IAAM FOUNDERS
Keone Nunes
(Native Hawaiian)
Sulu’ape Keone Nunes was fortunate to learn from Kupuna (elders), from his family and the Hawaiian community. In 1996 Keone met Suʻa Suluʻape Paulo, originally from Apia, Samoa, which laid the foundation for Keone to be able to do uhi in the same fashion as was done for over 1,000 years in Polynesia with traditional tools. In 2001, after Su`a Sulu`ape Paulo's passing in 1999, the family honored Keone with the title of Sulu`ape making him the first Hawaiian and non-Samoan to receive this prestigious title.
Suluʻape Keone has been a primary force in the re-establishment of uhi in the Hawaiian community. He has been given the honor of being named #22 of the 101 Most Influential People in Tattooing in the world by late Bob Baxter, and his works have been featured and are in the collections of such institutions as the Smithsonian Institute, Honolulu Art Museum, Oakland Museum of California, and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
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Julia Mage’au Gray
(Mekeo)
Julia is from Port Moresby, Central Province, Papua New Guinea. She currently lives and works in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Julia has been marking skin since 2013 and transitioned into this art form after many years as dance practitioner, choreographer and director of Sunameke Productions. It was her role of film maker on the Sunameke Productions three-part documentary; Tep Tok: Reading Between Our Lines, and the journey to raise awareness for the dying art form that moved her into a new role of skin marking artist.
She uses the hand poke and hand tap method of skin marking and was taught by a number of Pasifika Tattoo Artists, namely Tihoti Mataura, Pat Morrow, and Croc Tatau.
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Cudjuy Patjidres
(Paiwan)
Paiwan artist Cudjuy comes from Sapulju, located in Taimali Township, Taitung County, Taiwan. When he was 25, he came across an old photograph of a Paiwan warrior with tattoos coving his body. The Paiwan people are one of about twenty Indigenous minorities who make up roughly 3% of the population of Taiwan. When Cudjuy discovered that his Paiwanese ancestors had a tattoo culture, he was surprised and amazed. Having developed his artistic skills from watching his grandfather weave and carve wood, he is now dedicated to preserving the ancient symbols and designs that were once common on the island.
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Te Rangitu Netana
(North Island Ngapuhi/Ngati Wai/Te Arawa)
The cultural importance of Maori tattoo or Ta Moko practice has long been passed down from generation to generation amongst the tribes of New Zealand and is practiced by native New Zealander, Te Rangitu.
Te Rangitu is experienced in both modern machine and traditional chisel methods of Ta Moko/Maori tattoo.
He has travelled extensively throughout his career, working with tattoo masters from different cultures, including Hawaiian and Samoan. Well known for his fine lines and intricate detail, Te Rangitu weaves the wearer’s story into his designs, leaving them with a piece of artwork on their skin that reflects their own history, beliefs, and spirituality. This practice, taking its origins from the ancient love story of Mataoroa and Niwareka, is based on respect and dedication to both the ancestors and to the wearer of the tattoo.
Te Rangitu Netana is dedicated to the message of Ta Moko, and ensures he respects the sacred ceremony of the practice on every subject he tattoos.
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Heidi Harper Lucero
(Acjachemen/Mutsun Ohlone)
Heidi is part of the growing community of California Indigenous people who are revitalizing their chin tattoo traditions. Heidi specializes in traditional facial tattooing, and her work can be seen on California Native people from tribes throughout California.
Heidi is also an American Indian Studies Lecturer at California State University Long Beach, Tribal Chairwoman for the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians Acjachemen Nation, and a Native artist. Her passion is keeping Native culture alive and active in a changing world. Her work revolves around the cultural sustainability of Native practices and traditions such as tattooing, basketweaving, Native food revitalization and sustainability, traditional regalia making, Indigenous language revival, and ceremony revival. The revitalization of traditional practices has brought her a greater connection with the environment and the traditional lands of her people.
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Marjorie Kunaq Tahbone
(Inupiaq/Kiowa)
Kunaq was raised at her family fish camp outside of Nome, Alaska. She uses resources from the land to create her art and has a wide range of talents and skills centering on her Inupiaq and Kiowa heritage. She is an Inuit tattooist, Inupiaq language teacher, seamstress, hunter and gatherer, and fish and hide tanner.
Kunaq was first among the living women of her family to get her traditional chin tattoo. Because no one was practicing the tattooing art at the time, she had to get her markings from a non-Indigenous artist in Fairbanks. Significant as the experience was, it ignited in Kunaq a desire to revive the practice for her community. Following this desire, she took up the tools and the old methods and became a full-fledged traditional tattooist working in the Inupiaq tradition. Thanks to Kunaq and other culture bearers across the North, the tradition of inking women’s skin to mark major life events and to symbolize spiritual beliefs is once again a part of Indigenous life in the region.
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Dion Kaszas
(Nlaka`pamux)
Dion is a Nlaka’pamux cultural tattoo practitioner and a leader in the revival of Indigenous tattooing in Canada. He has been tattooing professionally since 2009 and started the revival of Nlaka’pamux tattooing in 2012. Dion travels to national and international events, conferences, and tattoo festivals representing Nlaka’pamux and Indigenous tattooing in Canada.
Dion specializes in blackwork with an emphasis on traditional hand tattooing techniques. These include hand poke and skin stitch tattooing methods which arise from his Nlaka'pamux culture. He has had the honor of assisting in the revival of Indigenous tattooing across Turtle Island (North America).
Dion latest projects:
-Tattoo Traditions of Native North America: Ancient and Contemporary Expressions of Identity, The World Atlas of Tattoo
-Skindigenous, a three-season, 13-part documentary series produced in association with APTN, exploring Indigenous tattooing traditions around the world
-FOX Nation series USA Ink
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Kamali'i Hanohano
(Native Hawaiian)
ʻO Keoneʻulaikapōpanopano Kamaliʻikūpono Hanohano koʻu inoa. ‘O Hawai‘i ku‘u piko.
I am a mea kākau uhi - a cultural practitioner of traditional Hawaiian tattoos. I thank my teacher, Su’a Sulu’ape Keone Nunes, who is widely credited for restoring the lost art of kākau uhi to Hawai‘i. Following my ten-year tutelage under Keone, I now attempt to navigate the future kākau uhi by charting my course from the past.
Challenged by generations of western ideals, traditional tattoos have been especially targeted and barred for social stigma, religious retaliation, and cultural appropriation. Ironically, receiving a “tap-tattoo” has received booming popularity around the world in recent years – making it both a novelty and a threat to the endangered practice. Our work at Pāuhi focuses on the approach to authentic ancestral education and acknowledgement through the practice, and ultimately aims to lift the stain of kākau uhi in its own community in order to uplift and transform the indigenous identity of Kanaka Hawai’i.
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Terau Leau
(Tahitian/Chinese)
Terau was born on the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia to a Chinese father and a Tahitian (island of Taha’a) mother. He now lives in Tiawan with his wife, who is a Seediq Indigenous woman of Taiwan.
“I wanted to learn about my culture, history, and tattoo traditions….and I thought the only way for me to have the strong basics to become a tattoo artist was to enroll in the School of Art of Tahiti. It turns out destiny had other plans for me.” – Terau
Terau met master tattooists, Suluape Keone Nunes and Cudjuy Patjidres, and went on to apprentice under Cudjuy. Today, Terau is busy assisting, practicing, and learning under master Cudjuy Patjidres. He is deeply involved in revitalizing Tahitian tatau traditions as well as helping his wife’s Seedig community to bring back their ancestral tattoos.
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