Stories from the Network
Long-form features, shop visits, technical deep-dives, and culture writing — published as the network grows.
TNT Tattoo: 32 Years Inking Aiea's Military Community
How the shop on Kamehameha Highway became the trusted ink home for Pearl Harbor sailors, Hickam airmen, and three generations of Hawaii families — black & gray realism, cover-ups, and Polynesian work since 1993.
Papa Moke: The Founding Spirit of TNT Tattoo
Kevin "Papa Moke" Mokuahi shaped what TNT became. The story of the man, the shop's heart, and the June 27 charity event for the Hawaii Parkinson's Association in his honor.
Heather Baldwin: The Cover-Up Queen of TNT
TNT Tattoo's shop manager and Hawaii's go-to cover-up specialist. Floral, neo-traditional, anatomical hearts — the artist who turns regret into something better.
Dustin Gormley: The Flash-Painter Who Wrote Two Books
An Ohana Tattoo Company artist who treats flash like its own art form — and put two paperbacks on Amazon to prove it. Turtles n' Stuff, Lucky Roll, plus a quietly building cosmic rebrand.
Inked Benz: Benson Carlos and the Polynesian Lineage
The Polynesian and tribal specialist at TNT Tattoo Aiea — custom geometry, ancestral lineage work, and black & gray realism that carries Pacific heritage forward.
Isaac Mackenzie: Black & Gray Realism That Holds
Lead realism artist at TNT Tattoo — Art Institutes-trained, military tribute specialist, the artist Pearl Harbor families return to for memorial portraiture.
Shane Harvey: 30 Years on the Iron at TNT
The classic shop hand at TNT Tattoo Aiea — old-school American traditional, the artist whose work was good before color realism existed and is still good now.
Myles Mokuahi: Second-Generation, Two Shops, One Lineage
Kevin Mokuahi's son, working between TNT in Aiea and Ohana Tattoo in Waikiki — carrying Papa Moke's lineage forward into the next generation of Hawaii tattooing.
Natkos: Fine Piercing at TNT Tattoo Aiea
Natasha "Natkos" Kosevych — fine ear curation, body piercing, and the only piercer in the Waikiki Tattoo Network. Luxury jewelry, anatomical precision.
The Aloha Tattoo Story
How Tim Goodrich — Marine Corps veteran and second-generation tattooer — built Aloha Tattoo into the first tattoo shop ever approved on Hilton Hotel grounds in Hawaiʻi.
Hand-Wound Coils: Franky Sharpz's Machine Workshop
Inside the Wailana back room where Franky builds the iron that tattoo artists actually want to tattoo with.
NOLA-Rooted Lettering in Waikiki
Scripttoria's eight-year journey from New Orleans street shops to Ohana Tattoo, told piece by piece.
Why American Traditional Still Works in 2026
The design constraints that produced classical tattooing — and why pieces drawn that way still read sharply a hundred years later.
What Makes a Real Japanese Wabori Tattoo
Body-flow placement, negative-space rules, the saturation discipline that separates wabori from "Japanese-looking."
Color Realism: The Patience Style
What color realism actually is — and isn't — and how to commit to a piece that will still read photographically a decade from now.