I’ve been friends with Ryan for over half of my life. If you were to multiply the years we’ve been friends with the closeness of our relationship, there are only a couple of other people that are in that tier. He is such an exceptional part of my life that I want to share my relationship with him to others. He is truthfully at the top of my list in terms of people that shaped my outlook on life, which is something that I respect and appreciate greatly.
On the surface, most people probably wouldn’t have put us together as friends. I switched to a different middle school in 7th grade. There were already established friend groups from elementary school and budding friend groups created in 6th grade. It goes without saying changing schools at that age can be tough for a variety of reasons. Small things like not knowing where the classrooms or bathrooms are located pale in comparison to not having a set group of friends, but they all add up to being an outsider in a new environment.
Fortunately for me, most of the small things shook themselves out within the first month. Most importantly and surprisingly, the friend group did as well. The summer between 6th and 7th grade I was on the local swim team and met a friend named John. That friendship would have probably stayed as a “summertime friend” until John invited me to sit with him at lunch on the first day of 7th grade. A middle school miracle – I had a friend group on day 1. On top of that, they’ve remained my best friends since. The Skater Group.
I think my only previous exposure to skateboarding was playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 on Gamecube and owning a lightly used Yug-Gi-Oh skateboard I got from a following Christmas. Still to this day, sports (playing and watching) made up a large part of my life and personality. I could name every starting QB in the NFL with probably most of the accompanying backups and they couldn’t have cared less about it. With that being said, the commonalities of being in the same school and living within a few miles of each other were enough to create life-long friendships.
Today, Ryan is a flourishing tattoo artist who is putting the whole game on notice, but there are a couple of key things that have happened between the first day of us meeting to creating the bond we have now. We had many years of middle school/high school together and everything which comes with that, hot summer days with the skaters skating around and the non skaters occasionally trying to hop on a board until we got too scared, annual trips to Canada, a year a part going to different colleges, us transferring to the same school after freshman year, two years together as roommates in college, trying to find jobs, not getting jobs, starting our careers as young adults, and most importantly, being by each other’s side the whole time to share these experiences.
I want to focus on those two years as roommates together because I think we both view those years as the time we made large leaps in many aspects of our lives. Besides all the fun that comes with living with one of your best friends, I can look back on those two years where I really started the process of refining myself into the person I am today. Clearly, I had 19+ years forming myself, but those two years kicked it into hyperdrive and it was because of Ryan.
At the time, Ryan was a kinesiology major. Ryan would be the first to tell you that school has never been his thing. Just like most, he can spend hours learning about stuff he cares about, but most of the stuff covered in a school curriculum didn’t excite him. He ended up as a kinesiology major because he got semi-serious about working out in high school and figured that being a personal trainer seems like the default career path.
Choosing a major is like a trust fall activity that you would do at a summer camp. For some, their major passes the trust fall test; the major catches them and leads them into a “successful” career.
Kinesiology let Ryan fall to the ground. Admittedly, Ryan didn’t do much to try to have Kinesiology catch him. He picked up some semi-interesting facts along the way, but Ryan didn’t care. Those classes were a drain on him mentally and emotionally. It was him failing a biology class a second time that led him into the life he leads today.
I really enjoy looking back at distinct moments in life that have led you to where you are today. There are some major points everyone can identify – getting accepted to a college, starting your first job, getting married, having a kid, etc. We all know these major life events. Movies have been made about them, stories have been written, and we’ve might have already gone through a couple ourselves.
The moments I love are those life changing moments, but you don’t realize it until the future. Ryan failing his biology class was one of those moments for him. I can’t exactly say what was going through his head at the time because only he can speak to it, but I was the closest person to him at the time and it’s not that hard to figure out what someone might be thinking at that moment. You just failed a class for a second time doing something you really don’t care about.
There was another inflection point for him that we can both reflect back on now. Every summer my friends go up to Canada to a river house for a week, which is something we all love greatly and is a cornerstone piece to our friendship. During one of those summers, Ryan started drawing a portrait of Wiz Khalifa. I didn’t know how many drawings Ryan had done earlier in his life, but an activity that he used to pass some time on vacation led him into the career he loves.
The combination of failing the biology course on top of rediscovering his true passion for art made him reevaluate his priorities in life. He ended up taking a year off of college as a reset. He didn’t backpack across Southeast Asia to find himself, he spent hours hunched over drawing late into the night listening to Alan Watts and Co. after work. Ryan is one of the hardest workers I know and he is able to do it because he is doing something he loves.
As roommates, he started forming what I like to call a “Mt. Rushmore of Influence” during those couple of years. The influences of Alan Watts and Jordan Peterson among others gave him permission to focus on what he wants out of his life. Ryan has never cared about making money, so that wasn’t a problem for him. He doubled down on the idea of being able to live a satisfying and enjoyable life by his own definition.
Ryan’s ideal life which he is working towards is very simple and achievable. He eventually wants to have a family and kids. He wants to be able to play with his kids for a couple of hours before heading into the tattoo shop around 10am to do some dope work. All to come back to his family to close out the day by chilling with them again. Pretty simple if you ask me. You are surrounded by loved ones, you are able to pay for the roof over your head and the food on the table, all while spending your waking hours doing something you enjoy.
The idea of “pursuing your dreams” is something that gets sold and isn’t bought often. The delta between the supply of this idea compared to the amount it’s legitimately bought does make sense to me for many reasons. For me personally, I don’t know what my “dreams” are, so how can I try to go after something that I can’t define myself? You also have to be practical about it. You can’t just quit your 9-5 and expect everything to fall into place doing the thing you love. Ryan is the one person I know that has followed through with this and is the furthest along his journey.
You are able to scroll through his Instagram to see it. He has new tattoos which he posts every day and you are able to see his progression. With all that being said, that didn’t magically happen. Ryan spent 3+ years rigorously working on his art and creating a portfolio. Scroll down his page past his tattoos and you’ll see even more art posts prior to his tattooing. Finding an apprenticeship at a tattoo studio probably should have happened a year earlier than it actually did for him.
Just like with most jobs, you need to be able to say you have prior experience doing something. Doesn’t matter what it is, but you need to have something on a resume. How are you supposed to get a job in the first place if you don’t have any experience? It is a never ending circle that people break through eventually, but it is even harder with something like tattooing. You aren’t just answering phones, checking people out at a register, or scanning papers, you are putting something permanent on someone’s body.
He knew he had the talent, the portfolio, the drive, and the overall preparation to start the journey as an apprentice. Just like finding a “normal job”, who is going to hire you if you don’t have any experience? Ryan had everything laid out and was overqualified for being an apprentice, but nothing hit. Ryan worked as a sales associate at a tattoo shop, but he wasn’t tattooing people. That shop ended up closing and no apprenticeship came directly from that shop. A crushing blow for him.
Even though he didn’t get an apprenticeship at that shop, one of the tattoo artists moved to another shop after the closing and texted Ryan saying he had a potential opportunity for him. Ryan drove over to the shop that day and of course, blew everyone out of the water with his portfolio. As I said, he was ready for this opportunity a year prior, but nothing hit. I know those were some dark times for him. He knew he was ready, but there was nothing available for him.
With all of that being said, he stayed on his path and now is a rising star in the tattoo game. There was a night with all my friends in Canada when Ryan had started this process, but not had gotten his apprenticeship, where I made a bet that Ryan would be the most “successful” of us all. Why is that? He was laser-focused on something he loved. Something that I know I lack, but I am working towards.
Ryan has been a fantastic friend, role model, and presence in my life since we became friends in seventh grade. Through my friendship with him, he’s helped me throw gasoline on the fire that is my life. We’ve been able to discuss life’s “big ideas” as well as the small ones, but the thing that matters most to me is that he has made me a better person throughout the conversations and time spent together.
I’m very much looking forward to revisiting this post in the next 5, 10, 25, and 50 years in the future. We’ll have even greater memories together in the coming years that we’ll be able to cherish for the rest of our lives.
Go drop him a follow on Instagram @ryanwaidtattoos and reach out if you are looking for some ink! You better try to get an appointment with him soon because before you know it he’ll be booked out for months in advance!
For anyone that is still reading this, I’m not asking you to write a blog post about a friend, but please go reach out to them and tell them you appreciate them. It not only will make them feel loved, it will put a smile on your face as well. That is what life’s really about, isn’t it?
Peace & Love.
