tattooing for a living

Practice makes permanent

808 iD house artist, Keahi, is busy working at House of Ink Tattoo Waikiki so he is getting quite adept at color, flowers, script and Hawaiian/Poly/Malihini blends. When he comes back to Hilo, he tries to broaden his horizons by going back to his roots - mixed tribal with urban flair. Follow him on Facebook so you know when he's coming home.

Whoops

I have a disease, it's called chronic forget about my blog for months at a time disease. I spoke to a doctor about this once and she told me that the best thing for this is to post as much as I can all at once and hopefully keep the momentum going as I go. I doubt that will ever happen but it's worth a try.
 
As my first attempt at that, I am going to post a Shit ton of pictures.

Enjoy

Nā wao 'ekolu t-shirts

Nā wao 'ekolu after Christmas sale

$18 with free shipping to Hawai'i and Alaska

(add $5 for shipping to the 48 contiguous states)

This new design pays homage to the three realms of wao akua, the uplands and home of the gods, wao kanaka, the realm of man and kai ākea, the oceans that surround us. The three 'iwa  on the bottom not only represent our family guide, but represents the relationship, parent to child, kupuna, mākua, mo'opuna, past, present, future. . .

E-mail to order: 808idesign@gmail.com

#Moku2011

Technology is the best. Some of the greatest accomplishments were due to the people behind those accomplishments adapting and exploiting the newest technology available to give themselves an edge. The unification of the Hawaiian Islands by Kamehameha was largely due to his ability and willingness to adopt European weapons such as cannons. In a more modern less violent context, Kuhao Zane and his crew along with Sig Zane Designs has brought their simple International Hula Festival in Waikoloa into the new age with the use of technology such as the twitter, flickr, website blogs, and more. To keep up with the happening of this awesome event now in it's sixth year, Zane and his team offer numerous outlets from Twitter, to facebook, vimeo to flickr. They have even simplified the process for you by compiling these different social and media outlets into one website, Mokif.com. Check it out there and follow 808iD on twitter as we help promote and narrate this even using the #Moku2011 hash-tag.

Official Website
Mokif.com

Mokif Twitter
@Mokif

Hash-tag
#Moku2011

Vimeo
Vimeo.com/Mokif

Flickr
Flickr.com/mokif

Thoracic cage

What up girls and boys, todays lesson is in anatomy. The cavity that protects your lungs is called your plural cavity and the thing that protects your plural cavity is your thoracic cage a.k.a your rib cage. Whew. Now that we got that out of the way, let's get to the real reason you're reading this post...The Tattoos! It's amazing the way fads work in this world. It's like the idea of monkey see monkey do except in tattooing, it's monkey get tattoo, monkey get similar tattoo. This is specifically geared towards a tattoo I did on a girls ribs of a dream catcher that she designed based off of Miley Cyrus's dream catcher in the same spot. And to clear the air about people thinking I'm over reacting, she showed me a pic of Miley's tattoo and was like "like this one". I guess what I'm trying to say is, be original guys, fads come and go but at least if you're gonna follow the trend, make it your own interpretation. With that being said, enjoy the pictures of some other rib pieces as well as the "Hannah Montana" tattoo.

This is probably the rippest dude I've ever tattooed...no homo. Cool thing was that he is a chinese major and brought his own characters for this tattoo and it meant something along the lines of "fight adversity" or "charge head forth into challenges"

The Hannah Montana haha I still like the way it turned out, don't get me wrong. My first dream catcher ever but I doubt it'll be my last haha

First sitting done. Big plan is to have them done on both sides. He only wanted the outline for this side but I think I wanna convince him to shade it

Cute little tattoo on a cute little girl haha. She made me reconsider my eating habits. She's also dope because she's a Beatles fan as you can tell by the quotes used!

Hilo 2.0

So this past weekend I decided to head back to Hilo, mostly because I wanted to finish a piece I started on my last trip. I also do a couple new tattoos that I really enjoyed and a bunch I never thought would happen haha. It was also nice to just go home and relax after a kind of hectic week of studying. Can't wait until the next time, which will probably be thanksgiving. If you're interested in scheduling something for my next hilo trip or want to get work done in Hilo shoot me an email at 808idesign@gmail.com or message me on facebook.

Finally got to finish with the color after two long ass sessions of outlining shading and background fill.

Added on to the name on her hip I did for her daughter a couple months ago

Added on to the name she already had on her chest. Name by Naea of Native Flesh Hilo

The eldest and the youngest getting their Kanji in two different styles.(these were the tattoos I never thought would happen, along with the one below haha)

She only wanted to do the online for now. We added the Kanji the family kanji the next day but I forgot to take a picture. Can't wait to add on to this one!

Lines, dots, lines, dots, LINES. and. DOTS.

As artist, it's important to always take breaks and experiment in other styles and mediums. Tattoo artist(in my opinion) are the biggest offenders of this. Most times they dabble in painting, Tim Hendricks does water color, Nikko Hurtado kills it with his oils. Me, I prefer to stick to graphite and ink. However, I do like to dabble in different styles and techniques. I've recently tried my hand at using lines and dots to create value and texture, exploiting the hell out of my micron pens. This is the result.

"always on my mind"

"Fishey fishey of the sea, do you have a crush on me?"