Tattoo expo gathers skin artists

Artist and model Mandy Garcia. --Courtesy Maxx Shots

Tattoos are so popular, so mainstream, so everywhere these days that it may be hard to imagine a time when they weren’t.

Back in the ’90s, however, when Jacob Hanks, a second-generation tattoo artist, was a boy in Kailua, he remembers what it was like to be seen with his father, famed tattoo artist and tattoo machine builder Larry Hanks.

“When my father would drive me to elementary school on the back of his motorcycle, it really alarmed a lot of people and their parents,” Jacob Hanks said during a phone interview last week from his Oregon home.

“Now everybody remembers back, ‘Oh, that was so cool,’ but during the time I think maybe only Danny and a couple of (other) guys thought it was acceptable.”

“Danny” is Danny Casler, rock musician and event promoter, who “grew up” in Larry Hanks’ Kailua tattoo parlor, Aloha Tattoo, “fascinated with the fact that my friend’s dad didn’t have a traditional job.”

“I spent a lot of time in the shop and drawing and just being part of that culture,” Casler said. “As I became older, tattoos became more and more accepted.

“When I was in (the rock band) National Product, everyone had tattoos, and so through traveling around the world, I got to see so many different styles and cultures related to it.”

Fast-foward to 2012. Casler, who now divides his time between California and Hawaii, and Jacob Hanks are principal promoters of the Pacific Ink & Art Expo, a three-day celebration of almost all aspects of tattoos — as art and as an expression of culture — starting today in the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall.

“(We’re) bringing together some of the best (tattoo) artists in the world to one venue,” Casler said. “The synergy and the energy of having some of the most creative talented people in one building is an awesome thing!”

Chris Jumalon chest and neck tattoos by tattoo artist Richie Lucero. --Courtesy Photos by Shuzo Uemoto, courtesy of Honolulu Museum of Art.

THE EXPO is the first of its kind for Hawaii, Casler said. It is intended for two groups of people: those who already know about tattooing and those who are curious but hesitant about going to where the information is available.

Casler acknowledges that many people still think of tattoos as something worn and flaunted by outlaw bikers, hard-core felons and street gang members, or World War II-era veterans.

Change began brewing in the 1980s, when the punk-rock scene embraced tattoos as a confrontational act of defiance and rebellion.

Since then, tattoos have evolved from being confrontational to being “cool” in many social circles.

In the old days a “sleeve” (tattoo designs covering an arm from wrist to shoulder) could consist of work done by several tattoo artists over a period of years — each piece representing a different event or milestone, every picture telling a story of its own.

These days, Casler says, young musicians will go out and have their arms done “in less than two weeks” — not as a gesture of social defiance, but because they think it looks cool.

Chris Jumalon arm tattoos by tattoo artist Richie Lucero. --Courtesy Photos by Shuzo Uemoto, Honolulu Museum of Art.

LARRY HANKS, who is returning from Nevada for the Expo, verifies that mainstream America sees tattoos differently from how it did a generation ago. In his view, though, this was also a matter of misconception, bolstered by media coverage and public prejudice.

“They always thought (only) drunken sailers and prostitutes got tattoos, but that really wasn’t the case,” Hanks said. “Most people had their tattoos concealed under their shorts or short sleeves. … (Famous) people had their bodies tattooed, but they kept them covered.”

“When Cher got a little tattoo on her arm, it was a big thing because it was out in the open,” Hanks said. “But her whole entire (behind) was tattooed 15 years before that. … Tattoos have always been really really popular; there was just never any media picking up on it for the public to see.”

Jacob Hanks credits basketball stars Dennis Rodman and Shaquille O’Neal with making it acceptable for athletes to be tattooed. Reality shows like “Miami Ink” and its spinoff, “LA Ink,” also caused viewers to “connect to” tattoo artists and their customers as everyday people.

“I’ve tattooed police officers, nurses and teachers (after the television shows),” Jacob Hanks said. “Everyone sees it on TV now, and it’s more acceptable. … Nowadays people want their necks tattooed and their arms (where the tattoos can be seen). The media made it OK.”

Casler agrees.

“Any time you look at something that you’re not sure of (and) you get to know the people, it helps you accept what they’re about,” he said. “You put a person like (celebrity tattoo artist) Kat Von D in front of 8 million people every Wednesday, and you begin to reshape the mindset of the general public.”

Hawaiian cultural practitioner Keone Nunes has studied forms of the Polynesian tattoo. --Courtesy photos by Shuzo Uemoto, Honolulu Museum of Art.

GREATER ACCEPTANCE has helped pave the way for Pacific Ink.

“We’ve been working on this for two years to create the most safe mainstream event possible while still bringing in all aspects of this culture,” Casler sid.

“This is a 150 percent family event. We’ve got Kamekona from ‘Hawaii Five-0′ and a playland and a place where kids can get temporary tattoos.

“We have the television show tattoo stars. … We also have Lyle Tuttle and Rick Walters and Gill Montie, who are from that old world (of tattoo culture).”

Attractions at the Expo include musical entertainment, a skateboard and BMX ramp, a bodybuilding contest, a Hawaiian Hotties Queen 2012 competition, a mobile gamers van, classic cars and customized motorcycles, body painting and seminars on safe tattoo procedures.

The Expo also coincides with the ongoing “Tattoo Honolulu” exhibit at the Honolulu Museum of Art.

“Hawaii is a cultural melting pot of tattooing that is experienced nowhere else in the world,” Jacob Hanks says. “There’s Japanese tattooing, there’s Americana, there’s Samoan and different styles of Polynesian tattooing. … Three days is probably not enough time to experience all the things that the (expo) is going to be offering.”

Hawaiian cultural practitioner Keone Nunes, who is participating in the expo and also is featured in “Tattoo Honolulu,” said there is an important difference between modern “Hawaiian-

inspired or Polynesian-

inspired” designs that he describes as “design work” and tattoos that are part of Hawaii’s pre-Christian tradition.

Nunes’ research began more than 20 years ago with kupuna who shared their knowledge with him.

He subsequently studied traditional Polynesian tattoo techniques with Samoan master tattooist Paulo Sulu’ape; since Sulu’ape’s death in 1999, Nunes has used only traditional Hawaiian tattooing implements.

“I’m a cultural practitioner, not a tattooist, although I appreciate the design aspects of it,” Nunes said in a phone interview from Washington D.C., where he was giving a presentation.

“My whole focus was not to become a tattooist, but to perpetuate a cultural aspect. … I brought back a lot of the designs that were not seen (in recent years), that were not necessarily tapa designs or anything like that, but were (traditional).”

Tattooing was suppressed in the islands after the overthrow of the indigenous Hawaiian religion because many of the tattoos had religious connotations, Nunes said.

Hawaiian tattoos “were not just for aesthetic reasons,” Nunes said. “With the advent of the neo-Polynesian designs, I think it becomes a little more difficult (to distinguish them), because aesthetically it’s beautiful, but its a conglomeration of Hawaiian, Tahitian, Marquesan, Samoan (and) Maori designs all put into one, without any real (cultural) foundation.”

People who are serious about getting an authentic, culturally correct Hawaiian tattoo need to consult “someone who has cultural knowledge,” Nunes cautioned. “Because if you don’t, you’re judging it from the design aspects, and that’s about it.”

“In a Western sense you can (pick a design) because it has some significance to you … but within the Hawaiian context it’s much different. There’s a responsibility that goes along with it, and not just a responsibility to yourself. It’s a responsibility to your family, to your ancestors and to the people who haven’t been born yet.”

– John Berger / jberger@staradvertiser.com