It was apparent to me before, and is more so now after looking for examples, that often religious tattoos and jewelry are connected to hip-hop culture. Big chains and medallions are nothing new to hip-hop, but over the past few years there has been a rise in rappers sporting religious (mostly Christian) jewelry -- which has trickled down to the mainstream public. It is extremely common to go into any dance club (at least in NYC) and see gold and diamonds drawing out Jesus Christ's face on a thick gold chain.

My question is this: do people feel that this combination of cultures creates negative or positive reactions? Does hip-hop look better or worse when connected to religion? Does religion look better or worse when "advertised" by rappers?

Jesus Pieces is a project that is developing out of my interest in
religion, and how it meets everyday life. One way I have recently
seen this is through people wearing religious jewelry and having
religious tattoos. More and more often, I will come across people
with intricate crucifix chains, tattoos of biblical verses or portraits
of Jesus Christ, and other sorts of unique religious adornment. I
find them so interesting and often beautiful, that I want to develop
a series of photographs, showing these creations and the people who
are wearing them. While I am calling this project “Jesus Pieces”, I
definitely do not want to restrict it to include only Jesus
medallions, or even just Christian-related things, but am interested
in all religiously-related tattoos and jewelry.

Beyond just the visual “look” of this adornment, I am also interested
in why people choose to get these tattoos done or what jewelry they
may choose & why they wear it, along with what the public response
might be, if any, to these personal expressions of religion. I
decided to create a blog about this project to be able to start
sharing my photographs as well as to open up a discussion about this
idea of people having religious tattoos and jewelry. I would like to
pose questions and bring up issues surrounding this trend, with the
hopes of getting responses to the images along with opinions, ideas,
and stories about religious tattoos and jewelry. I invite everyone
to view the images, post comments and give any and all feedback they have!