For JT, a young prospect making his way into a local branch of the Crips in Brooklyn, joining the gang is about family: Getting close to a group of men that care about him, and are willing to back him up if he ever finds himself in trouble. But getting initiated isn't easy. We followed JT through the process of getting made to see what drew him to the gang, and to hear why he's willing to be "squared in"—suffering a brutal beating at the hands of his best friends.
Tattoos hurt, but for most people, the pain is just a means to an end. Tattoo artists are usually mindful of their client's pain threshold, catering for breaks and mitigating any unnecessary brutality. It's abnormal for tattoo artists to restrain people while they're getting tattooed, or for the tattooee to bolt upright in agony to escape the needle's unrelenting penetrations. Nor is it very common to see sadistic mirth occupying the faces of multiple tattoo artists as they inflict the unnaturally long, thick, shallow lines seemingly without pause. Enter Brutal Black. It's the tattoo project where mandalas come to die and where pain is prioritized over aesthetics. Ritual and rebirth are at the forefront of this project helmed by Valerio Cancellier and Cammy Stewart. They take those brave enough to be tattooed by them on one of the most brutal experiences one can imagine; far beyond one's threshold for pain to create an entirely new experience.
As a third-generation Native American bull rider, Bo Tyler Vocu faces risk of serious injury and death each time he gets in the ring. At just 16 years old, Vocu has already broken his hip twice pursuing his dream of becoming a world champion bull rider—a dream that's been passed down from his grandfather to his father and is now his. On this episode of 'Rites of Passage,' VICE caught up with Vocu and his family ahead of a major bull riding competition in Oklahoma to talk about the serious risks riders take to compete in one of the most dangerous sports on Earth. Vocu talks about his grueling practice schedule and his pre-competition rituals, and his father weighs in on what it's like to watch his son compete as a parent, and as a bull rider himself.
In this episode of Rites of Passage, VICE travels down to Sinaloa, Mexico - El Chapo's home turf & the heartland of arguably one of the most powerful cartels in the country, if not the world. There, we follow a pair of local, low-ranking members eager to prove themselves as soldiers and sicarios (hit men) for the Sinaloa cartel. Though they're currently stuck making drug runs, tailing military trucks, & overseeing other petty assignments throughout the city of Culiacán, they'll soon be headed to the mountains of Badiraguato to attend the cartel's underground training camp, where veterans turn hungry young men into willing & able killers.
When Naeem saw the violence around him evolve from fists to weapons, he knew that something had to change. He decided to settle disputes in the ring, not on the streets with weapons. Now, Naeem faces his biggest challenge yet as he aims to prove that street fighters can go toe-to-toe with the professionals.
VICE joins French Free Solo Climber, Alexis Landot, as he prepares for his hardest climb yet, The Mercury Tower in Paris, and learns why he climbs and how free soloing skyscrapers brings him peace amid the many stressors and sources of anxiety in his day.
Each year, thousands descend on Phuket in Thailand to take part in the Vegetarian Festival and witness one of the bloodiest religious festivals in the world. For 12 year old Earth, the sights of blood and smell of gunpowder have always been a part of his life however, this year is different as it is the first year that Earth will participate as a “Masong” (medium of the gods) and take on the suffering of his community in the piercing procession.