Let’s go back; back to the beginning.

The scene: Jacksonville, North Carolina; June. The year, 1982. Christopher burst forth from his mother’s womb.

As the doctor raised the scissors to cut the umbilical cord, Christopher reached for them. It was his first desire for the utensils of an artist, but he swore them off for a while after the circumcision. 

…other important things happened that shaped the earlier years of his life, but aren’t totally pertinent to the purposes of this bio; and then at 13 he picked up a guitar. 

From 15 years old Christopher was playing guitar in a garage punk band, practicing in his parents shed (that drove his aforementioned mother up a wall).  To age 18, destroying his vocal cords and touring in several metal bands that you would’ve totally heard of if you were into that kind of thing. To age 24, picking up the guitar again to mellow out in his old age with an alt rock band. From all of that time one thing became very apparent: There was no way he was going to make a living playing music! 

Lucky for him he’d been drawing it up that whole time he had been playing music. I know right, both!? And then the college started… again.  He learned the technical aspects of perspective, light and shade, hue and saturation, all that nerd stuff. Christopher then persuaded the artist that had been tattooing him for several years in Wilmington, NC to trade tattoos for cleaning, but he knew what Christopher really wanted. After 6 months of toilet scrubbin and phone answerin, the artist decided he’d just bite the bullet and teach Christopher to tattoo. 

After his year (06-07) of apprenticing it was time for Christopher to really get his career going, so he left Wilmington, NC to brighten his horizons and to strengthen his skills with other artists. Off he went… to Greensboro, NC to Austin to Salt Lake City to Austin to Chicago to Austin to New Haven, CT to Austin. Seeing a pattern? You think he’d be an expert by then, (trust me, he’s trying) but the thing there was no question of, Austin was home. 

Now you can find him nestled up in his boutique tattoo studio in Austin, TX. Here he continues to hone his skills at clean photo realistic, bright colored, and well balanced illustrations even your mother (nay your grandmother!) would love to have on her body. Animals and flowers will forever be his favorite subject matter, especially kitties and songbirds, but why stop there? He doesn’t just have to put a bird on it. It could even be a boat *radio edit* or some flippy floppies! The choice is yours!

But in the end there’s only one thing that really matters; working hard to give his cats a better life.