Individuals…A rare breed

Over the last few years, I’ve met a lot of people. I talk to them, I tattoo them, and I observe them. It’s a lot more interaction than I would like, but unfortunately, it’s part of the job.
Sadly, people are by and large uninteresting to me.  I find them to be diluted, delusional, and needy. Their overall mindset is disturbing to me. It’s a pattern that has gotten worse over time. Maybe it’s just a pattern that has never changed.

Individuality… while it is something that everyone agrees we should have and be able to express, it is also the hardest thing for the majority of the planet to achieve. I believe there are two important factors at play which severely limit our ability to be individuals. The “system”,  and mass marketing.

The “system”, which despite what they want you to believe, doesn’t want you to be an individual. This “system” can’t work with individuals, it requires followers. You’ve been trained your entire life, to follow. Stand in line, raise your hand to speak etc.  If you don’t follow, there are consequences. It’s much like training a dog… if you shit on the carpet, you’re getting thrown in the kennel.

Companies aim million dollar add campaigns at us from the time we’re toddlers until the time we die. They’ve mass produced their product and mass marketed that product so well that everyone has to have one. If you don’t have one, you’re not one of the “cool kids”. You want to be just like everyone else, right? All of the other kids on your street have that toy. You want that toy too, right? All of the other kids at school have a pair of those shoes, you want those shoes too, right? You just want to fit in. It’s important to fit in. Your parents don’t want you to be the odd one out. They want you to fit in too, they want a “normal” child.  So they make sure you have the same toys and clothes as everyone else. You, all the other children at school and your parents have now fallen victim to mass marketing. 

This continues through junior high, high school and into adulthood. You’ve had a fear of being “abnormal” programmed into your brain. You’re afraid to be different for fear of no one liking you. So you continue to stand in line, just like everyone else. Peas in a pod.

Individuality is important. Be yourself. I think people can’t find themselves because of what they think they should be, and what they are expected to be. If you’re a good person with something to offer, people will accept you no matter how weird you are.

Be an individual.

Metal and why we love it

Metal is a genre that if one chooses, can be divided into many sub-genres and fusions. From Classic Metal to Power Metal to Metalcore, to everything in-between, everything before and everything after. It can be heard in countries all over the world. The core elements of Metal consisting of blues and the trippy psychedelic rock of the mid and late sixties have remained fairly intact except for some minor tweaking here and there from early Heavy Metal bands such as Zeppelin and Sabbath to some of today’s bands like Suicide Silence, Arch Enemy and Trivium to name a few.

 

Crushing rhythms, fast leads, pounding drums and hard vocals have become the hallmark of Metal. It can be discordant, melodic or have odd time signatures. It’s powerful, brutal, and beautiful all at the same time. It’s hard to imagine a life without the sound of palm muted down-picked guitars, blast beats and some guttural vocals!

 

Metal is a force that motivates us, it drives us to be better, stronger and more “Metal” than the rest of the world. Metal shows us that others feel the same way we do and that they’ve gone through the same things. Life isn’t always a pop song. Or if it is and you need to get away from it really fast, put some metal on the iPod. Whether its Speed, Thrash, Hardcore or Death Metal, Its all The greatest sound ever created!