A large, tatted-up racially indistinct man in his early 20s sits on a bench. He’s the kind of guy you want with you when walking down K Street at night.

Then you hear him say he wishes he could live in a generic ’80s sitcom, where there’s always humor in troubled times and someone is wearing facial crème with cucumber eye covers. That’s when you realize there may be more to this intimidating presence than what may originally be expected. Contrary to what his initial appearance might imply, he is a really great guy. Charles Henderson, 26, is an artist, plumber and father.

“He is this lovely mix of masculinity and sweetness,” says Dawn Blunk, adviser of City College’s Mainline magazine, for which Henderson is the art director. “He loves the collaborative process as well.”

Henderson’s work as a plumber is only temporary and inextricably linked to fatherhood. “That job is a stereotype,” says Henderson, objecting to the poor social skills of his coworkers in comparison to their high wages.

Henderson is studying graphic design at City College, and hopes to make a career out of it.

“Kids need money, no matter what,” says Henderson, which is what keeps him at his job as a plumber. “You take responsibility, or you don’t. It’s still there if you don’t. It’s just masked by your selfishness.”

Henderson hasn’t always been in construction. He used to own a tattoo parlor, and is covered in tattoos himself.

He started decorating himself his junior year of high school. “No one said not to, so I said, ‘Why not?’”

He did all his tattoos himself. He doesn’t have a favorite tattoo.

“The best you’ve ever done was not quite done yet,” he says.

Customers are what robbed Henderson of his passion for tattooing others, specifically, those who didn’t follow instructions on letting their new ink set and didn’t want it after they ruined it, by swimming or not cleaning it.

You have to be comfortable with the consumer side of art to be a professional tattoo artist, Henderson says. Naomi Sky Henderson, Henderson’s 6 month old, was not available for comment.

“He’s a great dad and boyfriend, and does a really great job balancing school and work,” says Lynea De Larosa, 27, Henderson’s girlfriend.

Clearly, Henderson has a lot on his plate, enough to make most people resign to a union job and take some time to relax, leaving the question, Why does he put himself through it all?

“I don’t want to be proven wrong,” Henderson says.

He loathes procrastination. “Bums are procrastinators to the extreme. They can’t get past it.”

After years of telling other people to get over their problems, he can’t be the hypocrite that slows down because of his own.

Despite his initially intimidating appearance, Henderson is a well-rounded man, who makes doing it all look easy.