Most people don’t know how Mongoosedistro was born. I’m happy to report it was born out of a very unusual circumstance.
I was on Dirty Darrington Unit, I was in medium custody with access to cell phones, and drugs, but I wasn’t off into the drugs, I wanted to reach my family. I wanted them to say, hey can we send you some money, that way you can eat and buy hygiene, or something like that. Days went by and nobody ever offered, and gave up hope. Sitting alone in this tiny cell, I had a tattoo magazine, it had advertising in it for multiple shops all over the country. Weird me, I look at the phone, then look at the magazine,…..look back and I said fuck it, I dialed the first Tattoo parlor.
First guy answers, he’s cool, so I say ” listen man, I’m a tattoo artist in prison, I’m not asking for money, I just wanted to know if you had some patterns or designs that you can mail me so I can get to making my own money”, the guy was like man, you’re in prison? Yeah, I’m locked up bro, I don’t have any help right now, and I need some tattoo references, and the guy was nice about it, he said ” I’m sorry man, but all I do is custom work”, but good luck to you. It went on like this, for about 10 calls, until I ran I to a parlor in Ft. Bragg, California? Yeah, I though the same shit, I thought it was in North Carolina!! Well, apparently there more than one, and Nicky Needles answered the phone, the chick was awesome, she didn’t spook, she was kind and said “yeah man, give me your Addy , I’ll help you”. Once, that conversation was over with, I had one more call, it was to (redacted) Tattoo in LES, Nyc.
I dialed the number and. I heard,” (redacted) Tattoo this is (redacted)”,… so I immediately went into my I’m not asking for money-but-for- tattoo patterns skit, and right when I thought everything was cool, this guys says” So, where are you?”, I was very nervous but I told him,” Houston”, but I’m from San Antonio, I’m doing time and I needed some patterns, and after I said that, he let out a giggle, and said “oh yeah”, Dude, I’m from Austin, and bam!! We got on some Texas boys conversations, it went from nervous to shooting the shit, and finally after a few minutes, he says give me your address man, I’ll help you,…I was elated, and shocked I met a fellow Texan by accident, its awesome,but after we spoke for a while we said our goodbyes, I was informed it would be a couple of weeks before he did anything, and that was that.
I felt better, I’d accomplished something, I couldn’t even get my family to do,so I went about my day. That was the beginning of something big, that I didn’t see coming, but I felt better about life in general, I had made contact with the outside world and I was heard.
Two weeks later, I get caught with this same cell phone and sent to the Administrative segregation areas again, I was alone and nobody was coming to my rescue. One night, I get a letter, it was from (redacted),he said he tried mailing something, but it didn’t make it, we didn’t know shit about mail, and how stiff necked they were about stamps and sufficient postage, but we soon began to learn, for he was mailing me references and letters that carried me through a whole year of isolation again, I had a friend to vibe with and boy did we vibe.
It wasn’t too far into this journey when he asked me if he could mail me a book, it was called” The Last Act of the Circus Animals” (by Sean Swain), well this was it, I was enlightened, this book allowed me to name all the bullshit I was going through, and call it out for what it is. We spoke about the author who I’m a fan of, and I even got to meet him through (redacted), I was beginning to become Comrade Z through anarchist teachings and literature I’ve never read or heard of, but damn was it good for the soul, it was fuel to a bonfire, I was not sure what was going on inside of me, but I fucken loved it.
I began drawing portraits because of (redacted), I wasn’t very good, and I only had No.2 pencils to work with, but it kept me busy, and (redacted) was loving the Artwork.
Time was better. (to be continued)
Julio A. Zuniga 1961551
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266
Mongoose Distro 