My Dear Friends of Inked I’m a lover more than a fighter i fight for me so i’m not here to start any campaigns about anything i’m an advocate for free thought and i will remain an overt advocate for free thought and i’ll and i’ll support.
Whoever supports me in that whoever wants to be an ally whoever wants to be on the ground with it that’s what we’re doing i am a musician i’m a retired school teacher i’m a lover i’m a fighter.
I’m a father i’m a creator i’m a dj for the world famous dead prez i am one half of welcome to the limit and i am mike flo let’s do it i grew up on the south side of chicago um in the jordan era.
in a heyday of black culture really really proud and lucky uh to be a product of that yeah the first time i saw someone with a tattoo i’m 45 years old man so uh.
You’re asking me to go back maybe my mom i think my mom was yeah my mom was the first person i saw with a tattoo i wanted to get tattooed because i wanted a particular piece of art that was symbolic of some things that i was studying at the time and.
I was willing to do whatever it took to get the art so if that took like a little pain and it was a means to a beautiful end yeah that was a silhouette of the sphinx i was studying um.
Ancient comedic science at the time and uh yeah it just really resonated with me and i was i was like 16. being an avid history buff and just going down rabbit holes prior to the internet so we’re talking about like encyclopedias like that and then my mom got me um.
A set of encyclopedias when i was young and i don’t know i just took interest to them i just be looking up so you have questions and what is now google you had to like physically go look up and i just i think it gave me a more of a.
Connection gave me more trick um more like trigger points to recall memory and so things just stayed with me so yeah at 16 i was i was deep into it already.
How did you go about building your collection i think i no no process at all i remain completely um subservient to the universe so whatever happens i just roll with that if i feel like getting a tattoo today i.
Just get a tattoo and they just added up over the years and now they’ve now run out of real estate and now we’re doing blast overs of blastovers and it’s fine people inquisitive yeah they ask questions.
Um i’m in a space where i answer questions and i’m fine with that i don’t really get anything more than that sometimes you may get like like the question may be well why did you choose to do that or why the face and you know i have my answers for that and.
The vibration is pretty high i get people say that they don’t normally like face tattoos and they’ll say but there’s something different about yours and i just think it’s like it’s like clothing it’s not the tattoos man it’s who’s wearing them so i don’t know.
I tattooed my face about 25 years ago i was a full-time school teacher at the time it was great i was teaching in atlanta georgia but i had already retired from the state of illinois teaching and then i picked up another and i came.
Out of retirement and i was teaching in do you regret none no regrets in life no regrets ever none no can regrets none no regrets though no i just what i wanted something new.
I mean i was sorry for getting what i got i just wanted some new today says i want to get a tattoo then i go get a tattoo it’s real simple it’s not any more spooky than that if something says don’t do it i don’t do it um.
When i when i i don’t know depends i mean that could happen today i don’t know like moreover and not to just be like that with the questions but real shock real real like my approach to my life isn’t about.
The perception of whatever this future this idea of the future is um i strive to remain present in my moments and um and to be able to make decisions in those moments when they are.
Natural um and upon me and in my natural flow and rhythm and vibration and calibration of the way i want to live my life i would do it exactly the same no different because there are no regrets anything in my life.
Has prepared me for now and now is all that matters oh it is all that matters everything else is an illusion man yesterday already happened and tomorrow is predicated on the how great you live today so then tomorrow’s not real either so it’s really right now regardless of what your brain wants to.
Conceptualize in that what’s important right now are the br the breaths that you’re taking right now you tell your heart that something else matters all the other is ego fear and you know.
Trapped emotions and but you know to focus on the now can often be seen as irresponsible idealistic but the the actual essence and science of breath itself.
Is not contingent upon anything but the right now and i choose to live in that space i don’t have a choice i just submit to it you
When it comes to getting inked, Mike Flo doesn’t overthink things. If he’s feeling it on that day, he’s getting it. Flo goes through his life in tune with the vibrations of the universe, pondering the realities of our very reality on a regular basis. We spoke with the multi-talented Flo about his outlook on life, being a school teacher with face tattoos and much more in this episode of Heavily Inked.
Welcome to Heavily Inked. In our newest series, we’re going to speak one-on-one with tattoo collectors and artists about what it means to be a heavily inked person. We’ll get deep as we go through the motivations behind their tattoo choices, the way they’ve been treated in society and much more.
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