My Dear Friends of Inked Line is a cover up the line is a cover-up um the line that i had before this one you know um i had went to a different tattoo artist at the time and he kind of did you know my left side so my chest he did and and my my left arm i left forearm.
And it was more like a house tattoo you know what i’m saying so i didn’t pay that much you know what i’m saying and sometimes they say you know you get what you pay for so what’s going on boy cj i’m a hip-hop recording artist i’m from staten island new york born and raised staten island is like you know a small.
Town um you know pretty much everybody knows everybody um you know i started getting into the music around like 13 14 years old you know started recording myself and i know the rest was history i believe it was probably like on tv or.
Something like that you know i was super young and and i always you know wanted tattoos from from then it was kind of like just like a like a full body thing like i just wanted like a bunch of tattoos like it wasn’t like one in particular but i knew you had to obviously start off with one and then you know but um yeah i just wanted a.
Bunch of tattoos when i got older so um the first one i got is uh it’s praying hands you know i had lost my grandfather when i was four years old so it’s praying hands and it says rest in peace grandpa um i got that at a you know early age so my mom actually like you know she came with me she signed a consent form and.
Stuff like that so she kind of like agreed to you know for me to get it but um you know when i went to school you know everybody was looking at me like i was crazy so but um you know worked that was meaningful to me so you know i wanted to do that at that age so yeah i didn’t want to get something stupid when i lost my grandfather i always kind of.
Wanted to put something that i remembered him by how did he build the collection after your grandpa’s trippy piece like what came next um pretty much i think i started on my sleeve i started on my sleeve after and uh my second tattoo was a it’s a cross on my on my right arm and it says and inside the course it says in god we trust so like i.
Said another you know another religious you know meaning behind that um and then that’s that’s when i just started adding more pieces to my sleeve everything that i put in my body like i wanted to i wanted it to be meaningful and you know um kind of kind of have a story behind it i started doing like more religious and angelic stuff um you.
Know especially like on my right my right sleeve i got you know uh my guardian angel you know she’s carrying a rose um you know i got a bible scripture you know my mother’s name so everything is you know pretty much meaningful was there a point in your head where you went from just being a guy.
With a couple tattoos to be a tattooed person um i would say like junior year in high school as when i kind of started like getting a little out of hand with the tattoos you know like i think it became like an every month thing like i like.
I just seen like so much space and i would just be like nah like i need to make this a full sleeve you know so that’s that’s kind of where that started i would say like junior year high school you know i started with the first piece of my arm and i kind of just wanted to finish the project you know what i’m saying so that’s how that happened.
Do you regret any of the tattoo decisions you’ve made i’m not like as as far as everything that’s on my body like i said everything is meaningful and everything has a story behind it so you know um even with the with the tattoo that i did cover you know um you know it was it was a it was a lion.
Tattoo you know i didn’t like the way it came out but like it does have you know a a meaningful you know background to it you know i feel like i got the heart of a line so i decided to put a line on my chest i had a tattoo artist um out in staten island so um you know we had a we had a you know crazy bond you know i.
Would just come by and just you know give him ideas and he and you know sometimes i would have stupid ideas and you know he’ll tell me like you know don’t don’t go for it you know you’ll regret it when you get older so you know we we had that bond between us because you know there’s some tattoo artists you’ll be like yo this is what i want.
And they’re going to give it to you i’m saying no matter what it is so i’m i’m grateful for him you know for for pointing me in the right direction instead of me putting some stupid stupid on my body that i would have regretted so you know i always like i said i’ve always been a huge fan of music i’ve.
Always been a huge fan of tattoos like i just felt like it went hand in hand is your head space different than it was early on um not really like like since i like i said i used to go like pretty much every month so i would kind of just have the same you know mindset every time i went um.
I just you know the the pain i didn’t look forward to you know i’m saying and when i got my stomach done actually like that was my most painful tattoo you know i think i had to take like a few bricks in between but you know once i started getting a certain certain spots on my stomach i.
Just you know i felt like i was gonna pass out but we gotta we gotta do it would you do it again i don’t think so no i don’t think so man i think i think i’ll skip the stomach and go to the arm or something take the easier route that’s crazy because i was going to do my hand last night um i want to actually.
Get like a money rose you know whenever you put you know any type of money sign or dollar bill around your hand i feel like that attracts money so you know i definitely want to get like a super dope money rose on my hand and you know go nice with the you know the jewelry and stuff like that so good luck do you have any of your other tattoos.
That are trying to manifest something um um i kind of manifestly one tattoo already and it says more money more problems here and now that i’m you know where i’m at i definitely believe that’s true you know money is everything to me you.
Know what i’m saying you know um that’s the reason why i got loyalty over royalty you know so a lot of people think you know money is everything but i feel like if you don’t got genuine people and loyal people around you i feel like it means nothing but um you know who doesn’t like money i love money.
You can start over if i can start over you’re 14. free canvas no tattoos oh man would you do it all again the same way um i feel like i would i feel like i would like i said i don’t got no regrets as far as any of my tattoos um maybe i would have stuck you know to the to the.
First guy you know and um you know never never switched over and got you know uh tattoos by another artist but um i don’t regret none of my tattoos i definitely do it all over again.
You
Growing up in Staten Island, CJ started his tattoo journey at a very young age. Long before “Whoopty” blew up, CJ was getting tattooed once a month while in high school. We spoke with the musician about his first tattoo, the perils of changing artists and more.
Welcome to Heavily Inked. In our newest series, we’re going to speak one-on-one with tattoo collectors and artists about what it means to be a heavily inked person. We’ll get deep as we go through the motivations behind their tattoo choices, the way they’ve been treated in society and much more.
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