{"id":9,"date":"2025-10-01T20:25:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T20:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/?p=9"},"modified":"2026-02-08T19:05:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T19:05:51","slug":"putting-it-all-out-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/putting-it-all-out-there\/","title":{"rendered":"4 – Putting it all out there"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Trust the Process \u2013 In Art, Healing, and Life<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I started my day today in the usual way.\u00a0 Got up at 05:30, read my daily devotional, then started drawing for Artist Hour<\/a>.\u00a0 Today\u2019s subject was a Reaper.\u00a0 The reaper is a classic subject in tattooing\u2014bold lines, heavy contrast, and a symbol that can mean everything from respect for mortality to personal strength in the face of challenges.\u00a0\u00a0Nothing very difficult, so I had fun with it.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

While working on the piece, I couldn\u2019t help but think about another assignment I gave myself recently: showing up for an appointment at the VA with a psych doctor.\u00a0 After my sketch I headed out for my VA appointment.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I\u2019ll be honest\u2014it wasn\u2019t easy. Opening up about personal struggles, especially in a room with someone I\u2019ve just met, felt a lot like staring at a blank canvas. The weight of not knowing how it would turn out made me want to shut down. But I reminded myself of something I\u2019ve learned both in tattooing and in life: you have to trust the process.\u00a0\u00a0I met with the doctor and the decision to share all the details of what I am dealing with, from my multiple deployments and time as a first responder, instead of telling her everything was fine.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It was difficult, painful, and by the end I was in a full sweat and holding back tears.\u00a0 I thought maybe I scared her, but she just said \u201cwow\u201d and then thanked me for opening up.\u00a0 She did not offer me any treatment of advice.\u00a0 She just listened.\u00a0 It was as if she had taken a weight off my shoulders.\u00a0 It is strange how just being able to share tough things with someone you can trust can be so uplifting.\u00a0 It is like you no longer have to carry it alone.\u00a0 I am not suggesting you go find the first person you know and dump all your stuff on them.\u00a0 But sometimes seeking help from a professional can really do just that, help.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Just like a tattoo doesn\u2019t come together in one stroke, healing doesn\u2019t happen in one session. It\u2019s about consistency, patience, and being willing to let someone guide you who has the experience to help. That takes trust\u2014and trust isn\u2019t easy.\u00a0\u00a0We must trust that even if it feels uncomfortable at first, the process leads to growth.\u00a0\u00a0It might not be easy, but the results can change everything.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

That\u2019s the same approach I bring into my work at Honor and Ink. Every tattoo is a process: from the first consultation<\/a> to the last wipe down, it\u2019s about building trust and letting the art unfold the way it should.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I ended the day with the first drawing for the Inktober 2025 challenge, which was anything that had to do with a mustache.\u00a0 I drew my favorite character from Action Figure Therapy.\u00a0 It is not supposed to be a masterpiece, just a fun drawing.\u00a0 I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just like a tattoo doesn\u2019t come together in one stroke, healing doesn\u2019t happen in one session. It\u2019s about consistency, patience, and being willing to let someone guide you who has the experience to help. That takes trust\u2014and trust isn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,26],"tags":[19,16,20,18,5,14,15],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motivational","category-reflection","tag-art-motivation","tag-artist-hour","tag-creative-growth","tag-drawing-challenge","tag-healing","tag-inktober-2025","tag-tattooing-101"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}