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Episode Highlights 

0:31 - Getting to know Jordin
3:15 -“When I was 15, I got my lip pierced and I was like, wow, I feel a little more connected. I feel a little bit more like myself” - Jordin
4:00 - “I don't want to look like everybody else. I want my life, my experiences, my art, and my beauty to shine through that other people don't always see and it did start with body modification." - Jordin
6:48 -  Jordin’s history of being brave
10:06-  “Just watching you feel so free in yourself has led me to feel free and who I am as well.”- Jessica
12:23 - “I've never regretted any of my piercings or any of my tattoos and everybody's different.” - Jordin
14:39 - “What you see when you reveal your soul is not your body. When I look at you, I don't see your tattoos or anything. I just see you.” - Jessica
14:51 - Feel free to show people who you really are
18:04 - "Putting in some ink in my skin or just like putting a piece of metal through my nose has unlocked this whole world of possibility in me because now it feels so brave.” - Jessica
21: 40 - What are you thinking of getting pierced?
26: 04 - Jordin’s last pieces of advice

Jessica: It was called The Ashley, a lot of people know that.

Jordin: And then you get an Ashley and then you got a Medusa and then I got my nose pierced. It was a great time.

Jessica: I have my other nose pierced.

Jordin: And then I got my nose pierced again and then I get Medusa pierced again.

Jessica: And then you took your Medusa's out and then I took my lip out.

Jordin: Yeah.

Jessica: Then I got my lip repierced.

Jordin: That's a lot of alternating going on.

Jessica: It is. Would you ever think that I'd be working there and you'd be doing a video interview?

Jordin: No, I did not.

Jessica: It's crazy, right?

Jordin: I know. It really is.

Jessica: Why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself?

Jordin: I really enjoy artistic expression. When I was growing up, I always had like an image or I guess I was, I don't know. It was like, it's like it was its own entity. Growing up, I was just like this one thing. Everybody loves my skin and everybody loves my long hair and everybody loved my face and always compared me to like, something that they thought was their idea of beauty and everybody's like, don't ever cut your hair, don't ever get tattoos, don't ever pierce your face all the time when I was growing up, and I never really connected with that. I never connected with those people and I just remember seeing beautiful women on TV all tattooed and pierced and beautiful and I always admired them and every time I brought it up, like said my mom, everybody was I taught you ever do that, you're gonna be so ugly, that's, uh and it was something that was like frowned upon. And I can never understand why because I do a lot of art and I love other people's art and that was just a way for me to express myself like always drawing or always seeing or always painting, always like making ceramics. I was always doing something so by the time that I got older, I feel I was really able to come out of my shell a little bit and it did start with piercings. Actually,

Photo by Just Jessica June LLC

Jordin: And it's after I started doing all that, that's when I finally started to feel comfortable in my own skin and I was able to experiment life is my own person, and I was able to break free from everything that everybody else wanted me to be.

Jessica: That's really cool. I agree. I mean, you know me. Not everybody else does and -

Jordin: Right.

Jessica: Also, we were both gingers and what gingers hears all the time is "Oh, your hair is so pretty, don't cut it, don't dye it, don't do anything to it. Oh, your skin so pretty, don't do anything to it." And it's really hard when you look in the mirror and you don't like what you see and it doesn't look like you.

Jordin: Right! And then you explain that to people and they're like, why would you? Oh my gosh, one thing I hear all the time is, people pay so much money to get the color that your hair is, do you realize how lucky you are? Like constantly. And I'm like, cool for them whatever they want to do, but you can have it. I don't really want it like--- 

Jessica: It's my hair!!!

Jordin: I'll take a splat box dye any day. Let's do it. So yeah, it's true, especially when you're like, I don't know, I feel like we're a whole new generation than ourselves. This isn't something, they did do it back in the day, in the Navy, and the criminals and the people in the military had tattoos, but I feel like that's something that's like. So it was so taboo for such a long time and it's like, we're finally starting to break out of that, because we're actually able to do what we want with a little bit of less question and like, it's a little more normal now but I think that's beautiful, because we're able to do whatever we want with our bodies. 

Source: @metalcatmomm

Jordin: And I feel like that's beautiful, because we wouldn't have had this chance, and to do it, it's scary and it's kind of alarming because it's something that's permanently there forever so I guess it's really getting to know yourself and understand what you want, and know where you're going and know what you want because it's permanent now. And it's a part of your person and I feel like that's actually beautiful because you could use it in a positive way.

Jessica: Yeah, I agree! I also think within that light, being a woman and we're just like, 40-50 years ago, women couldn't do anything, let alone like the whole idea of being like, yeah, I'm gonna go get my nose pierced because it's my own body. And I want to do this is just unheard of and---

Jordin: Exactly.

Jessica: I never even thought of that until you said that actually, how freeing it is to just this is my body, this is who I am and I can make it whatever I want to be and other people's opinions don't really matter.

Jordin: Exactly!

Jordin: And even if it's seems like redundant in the moment, it's something that we're going to be able to take with us and we're going to look back on it later, like we have stories for all of our friends and if we decide to have children, we have stories for those children and our partners and everything else because we're creating something new. Even if it's together, we still have that community and we have each other and this is something that we use  to build a connection, this is our bond, you know what I mean?

Jessica: Yeah, I  know, exactly. It's crazy to think that your decision to just up and move to Las Vegas not only changed your life completely, but it changed mine completely. It's I think it's kind of a testament really to anyone who's listening or watching is thinking, "Oh my gosh, I want to go do this but should I? Will it even matter, do I even matter?"

Jordin: Right.

Jessica: But like you moving all the way from Vegas to working at Black Rock and meeting your partner at the time, who I randomly met just by deciding to go work at a crappy restaurant.

Jordin: Right.

Jessica: All of those choices led to - it's been the best friendship I've ever had.

Jordin: Yes!

Jessica: It's been awesome. It's so fun and we now have two cats. We have two cat brothers, and so many crazy stories like our main tattoos and our tattoos of dead bugs.

Jordin: Oh yeah.

Photo by Just Jessica June LLC

Jordin: And the fact that you did it and I saw it. It was just really exciting and it was freeing in the fact I was able to making you one of my closest friends and we got to do these things together. It really did change so much for me. I don't know where I would be without you, honestly.

Jessica: I feel the same way. Don't make me cry, okay, I did my makeup for this.

Jordin: Okay. But can I cry because I'm not wearing any makeup?

Jessica: So I guess, then I'm assuming your advice would be to anyone who's considering to do that would be just to do it.

Jordin: Yeah, I mean, for the most part, there is a lot of things that you should take into consideration, when you do modify your body, it does take a lot of work and it does take a lot of care. It's not something that you do once and then you're done. No, if you get piercings, something could happen to them. Mine was just my body, my body doesn't like it and it took me a long time to figure that out so I went by face cost about $2,000 maybe $3000 for all this jewelry that my body just doesn't agree with and that's just my person and that's okay but I love the experience and tattoos too, they take a long time to take care of and after that, even though it's in your skin forever, if you don't maintain it properly, it's not going to keep up the way that you want it to and it is a lot of work and it is a dedication to your art, and to other people's art and to your body so I feel like if you're really thinking about doing it, you should think if you have the capacity to be able to constantly maintain something, because that's really what it is but if you want to do it, you should do it because it's one of the best things that I've ever done with my life. I've never regretted any of my piercings, or any of my tattoos and everybody's different but it's just taking solace and knowing what you're doing and who you are and that you are capable of being your own person, even if it's scary and even if you get weird looks from people on the street, which will happen. It will happen to you if you do it. And you just have to learn to live with that and you have to be okay with that and understand that it's not everybody's idea of beauty and it's not everybody's cup of tea and that's okay because you're making your own life and you're creating something beautiful and it's yours only- nobody else's. Even if you have the same tattoos as other people, it's still your body and it's still your story, you know?

Jessica: Yeah.

Jordin: Yeah. Just whatever makes you happy. If you think about it, and you want to do it, I wouldn't let the pressure of other people veer you from that because it really is a beautiful experience and it is a learning experience as well.

Jessica: I agree. Whenever I saw someone come in and ---usually, we get a lot of people come into the studio and they're like, I want to get this pierced, but will it look good on me?

Jordin: Right!

Jessica: And I'm like, well, do you like it on you because I, obviously, am going to like it on you because I'm obsessed with piercing, but is that you like? They'll always be like, is this too big and I'm like, do you see the jewelry on my face? I think big is better but it's what you want to do.

Jordin: Right!

Jessica: And I always ask them because they'll be like, should I get this pierced? I wasn't gonna get a piercing today, should I get this pierced now? I always ask them, well, what's stopping you? If what's stopping you is that you think your boyfriend won't like it? That's not a good reason. If what's stopping you is you're worried about what your friends are gonna think about you, that's not a good reason. If you're worried about like anything, like if you're pretty enough or if you're going to be cool enough, were going to be taken seriously with those piercings. That's not a good reason because I think there's your body and then there's your soul and what you see when you reveal your soul is not your body, you know? When I look at you, I don't see your tattoos or any hair color or anything like that. I just see you.

Jordin: Right?

Feel free to show people who you really are 

Jessica: And I think that because you have your piercings, you had your hair colored and you have your tattoos. You feel free to show me who you are.

Jordin: Right.

Jessica: That's why you should get pierced is because it almost like a key and it unlocks that ability to be yourself and allow people to see who you are. And it makes you more beautiful not because you have something sparkly on your skin or you have a new design, it makes you more beautiful, because now you're yourself.

Jordin: Yeah. And that's the true thing too, is when I first started getting modified, I was like, I have not, your long hair, my hair is down to my waist, fire head, whatever but that's one thing that I was stuck on is like, God, Am I going to be pretty enough? Am I? Am I going to be able to find a partner? Am I going to be able to find friends? Am I going because I work in customer service so it's like, Am I going to be able to interact with these people if they hate the way that I look and sometimes it is a struggle. I've had people look at me in disgust before, you know when I'm giving them their food and it happens more often than you would think but as you said, it is once you are comfortable with who you are and what you're doing, you are going to transform basically like a new anew person, at least that's how it was for me because I was finally comfortable and I was finally accepting myself and my soul and everything that I wanted to do and I was like, you know what, this is who I am and this is okay. And if other people don't like it, I don't really care because I feel so comfortable.

Jordin: And then you're actually able, when you feel that confidence, and you feel that self-esteem and you feel comfortable in your own skin, you're going to be able to create so many more relationships than you would ever even imagine and the way that you interact with people in the way that you communicate, it's going to change because you're like, you know what, I'm not gonna let so and so do this and this because I know that I don't deserve it because now I have all this like, I feel like I know who I am now and I know that I don't want that or I know that I do want that and it has made me a little bit more ambitious because I'm so more open with myself and what I want, what I want to do and before I was totally held back by it, I was like I couldn't take myself seriously, why would other people?

Jessica: I agree entirely. It's such a weird, I was prepping for our interview today and I was thinking, we're both artists and we went through, for lack of a better term, like a dry spell in creating art, you know?

Jordin: Oh yeah.

Jessica: What we love, like, you're a musician, and you also do studio art and I am a photographer, and I also do studio art but we had almost three year gap where we kind of created but we didn't really create and during that time, we were tattooing and piercing and coloring our hair and becoming our person and what I've noticed is just watching you grow and watching myself grow over the past three years, we're actually now creating art. Now that we both do art and I think that's such a weird and interesting and cool concept. Just coming from the spiritual realm is creating.

Jordin: Right!

Photo by Beaverton Photography 

Jessica: That sounds perfect. Well, I hope you have a great rest of your day and I'll call you later today. Not on Zoom.

Jordin: Thanks for interviewing me. I feel so special.