No pre-fabricated tattoo art hangs on the wall at Little Tsunami. No ready-made barbed wire to wrap around the bicep, no spider webs already spun. The books stacked on the coffee table feature photographs of tattoos inked by Tsunami artists
No pre-fabricated tattoo art hangs on the wall at Little Tsunami. No ready-made barbed wire to wrap around the bicep, no spider webs already spun.
The books stacked on the coffee table feature photographs of tattoos inked by Tsunami artists — a fish wrapped in waves and plumeria, an old-fashioned compass, skeletal remains — but these designs aren’t for sale.
Instead the books serve as a starting point, a place to become acquainted with the work of the two women who wield the shop’s needles.
“We really stay away from the street-flash shops,” said Acacia Jones, a tattoo artist who co-owns the shop. “Tattooing has moved into fine art. You’ve got to be able to do a bit of everything.”
Jones’ first designs appeared on sleeves she made of masking tape as a child.
“I just wanted to draw on myself so I figured, tape — I wasn’t drawing on my skin,” she said.
Maori swirls, Tibetan skulls and cherry blossoms now adorn one forearm, while a chrysanthemum inked by Tsunami artist Andrea Bak sits on her shoulder.
Bak has been working as a tattoo artist for 14 years and wears some of Jones’ work as well: plumeria inked into her armpits.
She joined Tsunami when it opened, setting up shop in the revamped Kapa‘a warehouse that now houses a lounge and work space, as well as a separate sterilization room.
Bak’s red Craftsman tool kit includes a bit of tattoo ephemera: A pre-World War II tattooing machine that she said is almost identical to the modern tool that sits beside it in the drawer.
The women begin each commission with a consultation, which they later follow with a black-and-white draft of the tattoo, drawn either directly on the skin or on paper, Jones said. Paper images go into a copy machine that she compared to an old-school, purple-inking ditto machine.
Once the drawing is applied to the skin, customers sit for their tattoos in a spacious, foam-green room.
The social interaction and immediate audience for the work provides satisfaction that painting alone in a room does not, Jones said. And her favorite designs have more to do with happy customers than personal taste, she said.
“It’s more when you have a client who appreciates the work,” she said.
The shop showcases paintings by the two women and will also serve as a gallery for local artists, including Heather Cornell, whose work will be on display Nov. 19.
Co-owners Jones and Chanel Anderson opened the Kapa‘a shop on Oct. 8.
Little Tsunami, located at 4-1586 Kuhio Highway, is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and artists also are available by appointment.
• Charlotte Woolard, business writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or cwoolard@kauaipubco.com.
