Traveling a rough road from addiction to success...

Justin Able works on a tattoo for client Ruben Castro. After he overcame his struggles with drug addiction, Abel has focused his life on helping others through his talents as a tattoo artist.

Local tattoo artist overcomes his personal struggles in life while rededicating his life to helping others

The path to adulthood wasn't an easy one for Justin Abel. Starting with a car accident at age 14, Abel's path was blocked by drug addiction, a natural disaster and prison time, which may have saved him from himself.

Now 33, Abel has become a local artist that specializes in hyper-realistic art on both skin and in classical art mediums. Discovering this ability and finding a use for it was part of his rocky path to adulthood.

As part of the "penance" he believes he needs to pay to society, he devotes his time by offering free tattoo cover-ups for those wearing satanic and gang symbols. Some tattoos are so severe that covering them would make it look worse, including tattoos on a person's face. That is why Abel is working toward laser tattoo removal in some cases.

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