Last year you were arrested after an altercation in Tallahassee, FL. Was that the first time you had been arrested?

When I was 18 I was arrested for obstruction of justice and resisting arrest without violence. When I was 15 I was arrested for resisting arrest with violence and battery on an officer, and when 14, I was arrested because I had some pot in my wallet at school.

Why did you get hauled away at 15 and 18?

When I was 18, I was picking up my friend Kevin, who used to play in the band. He was like, "Pop the trunk—I want to throw some stuff in there." I was waiting in the car and I saw two cop cars come up behind me. I got out and they had my friend on the ground. I went up to the first officer I saw and said, "Excuse me, officer, what’s going on?" He’s like, "Down on the ground—you’re going to jail." I started to ask another question and he grabbed me, slammed me into the cop car, and arrested me. When I was 15—they do a fireworks celebration every year in Naples at the beach. An officer asked me to get off the boardwalk. I got off the boardwalk and he came up to me again and he told me to get off the boardwalk. I said, "I am off the boardwalk." They grabbed me, dragged me over to the cop car. Ten other cops came in. They ended up hog-tying me and then proceeded to beat the crap out of me for a good half-hour. It was all over the news.


Why do you think they did it?

I was a dirty, grubby little punk kid with black spiky hair who hadn’t washed his pants in a year.

When did you get your first tattoo?

When I was 14. James in Against Me! gave me a pinprick tattoo of the Crass logo in india ink on my ankle. I remember him starting it and me looking down and saying, "Man, you’re going the wrong fucking way." Then I had to finish it. The second tattoo, I gave to myself at 15 and it’s on my thigh. It’s totally embarrassing. It’s the symbol for Scorpio. Then, when I was 16 or so, I got the Crass tattoo covered up professionally with the Rebel Alliance logo from Star Wars.

That’s kind of nerdy. Are you still a huge Star Wars fan?

I was at the time. I still like Star Wars, though those last three movies kind of killed it for me. [Laughs.] I wanted to get it because it was big, solid, and black, and would cover up the Crass logo.

Do you have a go-to artist for your own work?

There’s a guy in Florida named Dave Kotinsley, Sleepy Dave, who I’ve gotten a good amount of work from. He runs a shop called Anthem Tattoos. All of my recent tattoos on my arm I’ve gotten from him—the Virgin Mary and various birds.

What is the significance of the birds?

I’ve always been drawn to them. Even when I first thought of getting tattoos, I knew I wanted to cover the majority of my arms with birds. I think it’s really true to say that the older you get, the more tattoos hurt. I used to want a bird chest piece, and then I got a very small tattoo on my chest of my wife’s name—and holy fuck, that hurt! And that took all of about five minutes. Screw a chest piece!

Have you seen any Against Me! tattoos on fans?

We were playing in Connecticut and this guy who came to the show came up to me and says, "I want to show you something, but don’t draw a lot of attention to it." He had my face tattooed on my arm, which I thought was hilarious, and he said, "I tell people it’s J.F.K." [Laughs.]