Name: Jim L.

City: Phoenix, AZ

Brain Injury: January 27^th, 2006 while walking out of a sports bar to get some air, I was struck below the left temple with a 9mm bullet. The bullet is still inside my head where it is causing tremendous pain.  The shockwave from the bullet damaged my optic nerve and caused me to go blind in my left eye. The nerve damage caused, left me paralyzed on the left side of my face.

Explanation of mask:  My mask is figurative and literal expression of my injury. The inverse profile is of the Gemini Twins. I am a Gemini and this represents the two sides since the TBI.  The two colors and their intensity relate to my feelings and how they have changed (intensified) since my TBI. I show the bullet hole in the location of where it actually struck my face. I have used glow-in-the-dark paint to represent where the bullet fragments are located in my face/head. This is also where all of the pain that I endure is located.  At the top of the forehead of the mask in glow-in-the-dark paint is the Gemini Sign.