In the final days of the Aztec Empire, the warrior Tlahuicole and Tecuichpotzin, daughter of Emperor Moctezuma II, committed the ultimate act of defiance. Their son was marked for sacrifice, tattooed with sacred glyphs mixed from his father's blood and ancient divine symbols meant to prepare him for death. Instead, the goddess Xochiquetzal infused those tattoos with divine essence, and living ink was born. Tezcatlipoca shattered the ritual in celestial jaguar form, and the infant, raised by Tlaxcalan warriors, became Ixtli: Eye, Ink, Essence, the Ink Warrior.
Centuries later, Benjamin "Ben" Epps was born with impossible artistic talent and grew into a world-class boxer. During a near-fatal event, blood spilled across one of his own sketches, the ink moved, and thousands of years of ancestral memory returned at once. Benjamin Epps remembered who he truly was, and Canvas was born, retired U.S. Marine Sergeant Major, home of record Clutch City, TX, with ties to Sinaloa, Mexico. Every tattoo on his body carries four elements: Memory, Spirit, Power, and Fate, together forming what the Illmatic call his Living Codex.