Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 7, 1 July 2012 — Bodies of Art [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

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Beginning this summer, the Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is blurring the line between ink on skin and paint on canvas with its newest exhibition, "Tattoo Honolulu," a showcase focused on Hawai'i's abundance of high-quality tattoo art that comes fromthe islands' unique mix of cultures rich in tattoo traditions. "In Honolulu you have three broad cultural traditions hitting eaeh other: You have the Japanese tattooing tradition, you have

the Americana military tattooing tradition and you have the Hawaiian/Polynesian tattooing tradition, and they're all kind of crashing together here in a really interesting way," says museum director Stephan Jost.

The exhibit, whieh started in June and runs through Jan. 13, 2013, presents 10 prominent locally-based tattooists as contemporary t artists, revealing their skills, ideas and . sensibilities through photographs of their L. literal bodies of art.

"Essentially it will be a photography exhibition of tattoos," says Jost, "but rather than lead with an ethnographic perspective, we're leading with, 'here are 10 ^ people who live here today who are great artists.' "

Chosen to be part of this exhibit are Tricia Allen, Joel Albanez, Bong, Mike Ledger, Keone

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Tricia Allen's "A hybrid of NW Coast, Hawaiian and Japanese motifs on Akira, 2009-2010."-Courtesy photos: Shuzo Uemoto/ Honolulu Museum of kt

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ines, Lucky Olelo, Richie Lucero, Sado, Sua Suluape Aisea etuu and Billy Whitney. 'We did a lot of tattoo parlor visits," Allison Wong, deputy ector for the museum, says of the difficult selection process. ame of them are very young, but most of those in the exhibin have been practicing for over 10 years. A lot of them are ists in their own rights - they're painters or printmakers - but tooing is theirlove." The result, she says, is "a snapshot of the too culture and practice today."

Adds Jost: "We chose to focus on tattoo artists as artists in the same way we would

deal with painters or sculptors." And just like Leonardo da Vinci, Pahlo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh, eaeh tattoo master has his or her own distinct style that comes across in eaeh tattoo.

"We have that in the industry, and it's called the signature tists," explains Aisea Toetuu. "When they draw stuff, it's his :haracter in the mohon so that you ean tell it's his. You ean see the artist in his work."

Toetuu, who works out of Soul Signature Tattoo and Art Studio, began tattooing on the streets of downtown Honolulu. "I started tattooing at the age of 13 or 14," says Toetuu. "Most of my time was spent on the streets with that first generation of immigrant gangs - that's where I picked up tattooing." As time went on, Toetuu found himself yearning to leam more about his Tongan culture and soon found himself drawn to fellow artists who shared that same passion of traditional Polynesian body art. ' 'Back in those days, in the ' 90s, tattooing was still ffowned upon. It was never popular. If you were tattooing, you were in the ' weird crowd' or you were the 'bad people.' But in my culture - in Tongan culture - a man who wore a tattoo is a man who took care of his family; it wasn't looked down upon," Toetuu says. "That opened my doorway to what is Polynesian tattooing, and tattooing took me out of that street culture I was so used to and steered me more toward my tradition." He began studying with Tahitian, Marquesan and Hawaiian artists, reaching out for guidance from masters like Tricia Allen and Sua Suluape Petelo, who would later heeome his mentor in the traditional art of tatau, or tapping. "When you leam tatau and you're in an apprenticeship, it's like you're part of a hālau; you learn from the masters, and you eome from a pedigree of great artists, and you have that pride that you eome from that lineage," says Toetuu, who was bestowed the Suluape name by Petelo as a gesture of respect and sign of permission to use the ancient tools. "I've been doing tapping for more than 10-some years, and in the years I keep tapping, I find new things," he says. "Every time I try to possess it, I cannot. Tattooing is older than me, and here we are trying to possess but we cannot. I've learned to just respect the tool, let it guide you, and listen to the whispers from the ancestors behind your back." Though Toetuu will not have any purely traditional tatau images on display in the exhibit (he says he does not allow any pictures to be taken out of respect for the craft), there will be pieces that eomhine traditional tatau with modern, graphic maehine work, including a mixture of Japanese and Paeihe Island characters telling Polynesian proverbs through visual representation. "I'm this young individual born in America, but yet I'm stuck to traditions," explains Toetuu, who counts the artwork of Herb Kane, Japanese woodblock prints and Marvel comics as major influences on his work. "It's like I speak two different languages - with tapping I have to follow protocol, but when it comes to (using the) maehine I ean have a little finesse and play with it more," he explains. "But as Westernized tattooers, we have to learn both; we have to make sure that we are preserving while also moving forward." Like Toetuu, Tricia Allen's work primarily focuses on tradihonal Polynesian design but incorporates elements that represent an individual's background. "Most of my clients want a tattoo that symbolizes who they really are, and I don't think there's any other art form in life that does this," says Allen, an acclaimed tattoo master who entered the tattooing world by ehanee after receiving her master's degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. "Prior to that time, I truly had no interest in tattoo," she says. Born in California, Allen grew up in Colorado and developed a strong passion for Paeihe art while interning in the Native /Lrts Department at the Denver Art Museum.

"The department was largely American art but had a small amount of African and a bit of Oeeanie art in the collection, whieh wound up being my kuleana," Allen says. Upon completing her master's thesis on the re-evaluation of Marquesan tattooing in 1992, Allen traveled to Rapa Nui with the mission of bringing free access to leaming materials to island natives. "I'd corresponded for years with a number of individuals on the island and leamed that their library did not allow locals access (to books)," Allen recalls. "I had been purchasing numerous books on their history and photocopying manuscripts, including old illustrations of tattoo, and one day I was having luneh with a friend who was a prominent tattooist and showed him some of the photocopies. His comment was, 'Wouldn't it be fun to give them the real thing instead of a photocopy?' I responded 'sure,' and tattooed myself as he encouraged me and looked on over my shoulder. "I tattooed a number of friends before embarking on the voyage, but I primarily learned the art in order to take it back to the people of Rapa Nui," she says. "I never consciously made the decision to be a tattooist — it just happened." Since then Allen has tattooed more than 8,000 members of the Polynesian community and has written numerous publications on Polynesian tattoo art, including the books Tattoo Traditions ofHawai'i (2005) and The Polynesian Tattoo Today (2010). She will have several pieces in the exhibit, including what she calls a "very atypical" large back pieee that was the first she completed very early in her career as well as a tattoo that blends elements from the Paeihe Northwest coast, Hawai'i and Japan to represent the individual's background and cultural intluences. "Being a part of this exhibition is an incredible honor and privilege," Allen says. "Tattooing has a long history, and it's niee that it is being recognized in this way." In addition to the main gallery featuring work by the tattoo artists, smaller galleries will highlight the diverse cultural tattooing traditions found in Hawai'i and other forms of art that are sources of inspiration for Hawai'i's contemporary tattooists. "We ean show actual textiles that have patterning that essentially heeame tattoo in the Polynesian tradition, and our eolleehon happens to be quite strong in that," Jost says, noting the museum also will have on loan artifacts from the Bishop Museum and a live tatau demonstration scheduled in September. (Visit honoluluacademy.org for updates and details.) "I think the big thing is, museums show art, and one of the things we're trying to do is legitimize the art of tattooing," Jost stresses. "And in some ways, we ean promote great artists and we ean expose many more people to the art form who may not necessarily think of tattooing." Allen says: "What is remarkable about this exhibition is it is the first in Honolulu that really focuses on the loeal art as practiced today on O'ahu (and) truly is a first in emphasizing the tattoo art of the Hawaiian Islands." "And that's why I wanted to do this show," agrees Toetuu, "because it's the first time the museum will be exhibiting a tattoo that's not traditional Polynesian but something that has to do with us. I'm glad that they're recognizing these artists and those who practice tattooing." ■

Sarah Paeheeo, an 0'ahu-basedfreelancewriter, isaformer assistant regional editorfor MidWeek.

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Sua Suluape Aisea Toetuu's "Ma'ala on Makasiale Toetu'u, 2012."