The stories Janine Berdin tells with ink
Growing up, Janine Berdin always wanted to get a tattoo for no deeper reason other than that it looked cool. The first one she got was a kunai, a Japanese throwing knife, from “Naruto”—her and her sister’s favorite anime—on her right inner arm. She loved it, so much so that she ended up getting at least seven more. To think that she was once worried about being misjudged: something those with tattoos are no stranger to.
“That was actually my number one fear—being labeled, people thinking a certain way when they see me,” Berdin tells Lifestyle Inquirer.
People did start thinking a certain way when they saw her. But surprisingly, not in the way she had initially expected and feared. “People are like, ‘Oh, that girl has a ‘Naruto’ tattoo. I think I know her vibe!’” says the singer-songwriter behind viral alt-rock hit “Sitwasyonship,” as well as “Mahika,” the breezy, chart-topping acoustic ballad she recorded with Adie.
Since then, Berdin has come to understand why people say getting a tattoo can be a form of self-expression. “That’s what I love about having them. We don’t have to talk to each other, but still, you get my vibe and I get yours,” she points out.
And what vibe did her mother get the first time she saw her with a tattoo? “She cried,” Berdin recalls, laughing. “But then I told her even Regine Velasquez has one. That’s when she was like, ‘Okay.’”
Attracting dreams
Now, her body is a canvas for tattoos, both big and small, whimsical and personal, too.
On her right middle finger, are sparkles and a bow—a reflection of her bubbly personality. Or perhaps so she can flip off and still be cute about it. Flames run across her left knuckles, reminding her to keep the passion burning whenever she’s holding the microphone.
There’s BoJack Horseman on her left leg, and on her right, a phrase written in Thai script that cheekily reads: “I got a tattoo in Thailand.” Berdin adores dreamcatchers and has them all over her room. Naturally, a dreamcatcher covers most of her left leg—to “attract all the things I’m dreaming of.” And it doesn’t hurt that her icon, Miley Cyrus, has one, too.
Meanwhile, on her right outer arm is a shooting star she got just this year. “I just needed something to remind me that I’m a star,” the 23-year-old artist, who started out in showbiz as a child actress, says with a giggle. “This is me and I shouldn’t forget it.”
With her love for music and ink, hosting a tattoo and piercing hangout to launch her new single was a no-brainer. Not only did lucky fans get a free tattoo of one of Berdin’s signature designs, they were also treated to a behind-the-scenes look into the creative process behind “Hayup Ka,” which will be part of her upcoming debut album, “Lab Songs ng Mga Tanga.”
A modern transmutation of early 2000s alt-rock and pop-punk, with subtle echoes of Olivia Rodrigo, “Hayup Ka” is peppy and laced with cutting humor—belying the lyrics about gaslighting, manipulation, and relationship toxicity, which Berdin scratches through with her unmistakable raspy vocals.
At some point in just about everyone’s life, the universe introduces a narcissist, Berdin suggests. Someone who embodies the word “hayup” to a tee. She encountered hers some time ago, but mercifully, she came to her senses and, with newfound clarity, put her pent-up rage into words.
A little TMI
But while the impetus of the song was just one person, its scope eventually expanded, covering other people’s experiences and the collective resentment she senses around her. “It can be a lover or a friend you fell out with,” Berdin says. “Someone you believed in, trusted, and put on a pedestal—only for them to disappoint you in the end.”
“Hayup Ka” sets the thematic tone for the rest of the album, which will be released on Sept. 26 under Island Records Philippines. And if the lyrics come across as shitting on people who wronged her, maybe that’s because she wrote most of the songs while literally sitting on the toilet, tapping away at her phone. No actual ink here, but the words still leave a mark.
It’s a little TMI (too much information), Berdin admits, laughing. But if there’s one thing she learned from being exposed to rock music early, it’s not having to apologize for her songwriting.
“I realized that I don’t have to restrain what I want to say,” says Berdin, who, after being crowned champion of the second season of the singing competition “Tawag ng Tanghalan” in 2018, forged a musical identity beyond the usual kontesera mold. She did so by exploring different musical genres, like rock, R&B—as in her slowburn duet, “Mikasa” with Arthur Nery—and Afrobeat, which she saunters down in “Tayo Lang (May Alam).”
And who knows, her thoughts and emotions, however gritty and unfiltered, could very well give solace to those who can’t find it in people. For she herself “found a best friend” in music during times she felt she was alone. Perhaps “Lab Songs ng mga Tanga,” can be that to the listeners, too, she says.
“I want to talk about stuff we don’t typically bring up or are shy to share with friends,” Berdin says. “We can all get stupid when it comes to love, and that’s fine. We should be able to talk about it and have fun with it. That’s what music is all about.”
