INTERVIEW: Tattoo Stories with Kane Brown

Georgia-born, 23-year-old rising country artist Kane Brown may have kicked off his music career by posting covers of songs to YouTube, but a few years later, and Kane has now released his debut self-titled album (on Dec. 2) via RCA Nashville. Kane's new album hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, as well as No. 10 on the Billboard 200. The record features 11 new songs including his singles "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" and his latest, "Thunder In The Rain."

On what it was like putting together his debut album

"It was fun. We had a bunch of songs together, and [my label] was like, man this album needs to be about you, and everybody needs to know you. So I got to just write about my life, and how I was raised, and a bunch of influential people in my life. Just meeting the different writers in Nashville; different talents have different ways of writing, it was just a cool experience to get to know everybody, and tell them my story and connect. We've made a lot of friends out of it."

[Buy Kane Brown on iTunes]

Kane Brown Talks About the Meaning and Story Behind His Tattoos

One thing you'll notice about Kane, other than his tremendous talent, are all of his awesome tattoos -- and he has a lot of them. The singer/songwriter spills the details about the origins and meaning behind his ink in our one-on-one interview with him below. 

In Kane's family, tattoos are abundant, and he explains that he first tried to get a tattoo when he was 16 years old, but couldn't find a place who would tattoo him. "We tried to get tattoo when I was 16, but you couldn't get it anywhere, unless you went to Alabama and had your parents sign." 

So the the rising country star finally got a tattoo when he turned 18 -- the words "John 3:16," which is the name of a bible verse, on his chest. 

On his first tattoo -- the "John 3:16" on his chest

"I [had] just turned eighteen; I got it for my birthday. I grew up in a real christian family. I always went to church every Sunday and Wednesday. It was just something I had in my mind for a while, [and] I wanted something on my chest, and that's what we got."

As mentioned before, many of Kane's family members also have tattoos, and he even has a matching tattoo with his mom -- a Chinese symbol on his neck that means "love." His mother had found the tattoo, and made sure that it actually meant love before they had it tattooed on the both of them.

On the Chinese Symbol For "Love" On His Neck

"I got this one [Chinese symbol] on Mother's day with my mom, and it means love. Then I got this one, it's music notes [and] my grandmother has it in the same place. And if I [didn't get] them, I'd be in the army right now, and I wouldn't be doing music. So it's pretty cool. My mom found it. And then, we made sure it meant love before we got it."

On The Microphone On His Left Hand

Before Kane's country music career took off, he was working at FedEx, and as he said before, had even considered joining the military.

"This was one of my latest tattoos. I got it while I was at FedEx [around] 2014. I knew what I wanted already, but it started with a hand and it kinda looked dumb just having a microphone on my hand. So I was like 'I need to go ahead and get this finished.' So it turns into a guitar [that looks] like it's ripping through my skin. At first we were going to do a piano, and then we decided to do the guitar. We were going to do the piano down here, so I could act like I was playing the keys, but I got Georgia there instead, just so I wouldn't forget where I came from."

Although he says getting tattooed on his hand "wasn't that painful," he explains since his knuckles "are really bony," they swelled up -- which is not ideal when you're dealing with boxes at FedEx. "Everybody was like 'that was kind of a dumb tattoo to get while you were working at FedEx,' but it just motivated me more to keep going with music, and trying to succeed, because if I wouldn't have succeeded I wouldn't have been able to really get another job."

On The Wolf Tattoo On His Left Forearm 

Aside from having matching tattoo with his mother and grandmother, Kane also has a wolf tattoo on his left forearm that matches with his tour manager, and that his band plans to get. It represents that the group is a wolfpack and sticks together. This particular tattoo was done by Bubba Irwin, who appeared on season 4 of Ink Master -- all of his other tattoos were done by another tattoo artist.

"The dude that did this was on Ink Master, and we're actually good friends now, and he's a fan. His minimum's like $800 for a tattoo, and I thought I was gonna have to pay for it, and he was like just gimme a shout out, and we just became friends. Everybody in my band is getting one. My tour manager has one right now, we're the only ones that got one, but we're just a wolf pack. We're loyal to each other and we're like a family. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us."

On The Three Skulls Tattoo On His Right Forearm

The concept of the three wise monkeys -- aka representing "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil," has been represented in many different ways. And Kane chose to interpret the proverbial principle with skulls and roses for his tattoo.

"This one is three skulls, and the rose is over his mouth is for speak no evil, this one's in his ear for hear no evil, and this one's in his eye for see no evil. Instead of the three monkeys, I decided to do skulls and flowers."

On The Snake Tattoo On His Right Arm

One thing you might know about Kane is that he's afraid of snakes -- which you wouldn't guess considering he has a tattoo of a pretty vicious-looking serpent on his arm. But he explains that this tattoo serves as a reminder to conquer your fears. "This one's a snake and that's one of my biggest fears. And I just .. you know .. conquer your fears."

On The Angel Wings On His Shoulders & Biceps 

On both of his shoulders and biceps, Kane has angel wings -- one on each side. He tells us the meaning behind these: "One day I want to have angel wings, so might as well just go ahead and get them now, right?"

On The Batman Tattoo Across His Chest

One of the most well-known tattoos that Kane has his the Batman symbol, which is located across his chest. Yes, he's a fan of the caped/masked superhero, but the tattoo happened as a way to cover up a different tattoo on his chest, and it was his most painful, aside from his angel wings (which took around 8 hours altogether). 

"I have Batman that goes all the way across my chest. The guy that was doing my tattoos, let's just say he was in a very bad place. I had the bible verse and a cross, and I was gonna put it on my back, and it would just be my whole back with a bible verse and a cross. And, I needed some thing to cover it up because I wanted a chest piece, so we were going to do three skulls. The way tattoos work, if you don't shade enough, then you'll see something that comes underneath it. He was on a drug while he was doing my tattoo, and I didn't know it. He got arrested after I left, so after I came back I was like, 'hey you need to finish this,' and he was like, 'I thought I did finish it.' And I was like, 'dude, what are you talking about?' He was like, 'there's no way I'm going to be able to finish that.' And I was like, 'why didn't you tell me this before we got it?' And he was like, 'dude, I'm sorry I didn't know, I was in a bad place, I'm better now.' So I was like, 'well we need to find something to fix this.' And the only thing I could think about what Batman. That's what I was into at the time, and I'm still into Batman, but I was really into batman at the time. So we decided to do Batman. We got halfway finished, and then he disappeared again."

Kane does have plans to finish the Batman tattoo, but wants add to it. "I'm thinking about doing something else to it instead of just getting all black across my chest. I want to have a design around it."

On Plans For More Tattoos

"Eventually, I want to have a shirt -- not a [full] shirt, I don't want to do anything down here [around his stomach], and I don't want to cover my neck. Like, I regret these [the Chinese symbol and music notes], but I don't regret them at the same time because [otherwise] I would be in the army; I wouldn't be doing music. But, I want to get just the arms, and chest, and then my back. Just leave the stomach open."

Listen to Kane Brown's new single "Thunder In The Rain" below!