usually the bully taking fries from the smaller guys. What everyone started doing was coughing on their food.

“Yo, gimme some fries.”
“I coughed in it.”
“Aite cool. Nevermind.”

But eventually those guys stopped caring and would eat the coughed up fries anyways. lol. So what people started doing was spitting in their fries. lol. That shit was nasty…I dont know if I could even eat food with my own spit on it…oozing around and shit. lol

I forgot what we were talking about one day in class, but it was about racism, and some white kid says “chinese ppl are nasty, they eat rats and dogs.”

So then my dude Andre Morlese says (shout outs to Dre btw) “Nah, not Will. He’s gangster. He eats burgers and shit.”

lmfao!!!
Wow right?

I remember there was one time I was in French class, and during a lesson, one of my dudes, Andre Hutton bangs on the window and makes some weird noise or something and Ms Costa goes

“Hey stop that! Im teaching a class!”
and he responds “What? Yo! You haunted? You givin’ me lip!’

I burst out laughing my face off!!! He was so rude I thought I was dreaming because I wasnt used to this behavior in the suburbs. lol

Ms Costa turns around to me and says “Excuse me???!!! Did you find his rudeness funny?”
And then I realized I was the only one who laughed outloud…lol. Idiot.
So I say “Oh, I know him. Its ok.” lol. As if that makes it alright.
“Well if you think its so funny, maybe you can tell me about it so I can laugh about it too in detention.” She then walks over to the chalk board and writes my name and draws a line beside it signaling that I owe her 5 minutes after school.
So you know, I wanted to be one of the cool feisty kids too, so I say “I dont care, write what you want. I aint coming in”. lol. And then she writes another line beside my name.
I kiss my teeth. She draws 2 more lines. She says…”should I cross this now? should we make this 25 minutes?”

I didnt say anything…and yes, I did come to detention after school like a loser and watched her and 3 finger and one thumb self. lol

Amesbury was a uniformed public school, which was super rare in those days. When I first moved in with my dad, he hated all my clothes so he threw everything out and got all cheap on my ass and only bought me clothes from Walmart. My dads a pretty stubborn guy. He’s mister what says goes. No excuses. So the only thing I had in my closet were a pair of blue and a pair of black Wrangler jeans and some oversized and over stretched t-shirts my dad didnt wear no more. I hated the clothes that I owned. We had dress down day once a month. In order to dress down you had to bring in 2 dollars for the United Way. My dad never ever gave me money. I guess it worked out too because I hated all my regular clothes anyways. lol. Everyone every month would laugh at me and say…’did you forget that you could dress down? or can you just not afford to?” lol. Id always just say I forgot. lol

One of the most memorable moments in grade 8 was graduation. All the girls came in their dresses with their hair and make up down. All the guys had fresh hair cuts and sharp black suits on. Like I said, my dad threw out all my clothes. I told my dad, I needed some clothes for graduation. So what does my dad do? Takes me to Payless to find me some shoes and then comes home and shows me his old suits.

…

You’re probably cringing right now.

Well, let me tell you what I ended up wearing.

I wore a brown tie of sorts with a brown belt and brown shoes. I wore a light blue shirt with these green and white checkered pants with the double pleats in them…can anyone imagine this right now? I looked like the biggest loser in life! lol.

All the girls were saying to all the guys “OMG, you look so good…oh hi, Will.”

…

Thanks dad. Thanks for screwing up my swagger. lol.

Anyways. All year I had a crush on this mix girls, Courtney Lee. I never tried to talk to her or tell her how I felt. lol.

Well, you know cool guys never dance? Yea, so I just chilled by the stage with all the cool guys for the whole dance part of the graduation party. When a slow jam came on, all the dudes left the stage and grabbed a girl to dance. Of course I was too slow and only the rejects were left. lol. I remember standing there thinking about how much this sucks and if I dont talk to her tonight, I may never have another chance to especially because I knew we were going to separate high schools. So I stood there by the stage thinking of what to do.

Yes! They ended up playing a second slow jam, so I run up to Courtney and ask her if I could dance with her and kinda just bully the other guy out of my way. lol. So we’re dancing in circles…you know how you do in grade 8. lol. Ive never really cared to slow dance before, so I was doing my circles way too fast while she was more slow and relaxed…in retrospect…slow dances are stupid. I feel like Im a waddling penguin. lol

Anyhow, Im dancing with her with my hands at her hips…Im making small awkward conversations like…how was your day? what are you doing tmr? Are you excited for high school? lol

And then I drop the stupid question…”So do you play soccer or something?”
“No. But I swim.”
“Oh yea? Cuz I was gonna say, you have some really nice thighs.”
“…thanks…”

…

We stayed silent for the rest of the song. I swore I sweated so much for the remainder of that dance that I could have fainted for dehydration. lol

lol.

Well I cant think of anything else thats interesting to write, but yea, there you go. Its 330am, and Im off to bed.

I know I havent done a lot of writing lately so hopefully this was somewhat satisfying. lol

Goodnite.

(Shout outs to the grade 8 click - Jason Johnson, Kade Hosten, Andre Morlese, Andre Hutton, Jesse Jeffers and a few others that I cant remember right now)

These pics are super late, but here are pics from DJ Wikked, Belly and Juss Red from Flow 93.5’s birthday parties from like 2 weeks ago at Atelier.

Im sure you guys have seen these on fb already…but in case you havent…here ya go!

Shout outs Mona and Wikked and everyone else who was in the house! I dont wanna name them all…I just got my wrist tatted for 3 hours and Im in too much pain to continue writing.

In case you’re wondering what the hell is happening in the pics above, the girl got a microdermal from another shop and came to get it removed when the jewelry  broke off and the skin healed over it. Sounds gross right? lol

Ughk! Im more scared of piercings than I am of tattoos. lol Ears only for me. 
Oh yea, we have stickers now at the shop, so dont forget to grab one from the front desk counter if you stop by.Kelly and Jordan are the piercers of the house…and if you didnt know, theyre actually father and son. lol. 

And knowing is half the battle. lmao.

…When I wasnt so fat. lol