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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
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"I've never regretted any of my piercings or any of my tattoos!"- Jordin
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Transcription:
Jessica: All right, hello friends. I am here today practicing community and social distancing with my dear friend, Jordin.
Jordin: Whoo!
Jessica: Jordin is an extremely talented musician and studio artist who moved here from all the way from Las Vegas. What kind of fun, at least to me is Jordin and I started shopping at Avanti, probably about three years ago.
Jordin: We spent so much money there.
Jessica: We spent so much time there.
Jordin: Yeah.
Jessica: How many piercings do we get?
Jordin: I think five or six.
Jessica: Like eight right
Jordin: Yeah, because every time we get bored and we had a little bit of extra money, we'd be like, Why don't we go get this pierce? and then we'd usually either get the same thing or we would alternate. So I get my Medusa and then you would get what is this called again? The middle one.
Jessica: It was called The Ashley is what 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 re-pierced.
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.
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“I don't want to look like everybody else. I want my life, my experiences, my art, and my beauty to shine through!" - Jordin
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Jordin: I really enjoy artistic expression. I feel like---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. You know, like growing up, I was just like this one thing. You know, I was 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. You know, 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 like, beautiful women on TV all tattooed and like pierced and beautiful and I always admired them and every time I brought it up, like to say to my mom, everybody was I taught you ever do that, like you're gonna be so ugly, like that's, uh, you know, 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 like doing something I was always doing something so, by the time that I got older, I feel like I was really able to come out of my shell a little bit. And it did start with piercings. Actually,
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"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
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And then I got a little bit older and I got my first tattoo, which was hair dye on my arm right now, but it was, it was the sun. I don't even know if you could see it. Right?
Jessica: Yeah.
Jordin: So after that, it just it like, catapulted my whole life like this is something that I like my image of beauty and my ideals of how I wanted my body to look and it's not everybody's, you know, I get a lot of weird looks from people in the grocery store and I get a lot of people asking me like, what is that mean? And people stare at me sometimes they're absolutely broke pause. But it's what, for some reason, but it's what I want my body to look like because I don't want to look like everybody else, and I want my life and my experiences and my art and my beauty to shine through that other people don't always see and it did start with body modification.
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. Like, I mean, you know me. It's not everybody else does and -
Jordin: Right.
Jessica: Also, you know, grew up--- were both gingers and what gingers hear all the time is "Oh, your hair 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 like, 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, you know, 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!!!
And I feel like that's beautiful because we wouldn't have had this chance, you know, and to do it, it's scary and it's kind of alarming, you know 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 like, within that light, being a woman, and we're just like, what, 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, you know 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 no, other people's opinions don't really matter.
Jordin: Exactly.
Jordin's history of being brave
Jessica: Yeah, that's really cool. But you have a history of being brave because you moved all the way here from Vegas by yourself.
Jordin: I did do that.
Jessica: And you only knew your brother and his family. Right?
Jordin: Right.
Jessica: Was that scary?
Jordin: Not really, I wasn't really scared, you know, that's one of the things is I act a lot on impulse, you know, and a lot of people leave. It's not everybody's cup of tea, but I love it. So I've just gotten up and moved without, like, question or comment so many times. So the fact that I was able to do that, like, I really feel blessed, and I feel grateful that I was able to do that, you know, I was able to go somewhere and start something new and make my own life and my own people, you know, I was able to build a community for myself here.
And in the beginning, it was really hard because it was really lonely. You know, I didn't know anybody. And I felt like the people that I was meeting here. I was so different from them because Oregon and Vegas are like, black and white compared to each other so I had to learn to interact with people in a different way that I've never done before and I was so young and I was working and going to school. I just didn't know what I was doing. But the one thing that I did know how to do was that I couldn't manipulate my situation into something where I felt more comfortable, you know, and it actually was, it put me into a place where I was able to meet my people like I met you, you know, at such a trying time, and I really didn't think that I would ever, like, meet a best friend, somebody liked me. And because I've never met anybody that was into the same stuff that I was into, you know, so meeting you and us going on these adventures and like dyeing our hair at three in the morning, and like, piercing our bodies and like going and getting like ridiculous matching tattoos, like that's something that I love. And I feel like I feed off of it because it's so much fun and these are memories that we're creating together.
And, you know, even if it 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, we're creating something new, you know, even if it's together, we still have that community and we have each other and this is something that we use like to build a connection like 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. I think it's kind of a testament really to anyone who's you know, listening or watching is thinking like, "Oh my gosh, I want to go do this but should I like, will it even matter? Do I even matter?"
Jordin: Right.
Jessica: But like you moving all the way from Vegas to you like 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. All of those choices led to what's been the best friendship I've ever had.
Jordin: Right. 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.
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“Just watching you feel so free in yourself has led me to feel free in who I am!”- Jessica
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Jessica: I'm really becoming---I know you've been instrumental in me becoming who I am. Just watching you feel so free in yourself has led me to feel free in who I am as well.
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 like making one of my closest friends and we got to do these things together. Like it really did change so much for me like, 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.
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"I've never regretted any of my piercings or any of my tattoos and everybody's different."- Jordin
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Jordin: Yeah, I mean, for the most part, there is a lot of things that you should take into consideration like 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, like, if you get piercings, something could happen to them. You know, it could like 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 $3,000 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, like they take a long time to take care of. And after that, like 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, you know, 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 like 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 they're---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? Like I think big is like better but it's what you want to do.
Jordin: Right
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“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
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Jessica: And I always ask them because they'll be like, should I get this pierced? Like I wasn't gonna get a piercing today? Should I get this pierced now? I always ask them like, 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 new 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, like when I look at you, I don't see your tattoos or you know, any hair color or anything like that. I just see you.
Jordin: Right.
Feel free to show people who you really are
Jessica: You know, and I think that because you have your piercing, you know, you had 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 just because it looks 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 like a new design, it makes you more beautiful, because now you're yourself.
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 like, 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 like, open with myself and what I want to do and before I was totally held back by it, I was like I couldn't take myself seriously, you know, why would other people?
Jessica: I agree. I agree entirely. It's such a weird, you know, I was prepping for our interview today and I was thinking we're both artists and we went through, like, 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 like, an 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 like such a weird and interesting and cool concept. Just coming from the spiritual realm is creating.
Jordin: Right?
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"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
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Jessica: And how weird is that just 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.
Jordin: Right? Exactly.
Jessica: It's so weird.
Jordin: Oh, and that's another thing too. Anybody who's going to get modified, please stop asking if it hurts. Yes, it hurts but you are going to survive, the pain will not kill you, you will be okay and it will be worth it. And it's, you know, if you get like a piercing it's quick, it's easy, you're done, it's beautiful. If you get tattoos it's gonna be a couple hours you're gonna be in a lot of pain but it's worth it and it's beautiful. So stop asking if it hurts. Yes, it hurts but you're going to be fine. you'll survive.
Jessica: You're an expert on this, too. Because you do handle pain. Not in a normal way.
Jordin: Every time. I've gotten a piercing. I said like what I've had six on my face every single time I get something pierced, I vomit. Every single time I just go in shock and then I'm like --- everywhere all over the place. But you know what it was worth it. It was fine. It was contained. I always alert whoever's piercing me, I'm like, Hey, I go into shock. I'm gonna throw up. Like I need Jessica here to hold my hand and probably a trash can and like a cool paper towel or something, just don't throw up all over the place. And they're always really appreciative. So if you are going into shock, like my body does, don't even be embarrassed. It's not a big deal. They see it all the time. But just be prepared if you know what's gonna happen so that everybody set up for success because if you just vomit all over yourself, if you just [inaudible 19:37], it's not gonna be good.
Jessica: And for anyone listening and thinking, Oh my gosh, is that common? It's not common at all. It's actually highly unusual. I've seen hundreds of procedures and I've only seen like you throw up and then one other person.
Jordin: Yeah.
Jessica: And it just not very common. But if it does happen, you're right.
Jordin: It's okay.
Jessica: It's okay. It's nothing to worried about. No one ever in the studio, I think there's a lot of things that people can become worried about. I know it's something that. I became worried about starting to work on customer service side of things.
Jordin: Right.
Jessica: Like, oh my gosh, like, I'm so worried that they're going to think this or that they're going to make fun of me behind the back or you know, anything like that. That is not the case, at least not in our studio, like, we're always concerned. But we're never like, Oh my gosh, that person threw up like, you know?
Jordin: Hey.
Jessica: It's so okay. I don't know. I think it's like, my biggest fear is loaded up in public. So I always like it's okay if it happens, it's okay. We'll take care of you. We will get you a snack and get you some water.
Jordin: Right.
Jessica: We have like a private area in the back that will set you up with where you'll just be okay and I'll be quiet. It's totally okay.
Jordin: Yeah, piercing studios are prepared for that kind of thing. So and especially like, if there's a manager like you there and you're like "Well, I have freaking applesauce pouches in my purse, do you want one?" You know like, yes Give it to me but yeah. It's totally okay. It happens. It might be rare, but that's okay too because you just got to accept that that's the way that your body works, you know, don't be worried about it. Don't be freaked out. Don't let it hold you back from doing anything if you throw up, you throw up it's over in five seconds. It's fine, you know
Jessica: What I think that's the whole part of getting modified to is just understanding this is the way my body works.
Jordin: Exactly and there's nothing wrong with that. Like I don't have any piercings in my face anymore because that's the way that my body works. I'm going to try again later but I'm not equipped for that right now and that's okay because that's how my body works.
What are you thinking of getting pierced?
Jessica: What are you thinking of getting pierced?
Jordin: You know, the same things that I've had before that I've taken out I want to get my [inaudible 21: 48] and I want to get my nose pierced. I don't know I just I kind of want to get everything I've always wanted dermals. I've always wanted hip dermals. Like I guess that'd be amazing. I've always wanted my tongue pierced but I'm a musician so I don't know if I could swing it but I still want to do it so I probably will. Yeah, as you know, everything that I do is a last-minute decision, and it's going to be super impulsive if I do it but those are just my thoughts but I might end up getting my eyebrow pierced. I have no idea I'll just decide on it that day and do it yep.
Jessica: Do you wanna match my eyebrows?
Jordin: Yes. Yes, I do.
Jessica: Oh, it's awesome. Or may I copy you so I feel like ---
Jordin: Yeah, look at you [inaudible 22:27 - 22:29] Yes, I'll get both sides my tongue pierced, too.
Jessica: Oh, yeah, like me. I do everything in doubles.
Jordin: Looks so cute though. I love it.
Jessica: If you were to get pierced again, what kind of jewelry would you think I know before you did like the lavender opals and you really like that and now you're rocking some lavender hair. So maybe the lavender is coming back before and it's always in neutral. So I'm just curious what style tastes do you think?
Jordin: I don't know I really appreciate opal. That's one of like my favorite stones ever. I'm not sure. 
I feel---I really like I don't know what they're called. I'm not a professional but I like stones that you have in your nose right now like the bigger solid pieces. What are those?
Jessica: These guys back here?
Jordin: Yeah.
Jessica: They're garnets.
Jordin: I really like that style and that shape. And I like the thickness of it. I hate the garnet [inaudible 23:31]. It's my birthstone I don't know why I hate it.
Jessica: My favorite color.
Jordin: Probably 'cause I'm ginger and I just hate red for life now, but I really like that I could do opal or just like a solid colored stone. It'd be like a little diamond or something. I'm not sure, actually. I feel like it's something that I have to see when I get there and then see how it feels because my body looks so different than it did the previous time that I've gotten everything pierced you know, so it's like it would be a learning experience to see what I think that I would be comfortable within my body with everything I've got going on without feeling overwhelmed.
Jessica: Yeah.
Jordin: Yeah.
Jessica: So I know inspired thinking about so these are cabochons as what they're called. It's a really weird word that looks like cabbage on.
Jordin: Cabochons!
Jessica: When I first started working, there's like, I would just not say it, I'd be like, Oh, the calves, because it's a scary word and sometimes I'm still not sure I'm saying that right. But, its cabochon, let's get the calves.
Jordin: Yes, I love the calves.
Jessica: With the opal, that would be so pretty. We had one opal in the studio, we ended up selling it and I was both like, happy that it found its home but also sad because I wanted it. It was like this kind of it almost looked like moonstone. But it was an actual opal.
Jordin: Ohh.
Jessica: And that would be so pretty because it's kind of got like that hints of lavender but it's more of like cool blue tone speckles of light in it. That would be so pretty like right here.
Jordin: Oh, that's not available.
Jessica: I want the quarantine to be over.
Jordin: Me too. I wanna get pierced.
Jessica: Well, I guess before I let you go and enjoy the sunshine because it is actually a really nice day today.
Jordin: I'm not going outside.
Jessica: You go on your porch.
Jordin: That I can do.
Jessica: Go on your porch to get some fresh air. Okay. Take your cat.
Jordin: No. He's a jerk. He's staying inside. He tries to suicide off the tree, live on the third story. He tries to jump off every single time I let him on the patio. I mean, they do have nine lives and they're super flexible. But I ---
Jessica: How [inaudible 25:46-25:49]
Jordin: I don't know what he's trying... napping right now you wanna say hi to Jess. Look, we're on a video call. Say hello.
Jessica: So before I let you go, is there any last pieces of advice you wanted to even leave listeners with?
Jordin: I don't know, just if you want to do it, do it. Don't think about it too much. Have a good time. Enjoy life. We're all gonna die. So just do what you love and love what you do.
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.