"If I was never a b-boy, if I was never a dancer, I would have never become a singer." Jay Park breaks down all of his tattoos. From the compass on his neck to the passion and pleasure ambigram tattoo on his ribs, join the "Why" singer as he tells the stories behind his ink.Stream Jay's latest single "Why": https://ffm.to/jaypark_whyFollow Jay at:Instagram: instagram.com/moresojupleaseTwitter: twitter.com/jaybumaomTikTok: tiktok.com/@jayparkisoverpartyDirector: Graham CorriganDirector of Photography: Grant BellEditor: Marcus NiehausGuest: Jay ParkProducer: Sam DennisLine Producer: Jen SantosProduction Manager: Andressa Pelachi; Kevin BalashTalent Booker: Paige GarbariniCamera Operator: Josh AndersenSound Mixer: Paul CornettProduction Assistant: Phillip Arliss; Lauren BoucherPost Production Supervisor: Rachael KnightPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAssistant Editor: Fynn Lithgow
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 What's good GQ?
00:01 This is Jay Park.
00:02 I have my shirt off again,
00:03 and this is my tattoo tour.
00:04 Let's get it.
00:05 [upbeat music]
00:08 My mom did not and still doesn't like
00:12 the tattoos that I have.
00:14 Just because I think Korean people,
00:16 they relate tattoos to kind of like gangsters
00:19 and the mob people.
00:20 And so it's like,
00:21 they kind of correlate that together.
00:22 Like tattoo means crime, it's bad.
00:25 So for me, since I do have a lot of tattoos
00:27 and I'm still very active,
00:29 you know, I always have to cover it up with stickers
00:31 or wear, you know, like long sleeve.
00:34 Since I have it on my fingers as well,
00:35 it's like I have to cut little stickers
00:37 and put it on each individual fingers.
00:39 Yeah, it's a process.
00:41 So, you know, hopefully one day
00:43 they'll allow it on TV in Korea.
00:44 Hopefully I kind of opened the doors for the newer guys.
00:48 At first, when I started, I got like little ones.
00:51 The first one is on the back of my ear, the AOM one.
00:55 That's the first one.
00:55 Then I got lettering here and there.
00:58 And then I think I got addicted to it.
01:01 'Cause then you start seeing blank spaces
01:03 and you're like, that looks so weird.
01:04 Like what are, like,
01:05 and then you just start filling it up.
01:06 And then, yes.
01:07 And then just eventually it turned into a sleeve.
01:09 Higher Music is a label that I founded in 2017.
01:12 And I was shooting a video
01:13 with this rapper named Stupid Young.
01:15 You know, that we're shooting at a tattoo shop
01:17 and they were like,
01:18 "Yo, you want to get a tattoo while you're filming?"
01:19 I was like, "Shit, all right, let's do it."
01:21 The healing didn't go too well.
01:23 So that's why it's like a little bit scarred.
01:26 So I wanted to get a neck tattoo.
01:28 To be honest, I wanted to get one right here.
01:30 But then I feel like that would be just too hardcore.
01:34 And my mom would disown me.
01:35 And so I got one right here.
01:37 And it's like a compass,
01:38 like trying to find direction in life.
01:40 But also it's like the Mariners logo.
01:42 So also I got these stars for no reason.
01:45 And that's way back when people were just getting
01:46 hella stars.
01:47 And I was like, "Yo, Lil Wayne has a star.
01:48 So let me get a star."
01:49 So I got these stars for no reason.
01:51 And then I was like,
01:52 "Let me cover it up with something more meaningful."
01:53 And so that's why I got the compass,
01:55 is finding direction in life.
01:57 And then I also have the Jaywalkers on the upper spine.
02:00 And Jaywalkers is like the name of my fans,
02:03 'cause I'm Jay Park.
02:04 Yeah, wordplay.
02:05 I know, genius, I know.
02:07 I have a big angel with the rings wrapping around my skull.
02:10 And also it's like you could cover it up
02:12 'cause your hair grows.
02:12 So I was like, "Oh, that's very convenient."
02:14 And so, yeah, I got a big head tattoo.
02:17 That was definitely the most painful tattoo.
02:19 Yeah, everywhere else was like,
02:21 you know, I could just be on my phone and get it,
02:24 drink Henny and shoot a music video.
02:25 Again, at this point, I was like,
02:27 the whole, like for six hours, I was just like,
02:29 "Oh."
02:30 At least it was just one session.
02:31 So that was helpful.
02:34 And I was a little hungover,
02:35 so it was like, that didn't help at all.
02:37 So the hands, it's like, you know,
02:38 heart of a lion, "Maam Gachim."
02:40 You know what that is, yeah.
02:41 You're nodding your head.
02:42 [laughs]
02:43 Yeah, so yeah, I have this lion and the king life.
02:45 It's like, you know, I take care of a lot of people.
02:47 It's not like necessarily like,
02:48 "Yo, like I'm a king, I'm above all of you."
02:50 It's more like, "Yo, I try my best
02:53 to take care of my people."
02:54 And that's kind of what that mentality is.
02:56 The good life, you know, you only have one life,
02:58 so make sure it's good.
02:59 "New Breed" is the first album that I made.
03:01 At that time, I was a lot younger and it's like,
03:04 "Yo, yeah, I'm the shit, I'm a new breed."
03:05 It's like, you know, that type of ignorant mindset.
03:08 [laughs]
03:10 So this is just like indicating, I guess, my love for music.
03:14 And you know, I'm a singer-songwriter,
03:15 so I have a mic 'cause I spend a lot of time
03:17 singing into a mic.
03:19 On this side, you have Benjamin Franklin,
03:21 which is on the $100 bill.
03:22 And then you have loyalty.
03:24 So for me, it's kind of like loyalty over money.
03:26 And that's another mentality or philosophy that I have.
03:29 I got piece by piece, and then it was at this time
03:33 where it's like, "Why does it look weird?"
03:35 Because there's like, just to me at that time,
03:36 empty space on my arm looked weird.
03:38 Like, "What do I need to do?"
03:39 And so I looked at a bunch of other rappers
03:42 and other actors and models, how they did it.
03:44 And so they had a lot of filler in between,
03:47 shading in between.
03:48 And so I just asked my tattoo artist,
03:49 I was like, "Yo, let's try to make it like some cloud
03:52 or smoke or..."
03:53 And then, so I just got a bunch of shading.
03:55 This is like a caricature of myself.
03:57 And then on the left, you have Seattle.
03:59 This is where I was born and raised.
04:00 And then you have Korea.
04:01 This is where I'm, you know, my blood and my DNA
04:04 and where I live now.
04:05 Then you have a heart.
04:06 And inside, I think it says family, friends, and music,
04:10 if I'm not mistaken.
04:11 So, Art of Movement is my B-boy crew.
04:14 And you know, I still identify as a B-boy dancer.
04:17 It's where I basically got my group of friends from.
04:20 Basically what started off my career,
04:22 because if I was never a B-boy, if I was never a dancer,
04:25 I would have never became a singer, basically.
04:27 And that's why, you know, I have B-boy life, hip hop,
04:30 you know, very grateful to the hip hop culture,
04:33 just because it gave me everything I have right now.
04:35 So that's kind of like a salute, an appreciation for hip hop.
04:39 And then on here, you got God's Son.
04:42 And then you got strength, strength and faith,
04:45 just 'cause I do believe in God.
04:46 And you have to have faith in order to have hope.
04:49 And hope gives you strength to, you know,
04:51 get through whatever you're going through,
04:52 or to achieve whatever you need to achieve.
04:55 Find that motivation.
04:56 And then, yeah, this is kind of like another one
04:58 where it's like, I was young.
04:59 Yo, like the world is in my hands, like an ignorant,
05:02 I'm the shit type of mentality.
05:04 So yeah, I'm just like the world in the palm of my hands.
05:06 And this is all art from an artist named Mina Kwon.
05:10 Sanli did the tattoos, but the actual like art
05:13 came from Mina Kwon, this one and this one.
05:15 And then, yeah, this is another one where it's like,
05:18 I was a very big Fresh Prince of Bel Air fan
05:22 when I was growing up.
05:23 And so it was like Fresh Prince of S,
05:24 and that could be Seoul or Seattle.
05:26 And then on the back of my arm right here,
05:28 it says live free.
05:29 If I'm not mistaken, I haven't seen the tattoo in a while,
05:31 'cause it's on the back of my arm.
05:32 Does it say live free?
05:33 The line inside, it's like my family's birthdates.
05:37 And then I think it says always come proper.
05:40 That's kind of like another like,
05:41 when I was young, like yeah, we need to hustle,
05:44 grind and always come proper, like that type of mentality.
05:46 And the lion is like that mentality, like heart of a lion.
05:49 No, I have to stay strong because I am accountable
05:52 for a lot of people.
05:53 I run two companies, I have a lot of employees,
05:55 my family, friends, I do take care of
05:57 or support a lot of people.
05:58 And so I can't be weak mentally.
06:01 That's something like, yo, you got this.
06:03 Like, even though I feel overwhelmed sometimes,
06:05 I have to remind myself, like, you got this.
06:07 Like, you know, give myself confidence, self boost.
06:10 Oh yeah, so it says like passion
06:13 and then upside down it says pleasure.
06:15 Yeah, you didn't know that, right?
06:16 Yeah, passion and pleasure, yeah.
06:17 She was like, yo, like there's this thing
06:19 where if you read it one way, it could say something else.
06:22 And I was like, oh shit, that sounds cool.
06:24 You have to have passion,
06:25 but you also have to enjoy things sometimes.
06:28 On this side, see no evil, speak no evil, do no evil.
06:32 Right, and it's like angels.
06:33 Like I said, I do believe in God, so I don't like evil.
06:37 And I think a lot of people don't like evil,
06:38 but like there's a lot of evil things in this world.
06:41 It's very easy to get engulfed in that type of stuff.
06:43 So, you know, I try to like remind myself,
06:45 like to try to stay away from that type of shit.
06:48 Everything I get is, except for the piece from "Boog,"
06:50 which is on my leg, I wanted to get the AOMG,
06:52 which is another label that I founded.
06:54 And then he finished so quickly, he was like,
06:55 I got another hour, like what you want to do?
06:57 So I was like, shit, okay.
06:58 And then so he did the other side of my leg
07:00 and he just freestyled that one.
07:01 So besides that one, everything else
07:03 is just things that I wanted to get.
07:05 Yeah, so it's AOMG, artists only money getters
07:08 or like above ordinary music group.
07:10 It stems from AOM, art of movement, my B-boy crew,
07:13 and then I turned it into a label.
07:14 So he finished this in like an hour and a half.
07:16 And then he was like, yo, you want something else?
07:18 And I was like, oh, cool.
07:19 And so he did this.
07:20 So it was like a rose, feathers, another mic,
07:24 some notes and a eye.
07:26 You know, I didn't ask particularly like why he did the eye,
07:29 but you know, I was like, oh, you know,
07:31 he just freestyled this as well in an hour and a half.
07:35 So that just goes to show how talented he is.
07:37 He did it like breathing almost.
07:39 I have another piece.
07:40 I got it like seven, eight years ago.
07:43 It's like an angel and I haven't finished it yet.
07:45 So it's been unfinished for like seven, eight years.
07:47 And I don't think I'll ever finish it to be honest.
07:50 Well, I'm not getting a lot of tattoos anymore,
07:53 but I love my ink and I still, you know,
07:56 I'm on TV, so it's all good.
07:58 (upbeat music)