Pushing Inspiration

In the early 2000s there was a kid in Arlington, Vermont sneaking peeks at this wild and crazy book published in 1979.

That kid was me!

It belonged to our brother, Sam, who was the only person I had ever known at that point to get tattooed. He was a graffiti artist, a breakdancer, a drummer, a skater; he loved thrash metal as much as he loved hip hop and blues. He influenced me in the best way, because he showed me early on that an artist can create all kinds of things. He was a creative soul and I adored him with all of my heart.

Spider Webb’s Pushing Ink was left to me in the wake of losing Sam to addiction in 2001. To a smalltown kid, this book showed a world where everyone could be themselves and still belong somewhere. It looked like a world where nothing felt so heavy and everyone had fun. The escape of being an artist was my key to the highway; a window to a world I wanted to belong to, beyond a world of heartbreak. It showed me that there was more out there to look forward to in life.

When I started my apprenticeship with Jon, whose friendship with Spider Webb goes back longer than I’ve been alive, my mother gave me Sam’s book for keeps and I revisit it time and time again. I’m grateful for Pushing Ink being my earliest introduction to tattooing, since I was already a teenager when all of the tv shows were just starting up. My draw to tattooing felt deeper than anything shown on tv, and once I got my first tattoo at 16, a tribute to Sam, I knew that this was a path for me in some form. My older brother Michael had already gotten his first tattoo in memory of Sam, and suddenly tattooing became a part of healing.

Growing up in a small town, time has no bearing so reading stuff from the 70's you still think that is what tattooing must be like with all of the same characters and mystery; that becomes the picture painted for a kid in a small town. What you see, or what you read, is what you think you get. The fantastic part is going out into the world, experiencing all the good bad and ugly of it all, and then taking from it whatever truth you can discern for yourself.

One thing I’ve learned is that strength comes from our vulnerability and our grief more than anything else. And even though we grieve, we have people in our lives who help us heal our broken hearts a little bit, who teach us to mend those breaks with hope. Spider is one of those people to me, and he knows it. Not everyone gets to meet one of their inspirations and tell them what they mean to you, but I did. I’m grateful each day for that. I wanted to take a moment to share what a difference one friend can make, even years before we met! Much love, Webbo.