So why did I choose 'Black Cloud' as my artist name? Well let me tell you...
It all began way before I was a body piercer. Before doing this full time I had a few different 'normal' jobs. Laboring, private gardening services, warehouse work and odd jobs for friends here and there. Normal jobs and normal life bored me to say the least. My favorite job by far was gardening because most of my customers would give me full rein and let me get creative in the garden and create what i wanted to and how i wanted to so this was nice. I still remember the smell of freshly cut grass in the English summer time. Having lunch on the hills in my customers garden, laying down on the grass, looking up at the sun and feeling the heat on my face, watching the butterfly's fly and just watching nature come alive again. I do miss gardening...in the summer lol. I don't miss working in the pouring rain and countless days I'd spend at home because the English weather YET AGAIN let us down lol.
So one particular day me and my best mate at the time's dad (my boss) were in the car driving to the job. It must of been around 7:30 am. I can't bothered at all. I'm tired, cold and just a little miserable. I arrive at the job and I begin to get the equipment out the van. I look up and just see grey and think to myself "please don't rain". Bare in my mind I hadn't worked for the last 3 days because we had such bad rain in the UK at the time, i was desperate for some cash and I wasn't really in a good mood as a whole. I was annoyed at 'normal life' because I knew I wanted to become a tattoo artist and a body piercer but I had no money. I was annoyed I hadn't been able to work due to the rain, I was annoyed because I was cold, I was annoyed that I had to live in one of the wettest countries in the entire world you no? It was one of them days lol. I'm only young at this point around 20 or 21.
So I fetch ALL the equipment out the van, drag it down these HUGE MANSION steps that took me around 20 minutes of heavy lifting to finally get down to the lawn. This house was huge. By this time I'm so hot sweat is dripping down my face already and I'm just not happy right now lol. So the boss disappears to go do some pruning in the next garden while I'm left to mow the lawns of his huge English mansion. So I bend down to start the lawn mower and notice there's no petrol in it. FUMING. So I go find the boss (10 minutes), ask for the van keys, trek all the way back up to the road side to fetch the petrol from the van and begin to make my way back down to the lawn.
Get back to the lawn, kneel down to refill the mower and I feel a drop of rain hit my head. That was it lol. I look up and there is the biggest black cloud you've ever seen lingering right above me. I didn't even have time to blink and thunder hit the sky and it began to POUR. Probably the fastest rain storm I've ever seen still to this day. That was it. I was at my wits end lol. I'm in the middle of this GIGANTIC lawn on my own with all these petrol and electric tools and its raining, great lol. So I grabbed as many tools as I could and just ran for shelter. I managed to find shelter under some scaffolding that had been put up the week previous but the rain was still coming through the wooden planks above me. By the time I had got all the tools under the shelter I was completely soaked through and I was so angry and cold lol.
So abut 30 minutes go bye and I'm still standing there waiting for a break in the rain so I can get the tools up to the van or find the boss. So to save time I figured the tools are safe, I'm completely soaked through so I can't get more wet than I already am so I go on the hunt for my boss in this MAZE of a garden. I finally find him after about 15 minutes ( he kept his phone in the car usually so I couldn't ring him lol). So I find the boss standing underneath this huge tree right at the bottom of one of the many lawns this mansion had. I run over to him, get shelter and say
"what do we do now", to which he reply's
"Well theirs nothing we can do but wait till it stops and do then do what we can"
Instantly I thought that's it. Another day at home, with no money what am I going to do? So I can began to complain about this "shitty countries weather" and how I'm skint and how Iv'e had enough of this weather etc etc (he knew I loved gardening & I was just angry at being wet). Then something profound happened...
He said
"Why are you moaning? When it rain's, everything grows"...
And a light bulb moment happened for me. It sounds pretty straight forward now reading it but at the time of my ignorance it was a profound moment. He went on to explain (and calm me down lol)
"The reason we had so much work on in the summer was because there was so much rain fall"
In my ignorance I yelled
"Yeah well rain don't pay my bills mate, Iv'e f*****g had it with this country"
So then he preceded to enlighten me lol he said
"I know your skint, but there's nothing we can do if it rains, its out of our control. Try to look at it like when it rains, it means that there will be more work for us when we return because everything would of grown more"
And it hit me. It was a light bulb moment. It may seem funny and a no brainer to some of you reading this but for me at the time I was young, immature and I pissed off that I wasn't doing my dream job of being a tattoo artist you no? I was in the mud and rain, feet soaked, freezing, hungry and just angry at the world. We've all had days like that. My boss wasn't a guru by any means, and we didn't have the best or the worst relationship. He was my high school best mates step dad who was helping me out by giving me some pocket money to help him with his side hustle (which turnt out to be a pretty big side hustle lol). He was a high ranking fire fighter who loved to do gardening during the day so he offered me some work to help give him a hand. I think he mainly worked nights at the fire station and would be on call some nights too.
So he began to lecture me about the rain and how "some things are out of our control" and it was the first time someone with some type of authority who I respected blew my mind and took me from raging to peaceful and calm. I remember him saying things like
"You'll completely waste your day if you focus on the things that are out of your control like the rain"
I was so stunned by the simplicity of what he was saying I wrote it all down on my phone. Anything that has value you should write down. And I knew what he was saying had value to me, maybe so I could write this post years later and help someone else? Who knows. But it was a profound moment for me. From that moment on I've never complained about the rain ever again. Sure there's been times where I've been ready to go out somewhere and been disappointed that it was raining, but I've never complained about it ever since. I still don't like to get wet and be soaked through but I don't think anyone does lol. He changed how I saw something forever. The most important thing this planet needs.
In the 30 minutes that I spent with my boss under that tree in that garden, he began to lecture me about how my work ethic and willingness to learn was some of the best he's ever seen. He said
"You are very self driven"
(He trained fire fighters at one point so he was good at encouraging people) and after I poured out my feelings to him about my dream job and said...
" I feel like ill never get to be a tattoo artist, how can I if I have no money etc etc"
So after the rain had died down a little, we finished pruning some apple tree's and picked up the tools and made our way back to the van. I was in such a positive and calm mood I felt great lol. We decided to drive back home for the day as the rain had started again and it was coming down heavy. He decided to drive back the long way, through the country roads and overlooked beautiful view points where you could see long distances of English country side. After a long chat in the van he encouraged me to look at the rain as something beautiful instead of something that's ruining something. He reminded me that it's happening completely on it own, we can't control it and it's something that's feeding all the trees, plants, insects and wildlife around us. Its the planets way of feeding and cleansing itself. After some time we stopped off at a local bakery, got some food and I was left feeling so motivated and encouraged that I no longer felt angry about not be able to work. I felt completely fine with it. And also weirdly completely fine with having no money. It was totally out of my control.
After lunch in the van he drove me towards where I lived and before I got out he handed me something. It was £50, he said
"I want you to have this"
It was £20 more than he'd usually give me, and I hadnt done any work. I refused to take it, and he said
"No I want you to have it, if it means it will help you towards achieving your dream I want you to have it"
I was like wow. I left feeling so motivated and encouraged to pursue my dream. So I thanked him for the money, apologized for being angry and ignorant and ran inside. I immediately took off all my wet clothes and ran a hot shower. As soon as I got in the shower and put my head under the warm water I knew what would my name would be. I can't explain it properly without it sounding nuts but I had a moment of clarity and I knew I would call myself "Black Cloud".
When I was very little around 6 years old my Nan used to show me famous black and white cowboy and Indian movies on the Tv. (I used to seem really interested in the noises the Indians would make, let alone the gunfire and horses). I remember a lot of cowboy and Indian movies when I was little and native american Indians were probably my first ever fascination. My Nan knew every single native american tribe by name and used to teach them when I was young. I always remember Chief Geronimo used to be favorite from the Chiricahua Apache. To me he was like a super hero but to learn that these people were real and not fiction began and lifelong obsession and fascination for me. I never understood why in the cowboy and Indian movies that the 'white man' would be so cruel to the Indians and try to take there land away from them. Naturally I became sympathetic to the Indians and took there side. Putting face paint on, sticking feathers in my hair and dressing up like them at 6 years old, running around my house making Indian noises chopping down my mum's plants with my plastic swords didn't go down to well hahaha!!
My Nan told me a lot about the Native American Indians and I devoured as much information about them as I could growing up. One thing she told me when I was little was how they got there names. She taught me that once the baby had been born, the father of the child would name the newborn after the first thing he would see after leaving the tea-pi. Not every tribe does this but some used to. This is how you get names like "crazy horse", "Cochise" and of course "sitting bull". Of course not all tribes would do that, a lot of tribes would name there children after previous warriors and sometimes women would take names from nature like "Aiyana" meaning forever flowering, and "Chepi" meaning Ghost or the famous "Cheyenne". I heard of one Native American Girl called "Inner light" once but I can't remeber the correct translation for it.
Black cloud can sound negative because 'black cloud' in English is usually associated with being unlucky, having a bad day and having a bad feelings about something, which WAS my experience at the time. But from what I had learnt from my boss, it was quite the opposite. When you see the black cloud, its going to rain? But after the rain you will feel better. Revitalized, changed, enhanced or refreshed in a way. Now when I see a black cloud I think of growth, progression and change. Like a shedding of the skin? Now something new has the chance to grow.
I chose the name because its a reminder to me of my experience in that garden and it just so happens to be like a Native American Indian name which is kinda cool. So I like this. In reality? I don't need an artist name, but I wanted one. As it symbolizes new life, a new beginning, a new job and a new journey. Many artists don't have one and that's OK, but for me I wanted one because what I was about to do with my own personal tattoo goals wouldn't be ordinary so I didn't want an ordinary name. I'm sorry if this sounds egocentric but it empowers me, it gives me strength when times get tough. And that's between me and me only. One thing the natives knew which we have maybe forgotten is what separates us is transformation.
"You will never be defeated by what THEY say about you, you will be defeated by what YOU say about YOU" - Td Jakes.
So that's the story of how I came to use the name 'Black Cloud'.
I hope you guys learned something
See you again next time
"Clouds never die"
Love
BC xxx
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