NAKOA News

Braddah Wills Kaai “I love tattooing, I truly love tattooing,” Braddah Wills Ka’ai says. Wills, as his friends call him, is the founder and owner of Hawaii Tattoo Collective in Haleiwa.  Born and raised on the North Shore of Oahu, Wills draws on his native Hawaiian heritage and culture to...

Megan Jones Born and raised in Maui, Megan Jones learned her craft from Samson Harp, working at Samson's Pacific Rootz Tattoo. She also counts Tricia Allen as an important mentor and influence in her life.   In addition to tattooing, Megan is also an active practitioner of Hawaiian culture, including carving. Tattooing...

During a typical day, you touch your wallet, credit cardholder and bag a lot – nearly as often as your cell phone.  And you put them on lots of different surfaces, and touch them after touching a surface yourself.   Because they’re with us so much, it is important we...

Q - Sulu'ape Akiu "Q" Sale Akiu "Q" Sale is known everywhere as Q (that's how his first name sounds when you drop the A)  He is both a true artist as well as an entrepreneur at heart.  He's also a perfectionist, who even makes his own tattoo machines because nothing else...

Since the stunning revival of Polynesian tattooing, many clients of tattoo artists, and even some artists themselves, call the style “tribal”.  However, that is quite wrong.   Pacific Islanders did not live as tribes, and their tattoos had nothing to do with a tribal spirit.  Indeed, the word tribal can come...

Katerina Mauri Moko   “Kia ora koutou katoa, Mauri Moko, Mauri Ora” Kathy was born and raised in Rotorua, Aetoraoa, a town that has one of the richest concentrations of Maori culture in all of New Zealand. From ages 8 till 29, she expressed her heritage by performing kapa haka...

Hano Fernandez Hano Fernandez' clients describe him as a happy man, always ready with a joke and a smile. He grew up on Maui, and has Tahitian, Hawaiian, and Cherokee ancestry among others.  Hano apprenticed with Samson Harp at Pacific Rootz Tattoo and still works there. When Hano is not tattooing, he...

Marlo Lualemana Marlo created the Polynesian tattoo art for Ola cuff bracelet. Born and raised on Oahu, and a professional hula dancer for 10 years, Marlo now lives and works as a tattoo artist in Northern California. Her start as a tattoo artist was unorthodox.  She drew a custom tattoo design...

Do you love the beach? We do! And we love photo shoots at the beach.  They show off the natural leather of NĀ KOA wallets in a natural environment, in the sand, with driftwood, on lava rocks. But sometimes things can get out of hand… This lava rock at Keawakapu...

It all started with Derek. We met him on a drive up Haleakalā and on one of the stops he took his shirt off. Derek is in amazing shape, but what made him look downright regal were the Polynesian tattoos on his chest, lower back, shoulder and arms that had...

  You already know how we became obsessed by the idea to create leather gear with the fierce beauty and real meaning of “tribal tattoos”. (Read about it in A Labor of Love) But turning this idea into reality was harder than we ever imagined. Challenge 1:  The fake and...

 Teva Lowy Teva was born in Hawaii from Tahitian and Seychelles parents, but his art is firmly rooted in Tahiti. He learned tattooing from his friend Teni (aka “Gringo”), one of the most well-known Tahitian tattoo artists, along with his Marquesan cousins. Teva travels to Tahiti every year to spend...

Kuaika Quenga Born and raised in Maui, Kuaika has become a successful award-winning tattoo artist. But he didn't start out that way.  In fact, he was on a dangerous path early on before he found his calling as a Hawaiian tattoo artist at the age of 15. “I started hanging out with the...

Xavier Saint Amand “I was the first artist of color to open a tattoo studio in Paris,” says Xavier Saint Amand proudly. Born in Guadeloupe, Xavier studied Tahitian and Marquesas tattoo art under the internationally renowned Tahitian tattoo artist Julien in Montpellier, France. Polynesian tattoos quickly turned into a passion...