hit by tornado!

[gravyray]

Today we were working as usual,it was kinda storming outside the shop but nothing major.Me and my partner joe just happened to look up and there it was,a tornado 200 yards from us,coming straight at the shop. I started yelling for everyone to get in the back supply room as it seems to the safest place. 13 people in the shop 4 getting tattooed as this went down. we managed to get everybody to the back and room ,off came the roof then the front window and wall disappeared,right in front of my eyes. I can not explain the fear i felt as we were right in the middle of this thing. i thought that we were gonna be killed or i was gonna see my friend hurt or mamed. luckly all 13 people walked away with minor injuries, but our shop was not so lucky. we have a piercing room and a bathroom/supply room left standing. we lost all our art work,drawings /paintings ,etc. our equipment ,most of it,was trashed. me and joe jus got our new rotaryworks and they were soaked and dirty which really pissed me off as we jus got'em . those as well as power supplies etc were either gone or destroyed.i'm hoping with a lil drying time the rw's will still work.i guess i shouldnt complain since we survived and we're alive and walking. if you would like to see our shop before the tornado and after you can check our facebook in the next day or two. we had a beautiful art filled shop,very modern i think. it's a sad day for us . we are not religious people but we could sure use some prayer/postitive thoughts sent our way. dont know what we're gonna do right now as everything around us was destroyed. we'll figure it out i guess. thanks for reading . performancetattoo.com

[The Limey]

Holy crap man, glad to hear you escaped relatively unscathed although I'm sorry the shop was pretty much destroyed. I lived in KS & MO for 10+ yrs and had some close escapes (1/4 mile stuff) but nothing like that.

[gravyray]

it was unbielivable. it was right on top of us before we knew it. we are about as lucky as you can get. life altering for me. its quite a thing to see huge trees getting ripped outta the ground , buildings gettn destroyed right in front of your shop and knowing your next. all with in 30 sec. it seemed like 5 mins.

[The Limey]

I can only imagine Ray; we had one touch down and luckily blow itself out in a field next to our house and the only thing I really remember was a deathly silence and then thundering noise immediately (and thankfully) followed by silence again... I have to add that being new to the US, I was just sat on the porch wondering wtf the sirens were going off for... DUH! That was life changing enough for me! I can't imagine living through one having seen the trails of mass devastation they leave.

Keep thinking positive mate!

[gravyray]

thank you and thats what we're tryn to do.

[slicksteel]

Peace be with you brother,hope all will work out well for you and the crew.Hopefully some one local will let you and your folks do a bit of work in there shops.
Maybe we can sit up a recovery fund for you on here-if you take paypal.

[Indio Ink]

Blessing to you guys. Good everyone's fine

[gravyray]

we had a good load of the local shops offer spots today. all friends of ours . i think we're gonna have to take some up on the offer. had a few offer to let us take 100% so thats been great. we're not asking for anyone to give us any money cause we're all kinda tight these days. we do appreiciate it though. thats a very cool thing to do for us . hopefully we'll be back soon.

[gravyray]

i just wanted to thank you guys for the blessings and prayers.

[strick9]

Dayam Gravy! Tha's scary shit man.I'm a N.C. boy my self,Rocky Mount. But thankfully we didn't get hit like that,although a lot did.Good luck to you guys,and if I could help in some way,don't hesitate.Really sorry to hear about that.