Inked for a Cause – Jesse Sarvinski for Red Eye

What’s your name?
Jesse Sarvinski

What is your job?
I am a songwriter, vocalist and producer but I also like to include visual artist because one of my favorite things is to see a song come to life through the medium of music video. I love to collaborate with other artists and see their interpretation of the song.

What social causes are most important to you?
I’m really big on health and nutrition. I believe in the power of the human body, mind, and diet and I live by the words “Let Thy food be Thy medicine” so I try and spread the word that you really and truly can feel better based on what you put into your body. Don’t get me wrong I can definitely slam down a pizza from time to time but in general I like to eat clean; fruits and nuts, vegetables, lean meats and food that comes from the Earth and has not been tainted or processed.

What charity do you support – and how?
I work with a couple here in LA but primarily a group called Red Eye. They are really big on spreading the arts and working with primarily children but adults also, helping people feel empowered. It’s really awesome to be a part of that. They do so much for the community and I take part when I can. Really great people. Compassionate and excited about life and helping others. Also, a recording artist friend of mine and myself spend a lot of time in the projects, Watts. We go and hang out with the kids, play music with them, take them to shows that they might not ordinarily have the opportunity to see and it’s a really good time. I’m very big on teaching children music at a young age and it’s something that budgets are being cut back on a lot. Sometimes I will volunteer and go to a Preschool or Grade School and sing and teach kids about musical history or how certain songs were made or sometimes I’ll just sing something really uplifting that they can easily sing along to. It’s very important to me because music changed my life at a very early age and if it weren’t for the mentors I had around me inspiring me and motivating me to let that creativity shine, the trajectory of my life would have been significantly different.

How would you define social responsibility?
I think social responsibility really boils down to love and acceptance and sometimes those words can sound so cliche or mawkishly sentimental but it really does. We need to keep our walls down and realize that just because we have different skin colors or religions or languages or places of origin, the same things make our hearts beat. We all need food and water, we all need sleep, we all need love. It’s a really simple premise that might sound naive but I really do believe it’s that simple. I think that you just need to give your brother a helping hand sometimes. Ya know if some homeless guy asks you for money, is it really gonna kill you to give him a dollar? There is enough to go around for everyone and it’s important to keep your mindset in a place of abundance and not in a place of scarcity and lack.

Do you have any tattoos that relate to your social work?
I believe in the interconnectedness of everything so I think that that would naturally be reflected in my tattoos. On my wrist I have one that reads “One Life” – again alluding to the idea that we are all one, it’s all one, and it goes on and on, as far as I’m concerned. I guess it’s just a reminder to do the right thing in life. On my forearm I have a guitar, because music is so important to me and I just loved the idea of having it there and it’s a great conversation starter. On my right shoulder I have a Sacred Heart which is well-known Catholic iconography. Though I’m not practicing, I love the mysticism that it represents and the idea that there is Divine love. You can call it what you want, it’s all different names for the same thing in my mind, but I believe it’s out there so it again just reminds me to have compassion and the flames surrounding it remind me to keep the fire alive, keep that light shining and spread it around as much as you can.