Since today is Veteran’s Day I’m releasing some relevant details about my progress. For years I’ve been working with the Active Veteran Academy to bring about some new community development in this region. The Active Veteran Academy has been exclusive to Veteran families and I expect it will remain exclusive for now. However, I’ve been working on opening some doors to allow select civilians to enter after they earn a status within an AVA auxiliary. This isn’t an easy transition for them, but the prerequisites are realistic. I’ve been streamlining the accessibility of these requirements with an AVA auxiliary, DeadTech-XYZ.
*note- DTXYZ is the only auxiliary visible to the public at this time. More will be revealed after some testing.
Although AVA doesn’t advertise itself to the Civilian population, AVA has Veteran chapters all across the nation. Each individual member is judged individually based on the merits of their community service. The more good a Veteran does for their local community, the more influence they gain in the organization. DeadTech intends to amplify the public’s capability for community service and development through the administration of vocational education. DeadTech isn’t limiting its outreach to Veterans only. We welcome all people willing to learn and educate. However, the amount of access we grant to each individual will be based on the extent of their own effort and success within our institute.
Here’s a little background on how all of this began. From 2009-2011 I stewed over the thought of contributing to this organziation(AVA). In 2012 I created a brand(TATTOO VARROU) to operate through in service to AVA. I realized that it would be impossible to launch this brand without first having a physical platform to give it some liftoff. So, I had to use what I know to substantiate a storefront. At that time in 2012 I had been tattooing for five years, licensed since 2007. As you’d expect, the most plausible idea I had for a launchpad was a tattoo shop, but I didn’t intend for the brand to stop at being a tattoo shop, I also needed it to operate as an AVA auxiliary. When I created the brand, TATTOO VARROU, I planned for it to grow into a full fledged school of art and technology as well as a production studio for other creative properties. I felt that this sort of consolidation would give local Veterans new career avenues so long as our principles were a good fit for them. Those principles and the vision of the brand was clouded by some unexpected factors - the operation went into revision.
No person or plan is perfect, but as the years go we do become less naive while further refining our plans. I keep this in mind as we’re now at the end of 2020 and my original projections for Tattoo Varrou aren’t where they should be. Sure, I opened a tattoo shop, many people seem to think that’s a success, but they don’t realize my primary reason for creating it had very little to do with tattoos. Ultimately, I intended to create a launch platform for educational veteran services. I continue to do tattoos there, but it’s never been about tattoos or money. For me, it was always about establishing a field office for AVA to contribute to my local community and birthplace.
So far, the Tattoo Varrou brand hasn’t been a success in this regard as it doesn’t meet all the qualifications for AVA. I recognize that my aspiration for veteran service has conflicted with my ability to serve all the people interested in tattoos. There have been plenty of times I wanted to throw in the towel, just draw pretty pictures on people’s skin and make money, but then I realize I could never settle for that. I obsess too much over external issues, the kind of things that creep. I realize that it’s always an option to focus only on myself and those close to me, but the consequences of the outside world are always closing in. It’s irresponsible of me or any other man of my experience to ignore this truth.
Culture has conditioned me to think I should apologize to those people I’ve not had the time to do business with, but it’s difficult for me to feel sorry for anyone while I continue making these sacrifices without feelings sorry for myself. As much as it frustrates many of you, I’m so consumed with doing what I feel/think is most necessary in upholding my oath/word. Although that Oath may have been made in 1999, for a principled person the Oath is for life. Maybe that makes me selfish because those are my feelings and thoughts, it’s my word, my oath I’m working to stay true to - I can’t change that. If that makes me selfish, so be it. I find it extremely difficult to apologize when everything I know shows that I’m doing the right thing, but for what it’s worth, I do miss you... and of course I miss out on the money too.
As much as I miss working with many clients. I also miss out on seeing family and friends. I’ve had to sacrifice more than I care to. The more I’ve distanced myself from friends and family, the more I feel pieces of myself went with them. I don’t feel good about any of this, but feeling good was never the point.. I knew this would be uncomfortable and I blame no one other than my own selfish self. One other thing I can admit is that much of this stuff is frightening to take on alone. Everything that goes into opening a business while simultaneously creating an auxiliary is a lot of pressure, pressure that forces me to become hyper aware of every little thing that could go wrong.
Opening Tattoo Varrou was one of the most worrisome things I’ve done in my life. Although I had all the money to build the shop and cover any upfront losses, I had trouble wrapping my head around being the only authority over the shop. I was uncertain that I could trust myself to see all angles of the front end of the shop as well as the back end of all my other branded developments. So, I enlisted the help of another tattoo licensee, allowing him to buy half of the shop(not the brand) at his own pace over the course of time, interest free. Having an extra set of eyes on the shop would give the shop all the attention it deserves while freeing me up enough to work with both the shop and AVA. My original intention was to tie my AVA community work into Tattoo Varrou. These two would have cross pollenated, allowing both to grow from each other. However, this could only happen if the shop would adhere to my original vision for AVA.
After realizing my vision wouldn’t be shared unanimously within the shop I was pressed to make a hard decision. I chose between forcing an indifferent shop staff to stay on track with the original vision vs. creating a new brand apart from Tattoo Varrou. It’s something I focused on for a long period before making a final decision. A lot of time and money was lost on this decision, but it was necessary. I had to cut my losses and begin disassociating with the Tattoo Varrou brand. Although I currently own the Tattoo Varrou brand, take appointments at the shop, and pay the plaza landlord to keep the storefront open, it’s not a storefront I can use in the manner I’d created it for. It can’t operate properly with people who oppose my original vision for the shop. So, I’ve had to accept that I’ve allowed “the help” to wreck eight years of my effort in their own attempt to monopolize what I’ve built.
Now that I’ve fully committed to AVA service, I can’t allow myself to be connected with anything that doesn’t represent the principles of the organization. There’s a certain purity to the vision of the organization and it’s beyond me to cloud it with any improper associations going forward. This is why you’ve not seen me post to the Tattoo Varrou page for years. Although I’ll continue receiving your messages on the Tattoo Varrou page, I won’t be posting any of my work there.
Going forward, my posts will go through the new brand, TopWater Tattoo + Design or the new auxiliary, DeadTech-XYZ. Both of these are built to operate under AVA without error. As wild as 2020 has been, things have only begun to get interesting. There’s no telling how we may need to adapt with the times, but for now we’re rolling steady. As we move into 2021, we expect to expand our monthly meet ups for new members. If any of you are interested in helping Veterans or your local community while learning new skills, get in touch with me.
-TopWATER
p.s. One last thought I’d like to mention is that one of the worst feelings in life is being forced into giving up on a person you initially believed in. I think it’s healthy to give people the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes there is no benefit at all in it. In this case I take a loss, but I refuse to allow this to affect the way I see new people. It’s important that we don’t allow the actions of others to alter our own good character. Also, it’s not our responsibility or right to alter their character. It’s best to step away and allow them their own self-determination.
