The story behind Thread and Flash
Every mark.
Every chapter.
Part of me.
I’ve lived an eventful life. My journey has taken me around the world, through good times and hard ones, through trials, tribulations, and moments I’ll carry with me forever.
Along the way, I’ve used tattoos to mark those chapters. The joy and the pain. The people and places. The things I wanted to remember, and the things I needed to find meaning in.
My tattoos tell a story. Together, they hold pieces of the person I was, the life I’ve lived, and the person I’m still becoming.
Why I started Thread and Flash ↓
Still here.
Still becoming.
That journey has ultimately led me to a spiritual life in recovery. It’s a chapter I hold close, and one I continue to live each day.
Recovery hasn’t erased the chapters that came before it. They’re still part of my story. But there is room beside them for gratitude, love, and a different way forward. There is room to grow without pretending I’ve always been the person I am today.
That’s part of what tattoos mean to me. A piece can carry a difficult memory and still be beautiful. It can remind me where I’ve been while leaving space for where I’m going. I don’t have to have a perfect story to tell an honest one.
A piece of me.
A piece of you.
I started Thread and Flash because I wanted to help artists tell their stories and carry them beyond the places where they were first drawn—out into the world, through people who connect with them.
When I share my art and the pieces that mean something to me, I’m giving a little of myself. Every artist we work with is doing the same. Behind the lines and colors is a person: their experiences, their imagination, their love, and their own way of making sense of life.
Putting that work on clothing gives it another place to live. Something created in a local studio can become someone’s favorite shirt, travel somewhere the artist has never been, or start a conversation between people who might otherwise have passed each other by.
And when a piece speaks to you, you bring your own meaning to it. The artist’s story and yours meet. Neither one has to disappear for something new to begin.
What connects us
“You don’t have to live the same story
to find a piece of yourself in someone else’s.”
That feeling of recognition—that small moment of I understand—is at the heart of Thread and Flash.
Our stories
belong together.
Love is a big part of why this exists. Love for the people who help us through. Love for the art that says what we sometimes can’t. And love for the possibility of meeting someone with a very different life and finding something familiar in them.
You don’t need tattoos, a particular background, or a story like mine to be part of this. You only need to find something in the work that means something to you. Maybe it reminds you of someone. Maybe it marks a new beginning. Maybe you simply love it, and the meaning comes later.
Our goal is to help people tell their stories together: to give artists a way to be seen, to help their work travel, and to let all of us become a small part of one another’s lives.
The next chapter is something we get to make together.
New American traditional concepts
More than
what you see.
Two sides of a familiar image. A reminder to look closer at what we carry, what we show, and the stories beneath the surface.
Wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Sharp instincts beneath a softer exterior.
Download the design ↓
Sheep in wolf’s clothing.
A gentle heart behind a harder shell.
Download the design ↓New AI-assisted concept art inspired by the supplied references. These are brand design explorations, not finished products.
Respect for the person behind the work
Created together.
Shared equally.
Connection also means making sure the artist shares in what their work earns. We collaborate with local tattoo artists and creatives, print each piece to order, and split the profit from their collection 50/50 with them.
You get a piece that means something to you. The artist gets credit, a fair share, and another person carrying their work into the world.
The split applies to profit after costs, not the full selling price. The cost breakdown will be confirmed before launch.
Explore Wolf’s DenA few things to know.
Does 50/50 mean half of the selling price?
No. We split the profit equally with the artist after costs. We’ll confirm and publish a clear explanation of those costs before orders open.
How will the clothing be made?
We plan to use Printify to produce and ship clothing after it is ordered. Final garment choices, shipping details, and production estimates will be added before launch.
Whose artwork is shown here?
The images on this page are AI-assisted brand concepts, including two new designs inspired by the supplied wolf-and-sheep references. The founder’s portrait uses his real photograph with an edited background.