Richardine Bartee
Jez Dior gets personal in the first episode of his new video series.
Jez Dior, a new artist signed to Epic Records, shared a cinematic visual about his Funeral Crew. His day started off with a two-hour photo shoot. Then, he went to a tattoo parlour on Sunset Boulevard called Tattoo Mania to get the coffin-logo on his face. In the video, he confesses that tattoo pain is the worst pain ever.
“I hate when like buff ass dudes will be like ‘Yeah, I fucking love the feeling of getting a tattoo. No, you don’t. It hurts like a motherfucker.”
It was Jez Dior’s first time getting a tattoo in a couple of years. He has a tattoo that has lyrics from a song that his dad wrote for his mother. The song is called, “Jasmine Beach.” As he tells the story about his tattoos, you get to know more about him. Based on what he says, and how he speaks about his mother, they are friendly. I think they have a good relationship. Another tattoo he has is an elephant with butterfly wings as its ears. He explained that his mother’s spiritual experience in Bali inspired their matching tattoos. She has it on her foot.
She doesn’t approve of him tattooing his face, but he did it anyway. “You already have the piercing,” he said as he mocked his mother. “Sorry, mom,” he continued.
In fact, what we have in common are the funerals we’ve had to attend. When I was a young girl, too many of my friends died. At a certain point, I couldn’t attend any more funerals. It was doing something to me emotionally and mentally. I became numb at a young age.
It took a while to thaw out. I was in my mid-to-late twenties before I started to feel again. Writing is one of the only things that helped me come back. Psychotherapy (which was affordable) helped me to understand what happened to me. Cognitive exercises also helped me to heal. However, I know that most minorities aren’t able to work on, or treat, their PTSD. Either they are in denial of it, seeking mental health treatment isn’t within their culture, or they lack the economic advantage and vital resources.
If you haven’t heard of the Thousand Oaks-native before today, no worries. Check out “2 Birds” underneath the video.
Update 4:58 PM EST: Jez Dior is not from Crenshaw, Los Angeles. He is from Thousand Oaks.
