Born in Covington, Texas, not that far out from Dallas, Jed knew what he was from nearly the moment of his birth. His tiny little town of only about 200 people was populated mostly by witches. His mother was a witch, specializing in Warding and his father was a witch, specializing in Elemental magic. An only child, and something of a disappoint at being neither a warder nor an elementalist, Jed spent the early part of his childhood trying to figure out just what the heck his talent was, if anything. For a long while they thought that he was a throwback, with no innate magical abilities. He always had a knack for making things with his hands and fixing stuff up. Often to pass the time in school he would whittle little figures and sculptures of animals. But it wasn't until he was making one for a girlfriend in middle school that he realized what his talent
was.
She was pretty. Far prettier than a gawky talentless boy like him deserved to have. He decided to make her a necklace of a cougar since she had a thing for big cats. All the while he was making it he fantasized about how it would protect her from the attentions of the other boys. He fancied it as his mark upon her, that when others came to try to court and woo her, the necklace would not only remind them that she was taken, but actively scare them away. Betty Sue accepted the gift with pleasure and wore it almost every day. It didn't take long to notice the subtle yet obvious effects of his gift. Guys started steering clear of Betty Sue. When they did talk to her, then didn't check out her legs or her tits, and when their eyes fell upon the necklace, they often stammered and found excuses to be somewhere else.
Relieved and thrilled to have figured out something that he was good at, since schooling and book-learnin' certainly weren't it, Jed spent most of his time making talismans and carving figures, practicing his magic. It wasn't much really. Protection spells were considered on the lower end of the ladder in terms of talent, not even Warding. Still it was better than nothing, so Jed stuck with it.
Everything was going fine until Jed and his buddies got too drunk one night and ended up wrapping their truck around the trunk of a tree. In the accident, Jed got off lightly with a crushed left hand and broken bones. His friends didn't fare as well; they ended up dead. When he was released from the hospital Jed's hopes and dreams were as crushed as his hand. Though the majority of the damage was repaired, he would never again be able to use that hand for doing much of anything. Nerve damage resulted in a power strong tremor any time Jed tried to grip anything, and the broken bones and pins made it achey and stiff. His right hand could still carve, but he couldn't hold anything in his left hand to work it.
Bitter and angry, Jed left his small home town and went to Dallas in the hopes that a bigger city might have more to offer him than a small town where he was pitied. His left arm was covered in scars and as such he decided that he would get a bunch of tattoos done to cover it up. If people were gonna look at him, and they would, he would rather it be for some elaborate tattoo work than ugly deforming scars. But as he watched the tattoo artist work on him, Jed began to get an idea.
What if there was no talisman? What if the very flesh of the person could become like a talisman? Then it wouldn't matter where they were or what they were doing, the person in question would be constantly protected. No need to worry about whether or not they forgot their talisman, whether it got broken or lost or stolen. They would become the talisman! And while the left hand was often used to wipe away blood or brace against the customer, it was certainly not an integral part of the art form or technique.
He took whatever work he could find, living in crappy apartments and taking classes in tattooing. Eventually when he got good enough he started apprenticing under different inkers. It was at that point that he started experimenting with what worked and what didn't, using his oblivious clients as his guinea pigs. It didn't take long for Jed to realize that different details were important and affected both the potency and the effectiveness of his spells. The first thing he noticed is
that the art of the tattoo had to match the intention of the spell. He couldn't just make any image and imbue it with the power of protection. Those that he tried he could tell were weak and likely to fade quickly. But if he used the symbolism of an image, he could affect, sometimes very powerfully, the result of the spell. A tattoo of a cheetah, for example, combined with a spell to encourage greater speed when in danger, was a very powerful image and made for a powerful spell, whereas a turtle made with the same intention was utterly ineffective. More experimentation began to prove that tampering with the inks, adding certain ingredients, also increased their efficacy.
Years went by and Jed's name became known around Dallas, not just in the inking communities for his skill as a tattoo artist, but in the magical communities for his skill at creating powerful protective spells with all sorts of focuses and variations. Between these two groups of customers, Jed made enough money that he was finally able to rent a small place for himself, naming it Voodoo Tattoo. In many ways he's still a simple small town sort of person. He doesn't fit in with Dallas' big money or bustling ways. He tends to take life at a slower pace than most, often seen sitting outside of his shop on a nice day when there's no customers, just idling away the time. He doesn't own much and other than his shop he doesn't need much.
