Interview: "16" TATTOOS

September 16th, 2016 will see the limited digital release of “16” which contains SIXTEEN unique tracks. Interestingly enough, Jesse has 16 un

ique tattoos that can tell you an awful lot about him as a person and as an artist. We sat down with Jesse and made him dish on the back story behind all his tattoos, this is what he had to say…. * * * Question: What was the first tattoo you ever got? Answer: My first tattoo was actually my wedding band, I have my wife’s maiden name, “STOREY” tattooed on my ring finger. I like how jewelry looks, but I don’t really enjoy wearing it, on top of that I thought it was a nice romantic statement to make to my wife, she had asked me at the time, “What if for some reason we broke up?” I said, if we break up that doesn’t erase the fact that I loved you, that I’ll always love you, even if somehow I ended up hating you and that you were my wife, my partner for a long time and any woman who came into a relationship with me would know that and just have to deal with it. My wife is a part of who I am. Who I have become. I don’t remember how long we were together for at the time, but now we’ve been married almost 10 years and together 16 years! It’ll be 17 years on December 1st. Question: How long was it before you got your next tattoo? Answer: Ha, it was quite a while before I would get another one. Though I had wanted tattoos since childhood, my mom kept scaring me out of doing it. She had one tattoo that she absolutely hated and regretted and she would pass on her anxiety to me when ever I brought up any tattoo plans. It wasn’t until I finally moved to Los Angeles and met the owner of Body Electric Tattoo and Piercing, my good friend Brian Kieth Thompson that the flood gate opened and I began to get some serious ink. Previously, I had trouble finding the right artists for the tattoos I wanted, in many cases I was looking to perfectly replicate a symbol or something and a lot of the artists were sort of bored with that and I’d get nervous they weren’t going to give me what I wanted. However, when I met Brian, who is the piercer at his establishment, he was able to help me hand pick the right tattoo artists for each of my tattoos and he had a lot of guys to chose from. I actually have only ended up utilizing TWO of his artists for literally every tattoo I have besides my wedding ring, Mike Gutowski who has become a great friend of mine and the very talented Jacob Ramirez. Question: And what were your first tattoos with them? Answer: My first tattoos with them were my bracelets, first a band around my right wrist with my daughter Logan’s name in her own handwriting, as well as the outline for my sons Cassidy and Grayson for when they can write their names one day. And then on my left wrist I got the PHOENIX that I’ve been planning on getting since my days playing with BXF. It also says, “THANK YOU” on the opposite side of my wrist, which signified a major awakening I had when I took psychedelic mushrooms for the first time, inspired by Steve Jobs. Long story short, I realized as soon as they kicked in that I had not been living a grateful life and that I viewed my life as a scar that had been inflicted upon me. Well, in seconds I found all those old ideas about my life had melted away and for the first time maybe ever, I felt truly grateful for literally everything I had. It was the single greatest experience of my life at that time, trumping my wedding and the birth of my child. As I told my wife, I had never been relaxed and grateful enough to feel as good as I finally felt in that moment and I wanted to make sure I never forgot the feeling and so I added “THANK YOU” to remind me. And it does, every day. I don’t think I’ll ever forget, gratitude. It’s the only way to live. Question: So, you were getting all these tattoos pretty rapid fire, huh? Answer: Yeah, well to a certain degree I was playing catch up, I’d had a number of these in my mind for years and they were finally happening and once I saw that I could easily survive the pain, I just kept going. I’m pretty sure I got my next two in the same sitting, my Wolverine “claws” to represent my daughter Logan’s namesake and my “NY” tattoo behind my neck to represent my home. I felt like a fish out of water when I first moved to LA and my NY tattoo made me feel a lot better about abandoning my first love, New York. But I eventually came around to LA living. Question: Can you explain your “claws” for the people who may not get the reference? Answer: Sure. Most people who don’t read comic books assume the three tattoos on the back of my hand are bullets, but they’re actually the “sheathes” that Wolverine’s claws pop out of in the comic books. He had these metal things that looked kinda like bullets on the back of his gloves and when he would pop his claws, they’d come out of them. Anyway, I pulled the design directly off of the cover to Wolverine #1 by Frank Miller. Question: So when did you get the dragon on your chest? Answer: Not long after that, I think. That one hurt like a bitch. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had some weirdness going on with the muscles in my chest and the pain was vibrating through my whole chest for the entire time. It was a long session, I can’t remember exactly, but it was at least 3 hours. It’s meant to represent my immortal soul, so only right it seemed to go on forever, ha ha. It’s actually the symbol of the Iron Fist from Marvel Comics, specifically the more recent David Aja design. Question: Was that your most painful tattoo? Answer: Yes, I would say so, though going around my wrist wasn’t the most fun and my two tattoos on my legs underneath my knees were fairly painful as well. Question: Tell me about those two. Answer: I essentially got two triangles, the emblem of the Klingon Empire from Star Trek and the Tri Force from Zelda. I actually made a wish the whole time I was getting that last one, which if you’re a Zelda fan you will understand. I’ve never told anyone my wish and I don’t plan to until it comes true, but the Klingon Empire symbol was meant to represent my ascension from dumb jock who believed strongly in “eye for an eye” to enlightened person who understood how that way of thinking would leave the whole world blind. By the end of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series, the Klingons, who began as a major enemy to Starfleet, would finally join Starfleet and I saw myself as a Klingon, trying to come to grips with the more peaceful and righteous ideas of Star Trek. Question: Tell us about your family crest? Was that an existing crest or did the Snider family create its own? Answer: We created our own. My mom had been working on it for a while and my dad was the first person to get it tattooed. Both of ours have the same elements, but some subtle differences. Mine is on my left bicep and there are characters and symbols to represent my entire family. My father is a lion, my mother a unicorn, on the shield my sister Cheyenne is represented by the dark horse, my brother Shane is the North Star, Polaris, and my brother Cody is the Tree of Life. I am represented by my Phoenix, so technically I have two phoenix tattoos on my body. I also retired my mohawk with the tattoo, giving the skull on the design a blue hawk. There is a red scroll across the bottom that says, “Positive Mental Attitude” which is a saying my father coined in his youth and I thought that was the greatest lesson I had learned from both my parents, to always stay positive. My dad’s says something else, “Never let the bastards wear you down.” I think my sister is getting hers next, but so far only my dad and I have the crest on our bodies. Question: So, you said you got the Wolverine “sheaths” to represent your daughter, what do you have to represent your other three kids? Answer: Well, nothing for Parker yet because she was just born, but for my son Cassidy I have vampire bites on my right wrist and for Grayson I have the Nightwing logo on my right bicep. Question: Is Cassidy named after a vampire? And can you tell us who “Nightwing” is for those who don’t know? Answer: Yes, actually. One of my favorite comic book series of all time is a series called, “Preacher” by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. The main character’s best friend is an Irish Vampire named, “Cassidy” which is where we got the name. I’m also a huge “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” fan, that didn’t hurt. My son Grayson is named after Batman’s original sidekick, Dick Grayson aka Robin, who would eventually grow up, move out of the cave and protect his own city, Bludhaven as the masked vigilante Nightwing. Nightwing is probably my favorite comic book character, I really identified with his struggle to get out of the shadow of his father figure, Batman. Question: So, that’s 11 so far, what else you got? Answer: My action figure joints! I’m a huge toy collector or at least I was before I burned my detached garage down with all my toys in it. I wanted to get something to represent my love of toys and my eternal youth. I am never gonna grow up and I don’t think anyone should. I still have to get my knee joints though. Ha ha. Question: Do you have anything to represent music? Answer: Not quite, my wife keeps telling me I should, but I do kinda have a Baptized By Fire tattoo, besides “The Phoenix” on my wrist. We were known for a song called “Juggernaut” and while the song isn’t actually about the X-men character “Juggernaut” I decided to get the source of his power tattooed as a belt buckle, the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak! So now I have all the powers of the Juggernaut. Question: Impressive. Do you have any other cymbals of power on your body? Answer: Well, all my tattoos are all symbols of power for me to some extent, but yes, I have my guardian angels tattooed on my lapels. A green tiger with yellow stripes to represent my grandmother Jeanette Macintosh and a multi colored hummingbird that represents my friend, drummer Kris Dalene. I like to think that Kris is my muse and that he is still making music with me from the other side. Question: Why a green tiger with yellow stripes? Answer: Well, I liked the colors better and I’m a huge fan of He-man who rode a green tiger named Battle Cat. There’s actually a larger meaning behind all my tattoos and that is that the left side represents where I have come from and my tattoos on the right side represent where I am going. As a child I loved tigers, they were my favorite animal, but as I grew up I began to appreciate subtler things, like the beautiful hummingbirds in California, which quickly became my new favorite animal. My wedding ring and my family crest are both on my left arm, my tattoos for my children are all on my right. Question: What about your tattoo on your right shoulder? What’s the story behind that. Answer: Ha, well, I was reading a book about positive affirmations and about how many modern Olympians were using a technique called “positive visualization” to give them an edge over their competition and then it mentioned the most powerful positive visualization in athletics, Muhammad Ali, “I AM THE GREATEST.” I decided that I needed a positive visualization of my own, “COOLEST MAN ALIVE.” Now, please don’t take me for a superficial asshole, I don’t mean “cool” in the superficial way, when I say “coolest man alive” it is a commitment to myself to be a good person to everyone. It’s my willingness to put myself out to help others and to do everything I can to make others feel good when they are around me. On that old TV sitcom “Happy Days” the Fonz was the coolest kid in school, but it wasn’t a leather jacket that made Aurthor Fonzerelli the coolest kid, it was his willingness to help people. Every episode the Fonz was a lynchpin, either delivering vital advice that would steer the main characters of the show in the right direction or physically getting between them and their problems and helping them to overcome whatever odds. That’s who I wanna be, someone who you can turn to for help. The coolest man alive. There’s an “S” built into the design for “Snider” and it says, “Est. 1999” which is the year I began dating my wife. That’s the year I decided I wanted to be a better person, someone who made people happy, the same way my future wife made me happy with her glowing smile. Question: Does Patty have any tattoos? Answer: No, not yet. Maybe one day. I actually had my friend design two versions of my Coolest Man Alive tattoo, there’s another one with flipped colors that says, “Coolest WOMAN Alive” but Patty said she didn’t feel deserving of the title. Question: After giving birth to her own baby while speeding down the 405 Freeway I think it may be time for her to reconsider. Answer: I think so. Question: So, I think that’s 16 tattoos right? Any plans for more? Can you give us any specifics? Answer: I have tons of plans for more, though I never plan for my tattoos to touch. I’m not gonna be getting full sleeves or anything, but I’ll continue to fill in every blank spot I get a good idea for. Um, next up? Well, I gotta get the outline on my right arm for Parker’s future handwritten name and figure out a tattoo to represent her and her namesake Peter Parker, Spider-man. I’ve been planning on getting Dr. Strange’s “Eye of Agamotto” tattooed over my solor plexus chakra, but I think I’m most excited about a little one. I’m gonna get my championship ring tattooed on my middle finger. Winning a semi pro Football national championship with the Brooklyn Mariners is one of my proudest accomplishments and I’m looking forward to no longer wearing the ring on a chain, it’s really heavy and I’ve almost knocked out some teeth at my concerts. Ha, ha. Question: Amazing! Thank you for your time. Answer: Thank you. It nice to tell someone the story behind all my body art. Plenty more to come. * * * See how many of Jesse’s tattoos you can spot in this great live clip from Ultimate Jam Night at the Whisky a Go Go…