Jelly Roll Warns Young Fans About Cheap Tattoos

Jelly Roll is known for his music—and his ink.

But in a resurfaced video from The Howard Stern Show, the country star is urging young fans not to make the same tattoo mistakes he did.

“I regret 98% of these tattoos. 97%… almost all of them,” he told Stern.

“Like core philosophies I rooted my life in when I was 17… now I’m 40. I’m like, ‘What the **** was I thinking?’”

Jelly Roll has tattoos across his body, including his face.

One of the most noticeable is a cross under his eye, which he says is his most meaningful:

“As cliché as it is, is probably the big cross. It was symbolic of change in me… a constant reminder.”

But not all his tattoos carry the same weight. He once got ink that read “Surviving the sruggle”—a typo that’s since been covered with a Batman Building from the Nashville skyline.

Then there’s the more controversial ink, like a “baby smoking a blunt,” which he now calls “a little bit much.”

And yes, he admits some were done in trade for “a quarter sack of bad weed”—and look like it:

“They look decent, cause they’re all grouped together… until you dissect them and zoom in, you’re like, these suck bad. It’s just bad art.”

Speaking to GQ, Jelly had a message for anyone under 25 thinking about getting tattooed:

“We will spend $300 on a pair of shoes… But as soon as a motherf****** wants $400 an hour to tattoo you, we’re out… That’s some wisdom that nobody gave me.”

It’s advice worth hearing, especially from someone whose tattoos have become such a huge part of his image—whether he likes them or not.

Watch the viral clip from the Stern Show to hear more from Jelly Roll.