Latest / The Story Behind The Ink / Episode 1: The Story Behind Me - My Testimony
Transcript
- Robert moss: Everybody has a story. Sometimes you can see it, sometimes it's hidden, sometimes it's written across someone's skin, but behind every tattoo is a person. And behind every person is a story. Welcome to the stories behind the ink. I'm Robert Moss and this is the very first episode. So I figured there was really only one place to start. My story. I spend a lot of time around people because of tattooing, and one thing I've learned is that when somebody sits down in that chair, you're not just tattooing a piece of art on their skin. You're hearing their story. You hear about their kids, their parents, people they've lost, things they're s things they've survived, mistakes they've made, people they've loved. Sometimes you hear stories that are funny, sometimes they're heartbreaking. And sometimes somebody tells you something that makes you look at them completely differently. And I started realizing something. Everybody has a story. You just have to take the time to listen. And that's what this podcast is about. So before I ask anybody else to sit across from me and tell me their story, I figured I'd better tell mine. So I grew up mostly in Woodruff, South Carolina. I remember going to primary school, elementary, and middle school in Woodruff. I have two younger half brothers, both on my mom's side. I'm my dad's only son. My mom and dad both were in and out of treatment centers before and after I was born. Both parents were addicts and my mom a recovering alcoholic. My dad was in prison before I was born. I remember the story he told me when I was a kid on how he escaped prison with this other guy while they were swimming across the river. The other, I guess, couldn't swim and drown. My dad thought he would get a murder charge, so he turned himself back in. I'll never forget that story. Crazy. My mom and dad got divorced just when I was two years old. I never really got to have a normal life or a childhood. Moving to one house to another while your parents get high in the bedroom, while you're in the other bedroom, always being treated like crap by other people's parents and kids. I still remember being traumatized when this dude used to try and run me over with a lawnmower. I remember being shoved into a cooler not being able to breathe. When you are seven and eight years old, this will traumatize you. A lot of my childhood is a blur. I do know I was an awful kid. My dad gave me a knife one year, took that knife, ran around the neighborhood stabbing everyone's coolers. They were so mad. I would go to my cousin's house while I was there, I would break everyone's toys, I took my cousin's little mermaid, flushed it down the toilet, got it clogged up. I would pluck strings off my cousin's violin. I took a hoe and hit another cousin in the head, causing him to get stitches. That was an accident, by the way. My aunt had seven kids, four girls, three boys, two that are not here anymore. I miss them dearly. I hated school or what I can remember of it. Besides art and home ac I never really paid that much attention to anything else. ISS in school suspension was my home away from home. All I ever did in there was sleep. I remember every time I would get expelled from school I would make sure I'd would I was first to check the mailbox for the letter from the school. I also had to take my report card and forge my mom's name on it. I remember getting expelled and my mom would drop me off at the bus stop and I would jump and dive down in the woods and I'd hang out by the creek and I remember like sketching the creek and like drawing with my art pad and just like sketching and taking a nap there and eventually I'd jump up and I'd go hang out at the laundromat all day with the other boys who skipped school. So it was crazy. I eventually got expelled permanently for smoking grass. I skipped PE and went behind the art building, lit up, smoked a good half. When I went back inside, headed back to P E. Inside the building the principal had already been informed that I was missing. He found me just as soon as I walked inside, grabbed me and said, You smell like smoke. Or he put me in a couch and then I shoved everything in the couch. They couldn't prove it was mine. I went to a university school for troublemakers. I passed eighth grade and never went back. I did eventually get my GD in Brunswick County Jail, waiting to get sentenced, which we will get to shortly. definitely didn't have everything figured out. Heck, I still don't. But along the way, life has a way of teaching you things. Sometimes you learn from somebody giving you good advice, and sometimes you have to get your butt kicked by life before you finally understand the lesson. I've made mistakes, I've made decisions, I wish I could go back and change. I've trusted people I probably shouldn't have. I probably hurt people without realizing it. And I've had people hurt me for sure. There has been times when I thought I knew exactly where my life was going, and then something happened that completely changed that direction. By the age of sixteen I was already getting introduced to meth, was on probation at the age of sixteen for second degree burglary. Five years probation, about violated five or more times. Can't remember, we will blame my memory loss on the drugs. huh. By the age of twenty three, I remember being with my cousin at a motel in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He had a guy with him that so happened was cooking meth, shaking bake is what he called it. I say no longer than two months. I met up with a childhood friend who was down from the beach visiting her dad that night. I was shaking a bottle, other words cooking meth in his backyard that night, introduced her and her friends to it and decided I was gonna go back to the beach with her and her friends. We were gonna go get a job and help with bills. We loaded up six of us in a four seater car and headed to the beach. I had all my chemicals, like the whole precursors, everything in a book bag, in the back of the trunk, like just waiting to get pulled. Just doing the stupidest things I could remember. Like I thought I was invincible, didn't think I was ever gonna get caught. It was crazy. I wasn't there but for a week when I got snitched on by two confidential informants. We were riding to my friend's mom's house because she had no water. So we all were going to shower and party, but halfway there we got pulled by the by the police, took back to the house where they later found my book bag. Where all the chemicals were located. I had five Xanax on me before we got pulled, eight them, so the first few nights was a blur. But I got booked in Brunswick County Detention Center August eighth, two thousand and nine for manufacturing meth, along with four other Class B felonies. Maintaining the well in drug paraphernalia, even my drug paraphernalia was a Class B charge. They were charging me with jars and filters and and all that bullcrap. But If you're not familiar, a Class B felony would be considered almost like a murder charge. I was looking at 400 and something months on each charge, but then North Carolina could only give me the max under the sentencing sheet. And since I wasn't in that much trouble, they hit me with 50 to 69 months. I ended up doing fifty months, four years, nine months. I stayed in Brunswick County Detention Center for 10 months, waiting to get sentenced. Finally they gave me the same plea three different times and told me if I didn't accept it, they were gonna boxcart me. for every charge. So I eventually pled guilty to manufacturing meth while I was in there. I met this old guy when I caught my time and I remember him telling me, Make sure you do the time and don't let the time do you. Back then I didn't even know what he was talking about. until about my first year in. I signed up for every college class or vocational class I could sign up for in every prison. I probably went to seven or eight prisons just doing schooling. I took Thanking for a change, character communication, plumbing, electrical wiring, the art of hospitality management, and I'm sure there's a few more that I've forgotten and it's crazy. I learned how to draw portraits of people from my bunk mate. I would draw every chance I got. I had a nice portfolio for when I got out. I ended up getting my G D at the last month they had had offered a G D and then they took it out of the jail. I literally got my G D the day after they cut it out. That was a blessing on its own. I got released March the thirteenth, twenty fourteen with nine months parole. Lucky luckily I had a brother who put me up for that nine months. I remember going to every tattoo shop, letting everyone that would look or matter check my portfolio portfolio out. Everyone gave me amazing compliments, but no one would give me an apprenticeship. Mainly because I was still using meth and they probably knew it. Soon after I got out, ended up setting tile for a while. I stayed in Columbia, South Carolina for another year and some months with this chick I was dating at the time until I had enough. I was thinking to myself, is this the life I really want to live? And by a blessing, a buddy of mine I was locked up with hit me up one day. I was telling him about my life and what I wanted to do. He told me, move up here to Asheville and I'll I will help you. So I did. Came up here with my truck and a backpack with my clothes, sold everything I had in Columbia to a buddy of mine that owned a junkyard down there. Had literally five hundred bucks, got a motel room for a night, landed a job the next day at Dolphin Automotive and Tire, and just kept on hustling and bustling. I I got clean too without any problems. My buddy, he helped me get into a church called The Place Fellowship where I became friends with the pastor. Really good guy. Took me in, heard my story, put me up in his office, fed me. I got a job. he didn't even let me he didn't even make me pay rent at all. Got me on my feet, which was a super blessing. I still go to that church to this day. we're no longer in Swannanoa, we're actually in Fairview, North Carolina now, right across from the food line. And I've been going faithfully for almost ten years now. It's crazy. Crazy how time flies. Getting kicked out of the place I was staying because I was a felon. The dude I was staying with, I found him on Facebook Marketplace or something like that for a room to rent. And I was renting the room and literally stayed there for like a day. And then he was running my backgrounds like, I can't have you here because you're a felon and I'm I'm battling some kind of DSS stuff with his kid or whatever, whatnot. So I ended up getting screwed over, getting my money took, would not give my money back to find another place. I just started a job, so I really didn't have the money. To do anything like that. So preacher took me in and and he and he saved me for sure. I did I did land a job at Chandler Automotive Entire right across the street from there. A few months passed when I met my wife to be. We have been together for nine years in counting, still living at the same house in Black Mountain, North Carolina. No kids, neither one of us. We got a amazing red hiller. Her name's Nova Skye. Then we have this beautiful calico cat. Her name's Papaya Papaya. And they're all females and they're all lovely and I love everyone. They're amazing, they're my kids. I'm not sitting here pretending I've got life figured out. I'm just another person trying to figure it out as I go. Eventually tattooing became a huge part of my life. I was originally was fourteen years old living in Woodrow, South Carolina, with my mom and my youngest brother. The middle brother didn't get to come stay until way later, but he has his own story for sure. When I found out about tattoos, I was fourteen years old. I was with a kid, I don't even remember who he was. It's been so long ago. We had walked to the trailer park to get some smoke. A guy was in his kitchen tattooing someone's back. And in my mind I was like, Yeah, that's what I want to do. So I studied this homemade machine he was using, asked a few questions, and my buddy got the smoke. We left later that night. I searched the house up and down for everything I thought I would need. A Walkman tape player radio. Most y'all don't even know what that is. But, you know, it played cassette tapes. Pretty cool. Don't even think they make anymore. But then I roused up a nine volt battery or a nine volt cord that I took off of a friggin' remote control car. A spoon, a big pen, a needle, and a safety pen, and bam, I had myself a tattoo machine. Been tattooing ever since, I tell everybody. I've tattooed a lot of people in my time. I remember not even knowing what kind of ink to use. I took a big pen my very first time, blew the ink out, and tattooed this Japanese symbol on my leg. I showed my mom a few days later and I remember her saying, That better not be real. Two weeks later it was gone. I tattooed with that machine for a long time, tattooing anyone up who would let me, charging like twenty dollars each, sometimes not even charging nothing at all. I remember trying to get an apprenticeship and them telling me I was too young. That was one of the three times I attempted to get an apprenticeship. The second time was after I got out of prison after learning to draw portraits. I had a nice portfolio. I was twenty-eight years old at the time. Went to every shot in Columbia, South Carolina, and no one would give me a shot. So life happens. Third final attempt, one of my really close childhood friends grew up together, brother from another mother who is no longer here with us today because some deranged psychopath wanted to shoot him in the back like a coward for trying to save someone. Y'all this just happened like a week ago. my buddy Troy Connor owned Il Inc., Bowen Springs, South Carolina. Really cool dude. Really, really, really cool dude. Very spiritual. he gotta call it it was some commotion going on at his at his studio. So he pulls up, pulls up to a studio, he immediately witnesses this dude choking his this chick out. So, being the man he is, and you know, I'd have done the same exact thing. So it's crazy. But yeah, he jumped out of his car, went to go help. Man shot him in his back, shot him in the back of the head and killed him. Just like that. Then shot the girl's car up, then went home and watched T V and waited on the police. Coward. when he was finishing up his apprenticeship, it was probably like maybe five years ago, something like that. A few years later opened up Il Inc. in Bournemouth Springs, South Carolina. He was trying to get me to apprenticeship under him Being he was an hour away, I really didn't think it would work out, so I declined. But he had me he had me on the move, man. I was like determined to get an apprenticeship. Went and got an iPad, learned how to use Procreate a before I even got offered a job or anything like that. Learned how to use Procreate, went and got my blood born pathogen certificate, went and got my C P R certificate, everything I thought I would need in North Carolina, but you really don't need that here. But Anyway, I did get it. I was determined and decided to call around to every shop in Asheville, North Carolina. I think like my seventeenth call I got a hit at Across the Skin Tattoos. I stayed for two years until I felt like that shop really wasn't the shop for me anymore, so I parted ways. It's a funny story. The day I left Across the Skin Tattoos, my buddy and I were riding our electric scooters through Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was crazy. I was drinking a little bit, so that's probably my fault too. But We were cruising down Black Mountain like we always do on these little electric scooters, go about twenty-five miles an hour, they're pretty cool. And just out of it was dark, so when I ran up on that mud, it was just too late and I hit it and just flipped right over, broke my hand. Sucks. Broke my left hand, at least it wasn't my tattoo hand. But it it still sucks. I was out of work for a w for a while. And the worst part is I had to drive home three miles away with my broke hand, and I remember going into the house and Telling my wife, like, look, like, in the car now, we gotta go now. In the process of all that, landed the job, as a tattooer, piercer at all day art studio, through the same friend. Took about two months for my hand to fully heal, then I got back at it. And obviously you're not gonna be great at something the first time you do it. You have to put in the hours, you have to screw things up, you have to learn, you have to keep going. And that's actually one of the biggest things tattooing has taught me about life. You don't get better by wishing you were better. You get better by doing the work. And that's with everything you do, you you only get better by doing the work. You just gotta be repetitive, keep going, keep going, keep going. Alday Studio is my home, and to me it's about more than just having a place to tattoo. It's about having a place where people feel comfortable. Because people come through that door carrying all kinds of things you can't see. And sometimes a tattoo is just a tattoo, but sometimes it's a memorial. It's a new beginning. It's a reminder. It's covering something somebody doesn't want you to see anymore. It's celebrating someone that they love. Or it's simple. Or a simple somebody saying, This is who I am and I think that's pretty dang cool. That's where this podcast comes in and comes from. I started thinking, what if we actually sat down with these people? Not just for five minutes, not just asking them what they do for a living, but actually asked. Like, who are you? What happened to you? What have you survived? Who changed your life? What do you regret? What are you proud of? What did life teach you? Because some of the most interesting people you'll ever meet aren't famous. They're the person sitting next to you. They're your neighbor. They're the guy working construction. They're the waitress who remembers your order. And that's really very big with me, 'cause I love eating locally and we have this shop and Swannanoah's called the Breakfast Shop. Amazing breakfast, amazing food, amazing people. And everybody always remembers you, remembers your face, your name. They're always happy. They're always greeting you. Amazing people. You ever hear? You gotta check them out. They're amazing. They're the mother that's raising three kids. They're the old man who's been married for fifty years. They're the person with the tattoo you keep wondering about. Everybody has something. So that's what we're going to do here. I'm going to sit down with people from all walks of life, people you might know, some people you've never heard of. And we're going to talk, we're going to laugh, probably going to talk some crap. We're going to hear some crazy stories for sure. And we're going to have some conversations that might get uncomfortable. But most importantly, we're going to be real. No pretending, no trying to make everybody look perfect. 'Cause life isn't perfect. Nobody's perfect. People aren't perfect. And that's what makes these stories worth hearing. And every person who comes on this show is gonna get the same five questions at the end. I want these to become part of what this podcast is known for. So here they are. Number one, what's the hardest thing you've ever survived? Number two, what are you most proud of? Number three, what's the biggest lesson life taught you the hard way? And number four, if you could sit down with your younger self, what would you tell them? And number five, when you're gone, what do you hope people Remember about you. Y'all, if y'all like this podcast, please like and subscribe. Tell your friends about me. we're gonna do bo we're gonna be doing really good things, hearing really cool stories, really cool testimonies. so y'all y'all stay tuned. I got a lot coming for y'all. I don't know where this podcast is gonna go. Maybe it'll stay small. Maybe someday thousands or millions of people will hear these conversations. I honestly don't know, but I do know this. I want to create something that lasts, something that years from now somebody can listen to and say, I understand that person now. Because sometimes the greatest thing you give you can give somebody isn't advice. It's simply letting them know your story matters. So that's where we're starting, my story, and from here we're gonna hear yours. If you got a story, I'd love to hear it. I'm Robert Moss, and this is the story behind the ink. Everybody has a story, let's hear it. Told y'all it wasn't organized. But the more and more we keep going, the more organized I'm gonna get. So that's where I'm at with that. Before you go, hit that like button, subscribe, and share this video. Don't keep a good story to yourself. Send it to somebody, start a conversation, help us bring more real people and real stories to this podcast. The story behind the ink. Everybody has a story. Let's hear it. Mm-hmm.