Tatsuya (Tat) was born in the states, but moved to Japan at the age of one and lived there until six, when his family moved back and settled in McKinney, TX. At that point, he only spoke Japanese so he spent a good portion of his first year learning English. Tat has always been adventurous - climbing trees and playing sports as a kid. By high school, he honed in on club soccer and excelled at it.
After high school, Tat joined the workforce. He also got into motorcycle riding and got a bike at 18 years old, trying to ride it as much as possible. His daughter was born when he was 22 and at that point, he shifted gears and got into construction work - including custom remodeling and outdoor living spaces. He really enjoys that line of work and still does it today.
In April of 2017, while riding his motorcycle, Tat was t-boned at an intersection, but a car that was turning. The main impact was to his leg and his was flipped into the air. He broke his shoulder and hand and sustained major hemorrhaging to his leg. At the hospital, doctors said he would have five percent use out of his leg at best, so Tat decided to amputate, below the knee, two days later.
During the month that he was in the hospital, Tat had ten surgeries. Once he was out, he tried around seven different prosthetics, none of which worked well and ended up needing a revision surgery. After a year and a half, Tat was done with surgeries and had a good fitting prosthetic. By March 2019, Tat was back up and walking.
Since his accident, Tat’s love of photography and film has blossomed. He’s self taught through a lot of research on his own along with different tutorials. Story-telling is one of his passions, and he hopes this opens up a creative outlet to share the lives of others through cinematography. Additionally, he can one day see himself starting up a YouTube channel to educate individuals on financial information that wasn’t taught in schools.
Now at ATF, Tat wants to get back to his healthy self again. He hasn’t been very active and put off playing soccer since his accident. He is hoping to use these nine weeks to find that inner athlete again, learn more about his body, and discover new ways to train with his prosthetic.
