Jelly Roll: ‘I regret 98 per cent of my tattoos!’
Opening up about how he has changed in the years since he decided to cover himself in inkings, singer Jelly Roll admitted he despises “98 per cent” of his body art.
Jelly Roll hates “98 per cent” of his body art.
The ‘Need a Favor’ country singer, 39, born Jason Bradley DeFord, has tattoos stretching across his body and face, but says he now regrets many of the decisions to get inked as they were made in his youth.
He told GQ: “I regret 98 per cent of these tattoos, 97 per cent, almost all of them.”
Jelly also said the “core philosophies” he used to hold dear when he got most of his tattoos had now changed.
He added: “And now I’m 40 I’m like, what was I thinking?”
Jelly also said when it came to taking people on a ‘tour’ of his tattoos he wouldn’t know “where to start”.
He added: “I don’t know, I hate ’em all.”
Jelly also said he got “tons” of his tattoos when he was in jail, including one of a “baby smoking a blunt” – a design he branded a “little excessive”.
He also admitted “a lot” of his tattoos had been cover-ups of other inkings.
Jelly went on: “The ones that were really bad have already been covered up.”
One cover-up was of an illustration of the Nashville skyline, which was inked over a design reading ‘Surviving the struggle’.
But Jelly said about the mess that was made of the fix: “We had forgot to put the ‘t’ in it, so it said ‘Surviving the sruggle.’”He also said a cross reading ‘RIP Momma V’ was the first tattoo he got aged 14 after a family friend died.
Jelly added he didn’t “really remember” his first face tattoo as there has now been “so many”.
But he did stress his “most meaningful tattoo” was the large cross on his right cheek, explaining “it was symbolic of a change in me”.
Jelly said the design was “a constant reminder” he needs to bear his own cross in life, “as the good book says”.
Speaking of his time in jail for drug charges and aggravated robbery, the singer admitted he got some “cheap” tattoos done, including one his wife Bunnie XO – who recently celebrated her first anniversary of retiring from sex work despite being married to Jelly since 2016 – mistakenly thought was Elvis.
Jelly said: “It’s Jesus on a cross, and let me tell you how bad it is. The first time my wife seen me without a shirt, she asked me did I have Elvis tattooed on my back.”
