I hear it all the time.  “You’re so lucky to work in radio,” or, “You have such a cool job.”  I can’t deny it, working in the radio business is definitely a different breed of animal.  I get to go to work each morning, chat with some of my closest friends, listen to music and get paid for it.  Not a bad gig if you can get it.  But, like any job, radio has it’s ups and downs.  One of those downs for many of us is the instability of our positions.  If my boss were to walk into the office tomorrow and fire me, I’d likely have to move to a new city in order to find a new position.  Along the same lines, if I want to take the next step in my career, it would also involve a move.  There was a period not too long ago in which I spent three consecutive New Year’s Eve’s living in different cities.  No matter how many times you do it, it never gets any easier to pack up your life, leave your friends behind and start over in a new city.  It can be a pretty lonely life sometimes.

Jackson Blue is also very familiar with the idea of moving.  He’s currently the morning show host on Z104.3FM in Baltimore, MD but that’s just the most recent stop on his seemingly endless tour of America.  He started off in New England working in Cape Cod before heading to Boston to take over the night shift on KISS 108.  Then he took a chance and moved his family to Dallas to take over an afternoon shift.  After spending a couple years in Texas he decided to try his hand at mornings on the newly launched Z104.3 in Baltimore.  What’s his next step?  Who knows, but I’m sure the decision won’t come lightly because he does have a wife and two young children to think about.

Jackson has many tattoos, each with their own unique little story.  Most represent his family in some way.  Unlike many men in the broadcasting business, Jackson is a family man first.  He loves to take every opportunity to spend time with his kids.  I’m not sure he will ever understand the amount of respect I hold for him because of that decision.  I’m picky when it comes to tattoos.  I plan mine out years in advance and sit on them while I wait for the right opportunity to come around.  Jackson has a slightly different philosophy.  “It’s so addicting, you know?  I kept getting stuff and it had meaning every time, but I feel like I’m (being sporadic) more often now instead of having a real good idea before I go.  Like this cotton candy monster.  I don’t know if I probably would have gotten it but I really wanted a tattoo.  I think I kind of rushed into it, but I love it now.”

The tattoo I wanted to know more about is one of a lobster with a clock in one claw and a cat in the other.  It seemed like such a random mixture of items that I had to know more about it.  He told me the idea for the tattoo came about after he had a unique idea for a segment on his show.  He decided to have the guys from Orange Tattoo Company in Annapolis come by the studio and give him a tattoo while he was on the air.  He told me, “I think that’s kind of why I love it too.  I was on the air while they had the needle in my arm.  I was doing breaks and talking trying not to show any kind of fear or pain.”

So, why a lobster?  “We’re from the Boston and Cape Cod area and all of our best friends still live there.  I always told them I would get them a weird something and they wanted a lobster so I went with that.”  It’s been about three and a half years since Jackson and his family left the Boston area.  He admitted that he was missing his friends at the time and that probably played a part in the development of the tattoo.  A lobster doesn’t seem that weird but a lobster with a watch and a cat in its claws definitely needs some explanation.  “(My daughter) Lilly’s first word was ‘clock’ but it was actually ‘cock’ because she couldn’t say ‘clock.’  So the watch is for her and it has the time she was born.  And then (My other daughter) Chloe’s first word was ‘Mamboo’ which is our cat.  So it has a big meaning for my buddies and my girls.”

I’ll admit that my first thought upon seeing this tattoo was, “What were you thinking,” but Jackson’s explanation really sold me.  Especially when he said, “Everyone gets them for some reason.  The most important thing to me is my family and my friends.”  A tattoo is a very personal experience and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.