Before i moved to the northwest in 2009 i lived in a large,semi-rundown, party pad which we named "the compound", due to the massive size of the property and the amount of people that where there on the regular. This place was set up perfect to be a secluded party pad for guys like us. At the time the people who lived there full time were Johnny Gorman (tattooer/ only guy on the lease), Dose (tattooer,local celebrity/scumbag) , Me (out of work artist/professional alcoholic, couch surfer/ semi-pro coke head), and Mouse (skater/warehouse worker/ artist-stencil junkie). This pad was insane to say the least and because of the way the land was set up in to our neighbors, we could party all night with over 100 people and the cops literally never came ONCE. Most of us would spend our days recuperating from the night before while Johnny and mouse would go to their jobs. Once johnny got home we quickly set up friends and girls to come over for the nights party and that's the cycle we lived in for about a year. During this time the homie/roommate MOUSE would quickly get home from work everyday and cut stencils in his room for hours while playing "dont talk to me" by G.G. Allen on repeat the entire time (no exaggeration), once he was done cutting he would go out back and line up about 50 pieces of grip and he would start spray painting the stencils on the grip one by one. since i had been into graffiti and anything involving spray paint since i was a little kid i would often ask mouse if he wanted me to help him spray all those grip, he always refused any help. We would go out back every day or so to see the newest stencils he had cut. The stencils were always clean and the artwork was really good but the best part are his concepts. He comes up with designs that usually take some sort of iconic person,character,or product from our everyday life and flips them on their head in a Witty and skillful way that lets him use his art to not only entertain you but get a message across at the same time. Sometimes its purely funny and sometimes his stuff has alot of commentary behind it, but either way people started eating it up right away. I eventually moved out of state for the next 3 years and while i was gone Mouse was busy. Every time i opened a skate magazine i would see at least one or two skaters rocking Mouse grip on their boards. It eventually got to the point before i moved back that it seemed like it was harder to find someone in the magazines NOT skating on his grip. i saw him briefly when i got back and he said pretty casually that he was still making his grip tape and painting canvases and i assumed he was doing good but it wasn't untill i went to the mall and was in a very corporate clothing/skate shop and saw "MOUSE GRIP" for sale behind the counter. i couldn't believe it. i called him right there and he explained he had gotten a distribution deal thats putting his grip tape in shops all over the country and letting him be able to paint and do grip full time. i couldn't be more proud of this dude for continuing to do what he loves to do and putting in the constant effort and dedication needed to make it
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