Hawaiian Tattoos

Like many other Polynesian-descended cultures, the native Hawaiians practiced tattooing. The most heavily tattooed members of the tribe would be the royal family, followed by other court officials and persons who were in the royal family by marriage.

The designs were monochromatic, tattooed in black against brown skin. The patterns and layout were strongly geometric and there were many shapes and symbols which represented the natural island world: stones, waves, fish, sharks, turtles, rain, sun, birds.

Tattoos were traditionally created by using a tool much like a sharpened rake to prick the designs. The tattoo tool would be hit by another stick to make the punctures. Assistants helped by stretching the skin for the tattoo artist and by wiping away the blood.

My tattoo designs came from a set of Hawaiian rune stones made by a friend of mine who lives on Oahu. She got the designs from a guy who created an entire Hawaiian oracle, creating modern rune graphics based on ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs from across the entire series of islands. They explored ancient roles (sacred elder, master), incorporated animal totems (shark, turtle, owl) and other concepts (the elements, play, prayer). But with all her notes, she doesn't have the name of the guy who came up with all these designs and she can't remember it either.

I was doing a reading with the set of stones and cards she made when I "saw" my tattoo idea very clearly and knew this was jus the thing for my next piece of ink. I talked with a friend who was a local on the island to get a recommendation for a shop (she knew of several to be totally avoided!) and who wanted to come along for her next piece of ink as well.

A woman artist at Odyssey Tattoo in Wahiawa named Alex did my tattoo.  She traced the designs I brought in to make temporary stencils to apply to my skin.  Once we agreed on the placement, she tattooed them.  The outline of all the symbols was done first, then she went back and filled them all in to be solid.  All in all, the entire process took about forty-five minutes from start to finish. 

Think about your time in the water!  New tattoos need to be kept out of water.  You will need to avoid swimming in the ocean, and soaking in pools or hot tubs for one to two weeks, until the skin fully heals and all the scabbing is done.

Think about your time in the sun!  The number one enemy of tattoos new and old is the sun:  it makes them fade in color and will even make them blur softly over time.  And when the tattoo surface is still open, you won't want to put sunscreen on it as it can contain a lot of chemicals that will irritate the healing skin wound.  Most often the best thing you can do on a beach vacation is NOT get tattooed.

If a shop or artist will only do designs off their walls and not draw something up for you, go find a new tattoo studio!  If you truly want a piece of art that you can be happy with for a lifetime, get something original from an artist, not a scratcher who only knows how to copy what someone else drew.