Tattoo Warriors

Wow, where do I even start. For this journal entry I really wanted to focus on what I took away from this competition.

Off rip I have to thank all of you and Tulare/the Central Valley for making me the people’s champ of the show! 💯 On episode 4 we had to encourage our audience to participate and comment for they’re favorite artist on the show. I did get the most comments. It was absolutely insane and the most amazing part is that every comment that I had seen I actually knew each and every person. Yall really showed out!

On top of the overwhelming support, this show gave me a push I had no fuckin clue I needed. As cliche as it sounds I myself didn’t even know how I creative I was being until I was put in a position to do whatever I want.

We do not get too many of those opportunities as tattooers. I have been labeling myself as a “Tattooer” and not an “Artist” for some time. Reason being a lot of creatives that label themselves as “Artists” seem to use it as a scapegoat for being lazy and also use it as a tool to place themselves above others. I think that shits wack. 🤣

I love working hard and I love doing my job. Hopefully as an “Artist” I can show there’s nothing wrong with that. I am a professional, and a true professional does his job, regardless of the outside world.

Tattooing is not simply a chill job that I’m doing because I don’t like math or I don’t want to wake up early, this mindset is what drove me to lack of creativity in response to this large wave of personalities that have came into my field of work.

I do see things a little different, and I have many things here in this world I love to study and look at. Tattoo Warriors gave me and opportunity to showcase this. I intentionally did not do singular portraits or any work that looked like my page in order to challenge myself to push outside of my own creative box. Literally 4 tattoos that have changed the trajectory of my tattoo career!

How can I not be stoked af. I lost and I fuckin won. The people spoke and my creative spirit got hella shakin awake in a wild way.

I will eventually be posting reaction videos on my YouTube channel since the 1 year mark is about to hit!

Big thank you to my wife, support is unmatched. My family, my shop

The People’s Champ

Cabello

Week 1 project. Thankful I was able to have creative control and really push the detail in this piece. the amount of detail we were able to get done in our 8 hours of time was rough! having a time limit really made the stress levels high. Luckily my client sat thru this like a champ.

Week 2 project. This week I decided to do color realism. I do color realism but not nearly as often as black and gray. We pushed the envelope once again! Many people commented on this episode and seemed to really enjoy this concept and tattoo. Doing color like this was a huge risk and was definitely not a safe choice. I was extremely nervous and was not sure about the time. Once again I was blessed with an awesome client and sat like a rock. We hammered thru the process with little to no breaks, 8 hrs flat and got the finish.

Day 3 Project. I felt that after week 1 and week 2 I had really set the bar high. My creative juices were starting to run on empty, but the night before I really hit a stride and came up with this concept. I wanted to do a style fusion with color and black and gray realism to try and show that the first two weeks were not a fluke. I was extremely happy with this tattoo, unfortunately I was almost kicked off for the finally. The judges were not feeling it as much as the viewers. Regardless I had a huge response on this tattoo thru social media and was so hyped to do this tattoo and complete it.

Week 4 Project. This piece I was definitely the most proud of. i was able to do a true style fusion. Traditional Japanese Dragon with a black and gray realism samurai. The show being named Tattoo Warriors, regardless of the outcome I felt deeply that this piece not only represented me as an artist, but encompassed the spirit of the show as well. The dragon wielding the horn of another vanquished dragon and the samurai glowing with the aura of the warrior spirit. This piece was huge and pushed the pace of the room. After I laid my stencil out there was definitely a competitive tension in the room! My buddy sat thru 10 hrs of work on this and I’m so happy with the outcome. A REAL tattoo.

RAFFLE WINNER July 11, 2024

Congratulations to Christina Barcenas! You have won a free full day appointment. Please feel free to contact myself thru instagram or fill out a contact form here on my website to get your project rolling!

SUPER SUPER SUPER thank you to everyone that participated. Just about everyone that purchased a T shirt has gotten tattooed by me multiple times and it just shows that yall really be supporting the brand and everything that I’m doing. I’m slowly making my move from instagram to primarily posting thru my website. So there will be a lot more giveaways thru this blog!

Keep your eyes open! I am going to be doing another giveaway exclusively thru this website, this will be for all the “Dreamers” coming along with me on my journey here! This giveaway will be free for entry, it just may require a little interaction here!

PEACE LOVE & IMAGINATION

-Cabello

Feet don't fail me now...

Dream with me for a sec…

I made this video with Ai. I’m extremely excited, the last few months have been extremely creative for me; both internally and externally. Tattooing as a craft has always been somewhat of a lighthouse for me, its been the one constant, and one thing I always come back to whether by choice or force. Tattooing has allowed me to live a very fulfilling life and has brought me basically all aspects of my world to me. Recently there’s been a giant spark of creativity that is just coursing thru my soul. Thoughts and ideas in so many mediums. I wish I had more bodies, as funny as it sounds, this is far from a joke. I know I need to slow down with work because I can feel fatigue at times.

The hard part of slowing down for me is patience. I can feel freedom around the corner. I’ve worked for my entire adult/teen life. I’ve had a singular dream in mind and the closer I get to accomplishing my goals there seems to be whole spiritual worlds opening up to my mind.

I do understand that I understand nothing. lol. so with that, DrEAm with me… and thank you for coming along for the ride.

Update…

I intended to blog non stop this last year. I do like writing actually! A lot of what I was writing seemed too serious, many of my entries I just left in the drafts. I do intend on finishing that guest spot series! Lost Cove and Enigma blogs are coming. This place became a little more of a therapeutic space rather than a place for me to post and have fun.

I guess that’s coo though! I’m just gonna let this place be what it’s going to be organically. As long as you can “hear” the ME in my writing then this blog is serving its purpose.

Why am I popping on here after the long break? Well…. exactly one year ago I was starting my treatment and had just recovered from surgery, still hobbling about and getting to know chemo on our first dates lol. Now today, I’m getting prepared to hit the Philly Villain Arts Convention. This has been a show that I’ve wanted to participate in most of my career and now the shop is going. So just reflecting quite a bit. I’ve been tattooing 16 years, and I feel like I’m just barely getting a grasp on what I think tattooing really is.

What a wild ride. Tulare been with me the whole time! Even in Philly we got a Central Valley crew traveling all the way out to support! I’m grateful as shit for everything these days and I’ve been working so fucking hard to be the best I can be.

Welcome back, thank you for being apart of my journey, and I’m pumped to be apart of yours. Next stop Philly.

LA TRIP Day 2 July 18

Got to visit with the homies! Nando and Glenn at the world famous Cool Cat Tattoo in Bloomington, CA.

I met my good buddy Nando here during our adventures with the Lost Cove, and I met Mr. Glenn quite some time ago almost a little under 10 years ago on the road doing conventions!

Glenn is right there in my left! I was just a young Tatter tot at that time!

Kickin it with the homies is always always always a blast and I’m super thankful for the hospitality. It was super important for me to head out there, and was very long overdue. I had been promising the homie Nando I’d be out there for the last three years and finally made it out. I will definitely be back soon!

The homie Nick came out to collect a really rad piece as well. I’ve been tattooing Nick for almost 15 years now! Man it’s wild to think how long some of my friendships have lasted and continue to go. I’m very thankful to tattooing for that. When tattooing we spend a lot of time with our clients and sometimes clients are already friends and sometimes clients become friends.

Its already super rare for people to spend more than an hour with someone alone, so spending 4-8 hours with someone several times, you really start to get to know people!

It also helps make the time feel less exhausting when everyone is familiar and laughing. Nick always brings great ideas and convos. Thank you big dawg for always trusting as well. It does not go unnoticed and I’m extremely grateful for your friendship and support!

There was so much great art at Cool Cat it’s a definite must stop if you’re in the area! Great great tattoo shop even better people. I know I’m going to be for sure returning soon. Next time I’ll be sure to grab more pics so you guys can see!

For those of you following my blogs, I want to post more motion, and film but for now my bandwidth is very limited. This is the reason why I haven’t been posting. Im trying to learn more about servers and my options to bring you guys content exclusively here!

More info on these updates on internet independence as the blogs roll out!

LA Trip July 17 (1 of 4)

Day 1 myself and apprentice Zander from here at Body Art Gallery visited my second home, Hollywood Stars Tattoo.

If you’ve followed my journey you already know how much this place and the people here mean to me. Eric and the guys have always had a huge huge huge influence on my experience in this tattoo world and also outside.

I honestly feel like every time I come back it’s like I never left. Figuring out with Kana what we’re gonna eat, getting that game from the big homie Eric, Luis coming in with hella energy making sure everyone is smiling and having a good time, reminiscing on the good ol days and making new memories!

The shop itself is located just down the street from LAX airport, and across the street from In-N-Out on Sepulveda. There’s many artists that have worked here and went on to do great things. To be apart of this history is an honor!

This guest spot was especially fun because I was able to tattoo old friends. I am definitely a workaholic, but the thing with tattoos is it can be fun and can be a great way to bullshit and pass time. Being able to go back to LA and chop it up with the homies is the fuckin best. All the crazy and dumb shit I used to do, all the cool shows, working at American Eagle, working at Color Me Mine.

Hella cliché AF but sometimes it does seem like just yesterday. Big thanks to Hollywood Stars tattoo family for always giving me a home and continuing to support me. I’m deeeeeefffffinitely not perfect and had my issues but they’ve always had my back and always been there. Forever grateful!!

Busy Busy Busy…

Been grindin! Man working working working working. We’ve been rebranding the shop, I’ve been on a full work week and also still trying to study as much as I can.

Being back to work is a blessing and a half, for the most part everyone’s been pretty dope. I really have no complaints.

I really would like to be able to solely post here on my blog and maybe my YouTube Channel. Learning about hosting has been a bit tough. I do have an option through my site to pay to be able to have a close to limitless video feature that would enable me to post my videos or basically anything on my site.

The only only thing holding me back at the moment is I would have to make the blog a feature where only members could view my work or watch the videos. Everyone would have a login account. This has a lot of positive and negative aspects to it. I know hella foos will be like… fuck that, haha and I don’t blame them. On the other side of things… I will own 100% of my content and the social media mob will have zero say on influencing my posts.

For now I feel like this will work. I have about 28 minutes left of available video content I can post so mainly small vids for now. Once I have a proper plan and infrastructure then I can continue with my journey of unplugging.

Growth

Dirty ass foo. Naw lol, this is an interesting image I took this week. During Chemo my nails turned black, which is what you see here, you can also see my healthy nails coming through. It’s extremely crazy to me when I think about how much has happened since last October. Lots of changes and lots of growth.

I don’t want my whole life to be about this instance, or 6 month stretch of being taken out of the game. I guess this image just meant a lot to me because it’s something visual that I see daily, that really no one else sees. It’s a daily reminder. A huge part of me wished I had kept it private, especially after we got the news that my treatment was ending early. In the end I’m glad I did let y’all know though.

It’s overwhelming how many people have let me know what I mean to them, or their concern, or their prayers. It’s hard as fuck for me to take any real positivity and shits been going so well, I feel like this is the part where something bad happens to me.

The whole experience was hard, it still is. I think about my brother Ernesto and everything he went through. I think about my family and my homies that have lost their loved ones to cancer. How much worse others have it or how much further along they are and are not able to make it out of the fight and how I feel so small because I was able to catch it while it was still treatable.

Just a lot of thinking.

Man though, I am grateful. I am a happy foo. It smells like shit in Tulare and is hot as fuck haha, but I love it. I have a lot of work to do on myself and with my work. I’m definitely NOT slowing down. If you thought I was annoying before, or you thought/wished I’d burn out. I got some sour news for ya holmes! Ya boi getting right, and we riding this thing ‘til the wheels fall all the way off.

I promise I will be posting more blogs! And create content specifically for y’all who follow me here! I’ve written a handful but never posted them. I get nervous AF haha.

to be continued…

May 15-20 Tattoo Haul!

This week was definitely a fun week! I’m supposed to only work four days a week, but ya mans can’t help getting a couple extras in! I’ve been weight training with my buddy Alex, and getting back to Muy Thai with the Rhino Doug Marshall. This has definitely helped improved my confidence and my energy levels.

Monday was a dope one, if you didn’t know portraits are my favorite projects to work on. Bill (my client) has been working with me over five years and is newly retired from Tulare PD. He’s been waiting patiently for me to get back to health, and take on this new one.

This is image was very special to him. The picture is of his two sons, both of which I’ve tattooed! The picture was taken when they were little, and the original he carried with him since he started the force. So now he figured since he’s retired he’s get the picture tattooed over his heart. This is a great honor for me and I’m pumped I was able to get started on this.

The Neck! This was another fun project. As you might assume designing this type of tattoo always poses different problems than a normal placement would. Luckily the stencil went on first try! I’ve seen other renditions done with a similar theme but really wanted to put my spin in this. The entire design is original and custom made for my clients neck so if you see it anywhere else….. you know where the source is! Tons of fun, but very thankful for my team at PureNUMB without it this tattoo would have been super uncomfortable for my client and probably would have been a zillion times harder to finish!

Im not one to turn work down, so when I got the email to finish my clients tribal eagle I jumped at the chance. I learned about my clients past career in the marines and how he came to have started this project. Most people are new to hearing of my work and only see the flashy stuff I’ve curated, but I take pride in being versatile. I’m a walk in artist at heart and won’t shy away from most things.

This portrait was started last year at the Colorado tattoo convention. We received 2nd place for best portrait! My homie Peter travelled all the way out to collect this picture of his father and help us represent for Body Art Gallery and Tulare Ca. I’m extremely happy with the second pass and cannot wait to get a good picture of the healed product!

Wednesday Adams/Christina Ricci portrait. This project took many hours and I’m very thankful for longtime friend and client Christina. She’s been collecting work since I started tattooing! Almost 15 years now. Always a great time catching up with her. And also was cool catching up with the homie Lee as well. I’m super thankful for all the great homies in Tulare that have been with me since I was 18 in the garage, in the kitchen, in the bedrooms, lol and even the raider room. Tulare has really given me an opportunity to showcase my skills at every level of my career so far. Without my hometown I would have never been able to do what I’ve done and in the time I’ve been able to do it.

I finally got one! 🐉🪷 the homie Alex came thru and collected/started this dope project! I’ve been hella working on kois and dragons so the whole time I was out I really really really was antsy to start this bad boi! The Japanese style work was something I had a lot of interest in when I first started but never pursued. Now that I’ve been in the game a longer time I have such a huge appreciation and enthusiasm towards this style. It’s actually been super difficult to get my drawings down and even more difficult to get the clients in the seats haha, but any projects I get to start in this style I’m going to try and go above and beyond for them!

What a week. Super busy and digging it. Sitting back and watching the game play out was difficult. At the end of the day, it helped me form a lot of perspective. I’m 33 and I still have a lot of dreams and aspirations. Luckily I have been doing this so long that I’ve paved a proper foundation to seize my opportunities and pursue what I feel I’ve worked my whole career for. Thank God I’m here and thank you guys for being a part of my journey.

Creativity

This visual was created to be watched and listened to hopefully by itself on your screen, full screen, headphones on. “Cudi Zone” by Kid Cudi is one of my favorites. I hope you guys can revisit this piece and it can take you to your zone!

The creative field is always changing, forever evolving. Tattooers are commissioned artists, working primarily on commissioned work for their clients. The great masters of the renaissance worked in a similar fashion. Most of what people consider art is just simply illustrations that are either “highly rendered” (realistic) or more “simply rendered” (cartoony or simple). Most tattoos are not even very creative at their core at all. Most are based on the criteria of the client and visualized thru reference of images that have already been done. It’s very rare for an artist to create something truly original and even more rare for a client to agree to purchase something for their body that they are unfamiliar with.

The more I’ve learned about art the less I feel like an artist myself. It’s been a long time that I’ve had to use my creativity to make a living, but using my imagination for my work is hard these days. Many artist choose politics, religion, racial tension, history, but I have always been drawn to the more imaginative surreal ideals.

I have many ideas for my work and aim to put them on canvas, put them into film, put them into tattoos, and make damn sure I’m not being so fuckin safe. I don’t really have any interest in the “live forever” or “making a mark on history. With my personal work I just really want to express myself fully with no restrictions. With tattooing I feel a more competitive drive.

I do not want to be famous, but I do want my work to be competitive on a global scale. I want to do this because I firmly believe that I am capable if I work hard enough. With tattoos I’m not really expressing myself in a poetic sense, I’m expressing myself and showing proof of my discipline. Maintaining proper form, not exceeding the amount of strokes to the skin, pulling off a range of textures seem less Ku under a restricted amount of time, and producing work that not only lasts over the years but looks better with time.

Thru my website and even blogging there’s a new fire and determination to showcase independently and present my work the way I wish to.

Exploring the mind and questioning what’s normal, excites me. In my younger years my work was very safe because I was very afraid of being judged or upsetting family. At 33 years old I’m so stoked on what I’ve accomplished in the tattoo world and art world, but I’ve never truly expressed myself. That I really regret.

5.12.23 Tattoo projects

Today we had some dope projects come in. A smaller wonder woman based tattoo to start with.

This was a shorter session on my client Ericka. She’s collected two really cool pieces from me in the past. I love these pieces because I’m really able to push the really light washes and fine detailed in her tattoo. They heal up really well. Most of the little tricks in these tattoos are extremely technical but so simple that they really go unnoticed.

Healed tattoos…

These are non-edited healed images of her tattoos. We will be doing a second pass on all three soon. A lot of tattoos change over time but if you’re able to lock in a second layer of saturated blacks an fill in the consistency of the gray wash I find the tattoos last much longer looking a lot better than normal.

Freehand dragon…

Finally got to finish this project up, I’ve been working really hard on drawing dragons and koi fish’, although this dragon is smaller I was very happy with the outcome.

We finished up this project on my client Juan. The first sitting was very long and we were not able to complete the color. There’s a handful of elements that tie in his personal story and his personal design choice. Very fun custom project. Hoping to get more dragons in the future!

5/11/23 Tattoo Haul

Lots of fun ongoing projects!!!

I am beyond grateful to be back in the tattoo chair. Although I’m not currently tattooing as many days as I was before, I will definitely get back to the “mad man” pace. This week really started to feel I was getting my groove back!

Not all tattoos I do make it to my portfolio page for many reasons. Most of the time it’s because I am trying to market towards a specialization. I know I know fuckin’ wack ass foo, but I am getting older. I’ve been doing this for almost 16 years now. I still take on just about all projects because I just love tattooing.

With that in mind I have been way more conscious of my shelf life and my time. Being out because of cancer put this very much into perspective. Us tattooers are only able to work so long so that means that we only have so many tattoos we will be able to complete in our careers. This idea freaks me the fuck out.

The epson printer…

At the shop we make line drawings by hand, we use the thermal fax, and we use the epson printer. This printer can’t be used for all designs because sometimes there is problems with placement, smudging or an image being too dark. When it does work, man, that thing sure does cut down our prep time!

I’m hoping to post here a weekly or biweekly tattoo haul so you guys can see some of the projects I’m working on, also if there’s any great stories or process’ that stand out. I’m always excited to share but I feel like the social media platforms have really watered down any sort of meaning our words used to carry.

So please like, comment and come on back to see more of my work!

With love,

J. Cabello Art of the Body Art Gallery

What the blog?

So wtf Cabello. Why the cancer talk, why the website, why the blog?!

Well… writing and recapping…

has been therapeutic. There’s a lot that I didn’t include. Like a lot a lot haha, but for the chismosos you got the sparknotes.

I want to bring whatever audience I do have to my website because of many reasons. My website offers a better image quality then most social media, I can use this website as a hub for all the creative things I love to do ranging from tattoos to video/media to apparel, and it can be found all in one place.

Facebook, twitter Instagram, YouTube, TikTok are all great tools to get your work out there and I will continue to use them, but in a many ways I do feel like I’ve outgrown this format. Most social media content seems to be very much like a fast food. Everyone making the same videos, promoting the same things, and just looking a little bit too similar to each other.

I’d love to invite you to the kickback. I plan to blog regularly and give these tattoos and artwork the attention they deserve. I will definitely be a lot more open with my personal life and details about my tattoo sessions. Thru Instagram and other similiar apps I’ve noticed the quick swipe and move on. Hopefully here you guys can not only hear my voice, but slow down and really enjoy the process with me.

If you want to see my work this is going to be the place to see it most frequently. I will be on Instagram to keep up with friends, but I will be directing traffic here. Www.JCabelloArt.com

The goal is to be honest, real, and have fun.

I will prolly cuss a lot and some blogs may have a lot of acronyms and short hand, but as long as you can here me saying it in your heads, I think that is what’s important! I hope you guys enjoy! And if not, that’s cool too and thank you for visiting the site!

Treatment

Here we are a month and a half from surgery, seemed like I was just getting around and moving again and we got the news that the cancer had spread and we were going to need to start treatment as soon as possible. Our oncologist informed us that we were still at a point that was treatable, but we needed to act fast. The treatment they decided was best for me was BEP therapy. This is a type of chemo therapy given to you thru an IV.

We were told the treatment process would be intense and would be harsh with the symptoms, but the idea was to hit the cancer hard for the next four months and make sure everything thing cleared up in my lymph nodes and there were no more cells in any other areas that had shown up problematic. We knew that with chemo therapy it would cover my whole body to a cellular level, rather than radiation therapy where its more isolated and I may risk a chance of the cancer spreading more or even coming back in the future. After about three or four months of playing catch up, now I would hopefully be able to power through another four months of treatment and get ahead of all this.

Having a PICC line is weird!

Having this Picc line installed was super weird. Supposedly after a couple days you’re not supposed to notice it, but I had two done and I felt both. I could definitely feel it next to my heart. Every time I received medicines or fluid I could feel it pumping through my body as well.

Recovering from surgery seemed like it was a learning experience, but the treatments from chemo therapy were a whole other mind fuck. Yes, it sucked, in fact it is safe to say that its the worse thing I’ve had to sit through in my life. No marathon, tough race, tough beat down, intense training session, wild hangover, or sickness I’ve had was anything like Chemo. Chemo was slow, it became gradually more of an experience every time I received a treatment. The runs of five days in a row, 3-4 hours a day of medicine left me full to the brim. My body felt like a giant water balloon, and the queeziness and the aches seemed like they’d never leave, it was a total mind fuck. All in all I’m still standing here saying that I’m lucky, I’m blessed, God had a plan for me. Through all of this I’ve been very aware how quickly things can change from treatable to bad news, like real bad news, all of this was still temporary. From the beginning they constantly assured me that everything was still treatable. The only thing with that was every check point we had gotten to by now put me at a higher stage of cancer, this made it hard for me to hear that I was still treatable when it seemed like we got worse news anytime I met with any doctor.

There were two main things that got me through each treatment:

1) knowing I was one closer to being done. Kind of like marking off days on a calendar. Counting down from 28 and seeing the number go down slowly somehow was comforting for me.

2) I prayed my ass off boy! I was raised Catholic so most of how I’ve been taught other than speaking directly to God is by reciting memorized prayers. Mainly I prayed the rosary, many Hail Mary’s and many Our Fathers. Any time I didn’t know where my mind needed to go when my body wasn’t serving me I would be saying my prayers over and over in my head. Praying for myself, praying for my family, and praying for other friends and people I knew going through things themselves.

Slowly I lost my hair, my beard, most body hair, my eyebrows and my eyelashes. I got to keep my leg hairs and arm hairs though, prolly because I’m mexican. My nails began to turn a bruised black color. I actually gained weight because of all the liquids, but I would fluctuate gaining and losing 10-12 lbs sometimes in a weekends time. There were wild body aches which I’m still getting used to not having. Intense ear ringing which I guess will stay with me for a while, watering eyes, queeziness but no throwing up so just mouth fulls if saliva back to back, and the most recent one is forgetfulness which they call chemo fog. I also got an overall feeling of being so tired for no reason. I only had to throw up twice which I’m stoked about, haha I had so many meds for nausea, thank you SLO oncology!

San Luis Obispo Oncology was such a great team to work with. Although I really felt like shit they made the things that they could control just an overall great experience. Their team of nurses really were just amazing. My doctor Dr. Akpek did a great job explaining things to me in a way that made the process digestible and was able to create a plan and consult with doctors at Stanford to make sure my treatment process was the best route.

I highly recommend anyone going through anything medically to really take that extra time whether it’s 10 minutes, one hour, or even whole days to figure out what type of insurance you have, HMO EPO or PPO and what that means. Then see what option you have with in your network. Read reviews on clinics, and doctors. If you’re able to travel look and see outside of your area! This may give you better options. It’s important to know what’s going on, have a plan, and be proactive with your healthcare.

Surgery

December 2nd was my scheduled surgery. My Urologist was from USC Dr. Rosenberg. Dr. Rosenberg was great to work with and explained everything before the Surgery really well. He also really seemed to care and followed up after surgery quite a bit, checking up on us, and remaining in contact with Desiree.

The last three weeks of November I pretty much went to work and went home. I needed to pass a covid test as well as a wellness test in order to receive my surgery, and I was not trying to risk it. I really did feel like things were going to get worse if we stretched our time any further. I have no idea whether or not that was true, but in my head all I could think is I wanted this thing out of me before it began to spread.

Luckily everything went as according to plan. Surgery was right on schedule, and the mass was removed. To continue the positive momentum, coverage by my medical insurance kicked in December 1st. Up until this point we had been paying for everything out of pocket which definitely added up. The recovery time for this type of surgery was fairly quick, six weeks. Mentally going in I was very prepared and was very ready for this process to start.

I may have been what I thought was “Mentally Prepared” lol, but I was extremely naive. I had no idea what the recovery was going to be like, the soreness that would come, the antsiness of sitting still every day, and even though this was a less complicated surgery as others it was definitely a learning experience. I am extremely thankful for my lady, Desiree, she was such a strong driving force for my care and my mental support. My family always made sure they did anything they could do to help, and the friends that did know really came through for me. Some days I’d be stuck in my head just bummed the fuck out, but it always seemed like someone would hit me up or randomly visit. Those instances were what carried me through that recovery period.

Recovery time was supposed to be six weeks.

Due to a hematoma underneath my stitches the doctor had to reopen my surgery. This image is about 2/3 weeks after surgery. Seemed to be healing up nice at the time.

He squeezed out all the excess blood, and I would continue the healing process with no stitches. The cut was pretty deep and about four inches long. A very wild thing to look at for sure. Now my recovery time would take an extra two weeks. So I would not be cleared for activity until the second week of January. This was very strange for me considering I’ve had a job since I was 11, and been tattooing full-time for a decade and a half. I’m very grateful it was only for a month and a half, and that’s the truth. Having Des to rely on during my healing was a blessing, but letting my ego go and relying on Des to help me for simple things like using the restroom or showering was tough. I fucking hated the vulnerability. I felt extremely embarrassed, like a fuckin’ soldier though she didn’t even bay an eye. All the while she was there for it, even if I didn’t want to ask. MVP status.

Something Aint Right

My journey started in September 2022.

First things first…

when you notice an achy bulge the size of a large chicken nugget surrounding your testicle, you definitely know something is not normal. As soon as we noticed, I immediately thought it was cancer.

Might seem dramatic, but it’s all I could think about. Desiree (my wife/partner) tried to make an appointment for me, but I would not be able to see a doctor until the first week of October. This was the first time I had really dealt with our medical and insurance system. The weeks seemed to melt away. Everyday Des and myself had to sort out finding the proper coverage, finding a provider that would be appropriate, contacting specialists, find someone in my network, researching facilities, reading reviews, and getting offices to respond.

I’d had one doctor tell us he was 99% sure it was not cancer. It took two weeks from there to see a radiologist. To make matters a zillion times more stressful when we finally did get in with a radiologist, they decided to tell me I needed to follow up as soon as possible with any doctor because this did not look good. Normally radiologist are not allowed to give any sort of opinion. Any hint of doubt that this was that it was not cancer seemed to get thrown right out the window.

Some of you may be familiar with my past, but for those of you who are not, my best friend/brother/bromigo Ernesto Llerenas passed away from testicular cancer. You’d probably guess my ass was extremely stressed out. I knew that with cancer, time is extremely important. Every month, every week, hell every day things can change, and they can change very rapidly. We had just burned through about a month and a half of time and my mass was becoming bigger and the pain had spread up my sides and down my legs. All the while I was still working 5-6 days a week.

We finally met with the Urologist Dr. Rosenberg in November. He immediately wanted to remove the mass/testicle. I was definitely all for this and wanted this thing out of me as soon as possible. I cannot stress how much I meant AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Unfortunately, again due to the way things work I would not be able to have the procedure ‘til December 2nd. We had to be patient.