Thanks to my good grades in high school I was granted a nice sum of $4000 by my college last year to travel anywhere in the world to do any type of research. Being a body modification enthusiast, I decided to speak with my tattoo artist about where I should travel to do tattoo-related research. He was elated to hear about the opportunity I was being given, and told me that if I decided to go to New Zealand to investigate the dying Maori tattoo art called “moko” he would accompany me! I didn’t need any more convincing, and soon we booked a 3 week adventure on the north island of NZ! When we arrived we rented a car and traveled from city to city exploring all the island had to offer – it was simply amazing. One day we were driving through the hills of NZ attempting to follow the directions given to us by the car’s navigation system when we encountered a “Road Closed” sign. We thought nothing of it, as such signs in the States usually just mean that you have to go around the sign to utilize the road. Unfortunately for us, this sign couldn’t have been more accurate – as we took a sharp turn on the dirt and gravel road we suddenly came upon an unexpected scene – the road was gone! There had apparently been a mudslide that wiped out the entire roadway, leaving nothing more than a gorge! After taking a photo or two we got the heck outta there – if the road had already given out who knows when it might happen again! Thankfully we were able to circumnavigate the closed road (despite a 45 minute detour), and eventually found our way to the Bride’s Veil Falls in Whangaroa. Stories like these illustrate quite well why I love traveling with my tattoo artist Chriss – no matter what kinds of crazy things happen he keeps his cool and we end up having a blast finding a solution!