Mandy Garcia

Summer is here and the demand for tattoos has gone through the roof!  I am booked solid, day and night, and next week will start the seven days a week craziness!  A lot of my Tattoo Krew clients are finding me at Soul Signature and I’m trying my hardest to fit them in, because man, without them, I wouldn’t be nearly who I am today.  Thanks for all your die hard support folks!

Last week I ran a bit over with my first appointment, and didn’t even notice how late I had been.  A great friend of mine had been waiting forever for me and had to leave and didn’t get tattooed.  It’s been nearly a week and I still feel wretched for this… This is my public apology to my most understanding and caring friend.  She had told me “I understand if you have to cancel on me to take new clients, I’ll be here waiting.”  This I proclaim: My return clients become my friends, my friends, I try my hardest to cater to because like I said, without them, I would be nothing.

The shitty side…I am one person, I do get booked out.  But I do care about every single person that I tattoo.  I hate canceling on people, and feel terrible when I’m running late.  Co-workers often tell me I’m too nice, and that I can’t keep crossing that line between work and personal business.  It’s hard not to.  Tattooing can be one of the most intimate experiences outside of an actual relationship.  I spend hours with someone, getting to know them, feeling their energy, hearing their joy and sorrow.  And, in return, I share a piece of myself, and I hope they take away a few laughs and a positive experience.  I can’t remember the last time I’ve taken a walk-in, and although this has its fallbacks and I wish I had more time for this, I am grateful because this means that people are seeking me out, and trusting me to design a piece for them to get tattooed on their bodies forever.  It really is a humbling and amazing process.

Thank you all, for sharing yourselves with me.  I am so grateful for each and every one of you.

Love,

Mandy

Your boy, my man… Lucky Olelo.  Making it big on Hypebeast.com and Cloutonline.com with Morals Fiber!  He’s mine bitches so don’t even try… Haha.  I’m super stoked.  Believe me… the hours he’s spent devoted to making something more of himself, more than just another tattoo artist… always pushing, always dreaming, always executing the next step.  I’m fucking proud. That’s right, Lucky Olelo has teamed up with local-based shirt printing manufacturer Kyle Ito, also founder of Morals Fiber (circa 2000), to launch a new Spring/Summer 2010 collection, with collaborated arts from the dynamic duo.  And I can’t forget to give credit where credit is most definitely due… Kyle isn’t only a name on the brand—- he puts in hours at the warehouse, slaving away, printing, designing, and banging out the product you see before you.  I’ve seen countless nights where they’ve been masterminding in secret meetings (I always teased Kyle whenever he walked through the door, “Are you here again to have a secret meeting with my man?”)… From start to finish, just an idea turned reality, I’m happy to say that I seen it all bloom beautifully.  And also a shout out to Ryan Lau from Aloha Fixed for helping on the media end!  IN CASE you didn’t know, it’s a big deal in the world of street fashion to be showcased on Hypebeast and Clout… So, here they are, taking their earned place amongst Hawaii titans like Jason Gomez from Flying Coffin and Cali gurus like the boys at Cukui… Fuck yah.

And, a glimpse into us… Our relationship is insane.  I definitely think what we have truly transcends the conventional paradigm of a couple… I mean, we live together, work together, play together… Everyone asks us constantly, “How the hell do you live and work together?”  I mean, it has its fallbacks, but it’s so much easier.  As a tattoo artist, well, as far as for what we are trying to accomplish, ya know, the whole, making something of ourselves deal... it’s nice having someone on the same page.  We both eat, sleep, and breathe tattooing.  I swear, at this point in my career, if he weren’t doing the same thing I’m doing, I don’t know how I’d have a relationship.  I don’t have time, energy, and focus, for something outside of all of this, so it’s uncanny  that he pretty much is all that I strive to accomplish… both for, and as… If it weren’t for Lucky, I never would be this far along in the game (even though, relatively, I’m still a small fry in the game) who has a hefty ten years under his belt in the Hawaii tattooing community.  I’ve always been a overachiever as a school nerd, so when I made the switch from college to tattooing, it came down to stepping out of my element, into the tattoo world… I was dead lost and so unsure.  I had to let go, and embrace the unfamiliar, knowing that if I hadn’t been taken under his wing, I would just be working at a street shop all day, feeling pretty untrue to myself.  This chapter could go on and on and on, but you get the point.  And before I get even more so corny and emotional, I’ll stop it here.

My inspiration, my role model, love of my life… I am so proud of you…

…And I know it’s just the beginning…

check it… www.moralsfiber.com, www.hypebeast.com, www.cloutonline.com

Last week I had the opportunity to shoot with two super awesome photographers from Hawaii… Mark Kushimi, art director and photographer for Contrast Magazine (www.contrastmagazine.com), and Lewis Harrington, owner of Harrington Photography (www.lhphawaii.com).

Mark Kushimi— your boy Lucky Olelo will be featured in next months Contrast Magazine!  So we took a ride on a lazy Sunday in the Galaxie to meet up with Mark and Zen of Contrast in China town.  I had seen Mark’s work before and fell in love with it.  I’m not camera savvy nor a photography nerd like my love, and I don’t know if it’s a filter or effect or whatever the jargon is, but I definitely know it is his eye for using natural light… I like the gritty and nostalgic look of his photographs.  I swear this guy was working hella hard.  Running around us, trying to get the perfect shot, but still keeping it candid and natural.  He was dripping sweat after the first location!  Trying to work around us so we wouldn’t have to move around and get all sweaty!  And he’s suuuper on it.  He sets it up, takes maybe two shots for each pose, and is like, “Yup, got it.”  Super efficient.  Some photographers take tons of shots for each pose, which isn’t bad, but it’s nice when it’s blazing hot in chinatown, and not having to hold a pose in an uncomfortable position.  I think the best shots were the in-betweens when we all just kind of fell into place, like fixing our hair, or inbetween switching to a different pose.  Needless to say, these sample shots made me really happy.  I can’t wait for the mag to come out!  I’ll keep you guys posted!  Congrats to my Lucky for getting the feature!

Lewis Harrington- A friend of mine, CJ had set up the shoot for me with Lew (thanks girl!).  She is his in-house stylist/make up artist.  Apparently Lew was telling CJ one day, “I want to do something different.  You know, shoot something out of the norm for me.  Just a fun project.  Maybe a girl with lots of tattoos or something…”  And CJ was like, “I got the perfect girl for you!”  And it worked out perfect because I am working on a project (I won’t tell you guys just yet) that requires some cool studio photography!  When she had approached me about the whole ordeal, I hadn’t been to her place of work before… so I didn’t know what to expect.  I’ve only done a few studio shoots, most of the shoots I’ve done were taken out and about… so when I got there, the studio was fucking amazing!  High ceilings, fancy decor, state of the art equipment, the works!  I was like, “holy shit, all this, for me?  Damn!”  They definitely hooked it up.  I know that shoot alone would have costed a fortune!  Lew was sooooooo cool.  Working with him was definitely different.  Many of the photographers I’ve shot with before were my friends, and usually they just kind of let me go, didn’t tell me what to do while shooting.  Lew gave me direction, told me the truth (like, “Give me a little more, that wasn’t it, don’t do that it makes you look short” etc.) and told me expressions to make, how to move, lengthen my body (oh god the shoot was done short notice so I couldn’t drop a few pounds before  it!  So this REALLY helped), and so much more.  But of course he gave me the freedom to get the shots that I wanted.  He even rigged a laptop right in front of me to see what was going on with the pics and stopped in between each look to show me how it came out.  He really tried and went out of his way to make sure that I got what I wanted out of the shoot, even offering to re-shoot if the finished product wasn’t exactly where I wanted it to be.  But I know it will be awesome.  Needless to say, it was fun.  He send me a sample photo, just a fun one of Lucky and I… haha, he even got Lucky to model a bit while I was away changing.

And both of the guys went ahead and took pictures of Lucky and I for our personal use.  We don’t have too many good pictures of us together, especially professional ones.  Lucky just usually sticks his arm out in front of us and takes the picture by himself, and, even though he’s pretty accurate (I reaaaally suck at that), it’s nice to have someone else taking the photo, and even more so when they are professional photographers!  I really appreciated that. I can’t wait to see the magazine, as well as the finished batch of the photos from my shoot with Lew (I should be getting the disc real soon so I’ll post more when I get um!)…

Thank you both.  It was super comfortable… and above all, fun!

So, I REALLY wanted to be in denial for my 24th birthday which took place on Saturday, May 15.  Took off work to hide in a hole and hope that I could go back to 16.  Haha.  Even took my birthdate off facebook and myspace in hopes that no one would remember.  BUT, it’s kinda hard because I have so many friends that are May babies, especially being only one day after Aisea, my boss, people remember.  To my surprise my amazing friend and customer Ms.Bri had an edible arrangement delivered to the shop, and when I came back on Monday, my tattoo room was decorated by my besty Saajida with balloons and three cards (all with old fart jokes, fat jokes, etc) and a big arrangement.  And my customer and wonderful friend Meli (who’s birthday was also in May) got me a “not birthday” gift (according to her) and brought it to my work place.  Haha, she said, “Well let’s call it not a birthday gift because I know you said not to get you a birthday present.”  Grrrr, haha!  Thanks guys, you all are so sweet.  Also, May consisted of Karen’s birthday, Justin Lam (Tattoos by Bong) and his brother who we just call “Lam”… My amazing man woke me up on my birthday and said, “GET READY I’M TAKING YOU SHOPPING.”

So, here’s the chain of events:

1. Got up and got some grub at Fresh Cafe!  I love Fresh Cafe!  Thanks Chippy and Dae!
2. Headed to Ala Moana where Lucky took me shopping.  He told me, “You better pick something out, cause I’m taking you to a nice dinner” cause he knows I don’t like shopping for expensive stuff and brand names mean nothing to me.  ESPECIALLY after going to Asia… I was appalled when we went to Victorias Secret and all that shit was made in Thailand!  Haha, probably could have got the same $50.00 bra for three bucks or something.  ANYWAY, he took me to Bebe, told me to pick out a dress.  I’ve only had one thing from Bebe and that was for a pageant in high school and not my choice, haha.  I wore a romper from Thailand that day, and, of course, the one dress that we both liked was, MADE IN THAILAND AND ALSO THE SAME MATERIAL!  Except my romper was like under ten bucks, and the dress was $150… Sweet irony.  Good ol’ America.  Peaked in a few other stores, he bought me heels, jewelry, the works.  I felt so spoiled.  I really like when he likes what I wear.  It’s always nice to hear, “You look so pretty.”
3. He took me to Roys in Hawaii Kai where we had a beautiful dinner on the second floor.  The dinner came complete with a party hat!  I LOVE ROYS!  The food is amazing.  And it was definitely much needed quality time/date night.  Go there whenever you have the chance guys…
4. He told me that he wanted to take me out to show me off (which I thought was soooo sweet by the way, I melted)… headed down to our roomie/DJ Delve’s “Shake + Pop” night at 39Hotel where a bajillion of our friends were cutting a rug.  Little Sherry, complete in mega stilletos and a teensy little dress, called out Lucky to battle by doing some coffee grinders and bboy moves, which was insanely hilarious.  And fun fun fun.
5. And of course, a stop at the Manifest!
6. Next day, we went to the contemporary art museum to support Nagaz and his art showing!!  Congrats buddy!
7. Headed to Chinatown to meet up with Zen and Mark where we did a photoshoot for the next Contrast magazine with a feature on my honey!  Mark Kushimi is an amazing photographer.  He shot us all in both film and digital and I’m loving all the pics he’s been beaming over to me.  I like the gritty look of his shots, and he works mega hard to get really crazy photos.  I’m really excited to see the mag.  I’ll post more pics from Mark soon.  THANKS GUYS!
8. Headed to Aiea Bowl where we met up with a bunch of old friends.  It was like a big reunion.  At first I was real nervous to see everyone from Tattoo Krew, but it turned out to be even cooler than I had thought.  We all came together to celebrate mine, Justin, Lam and Aisea’s birthday.  Upon seeing Ryan, Lam, Michael, and James, I thought I was gonna cry cause I realized just how much I missed those guys.  It truly felt like we were all a big tattoo family again, and every time I think of that night, I smile.  Seriously, it was a fucking blast.  I can’t wait till we all get together again.
9. Went home… Nai Nai!

Although I keep forgetting to schedule a damn day off, I’ve really been enjoying the tattoos my peoples have been asking me to do.  Hehe.

Larraine… we went to high school together, had the same AP classes, and for some reason I always thought she hated me.  Come to find out, she thought I hated her!  That’s probably why I thought she hated me!  So stupid, huh?  Come to find out *someone we shall not name* (haha inside joke) was poisoning her head, talking mad shit like she knew me (and I’ve never even spoke with this person in my life) and made her think that I’ve hated her all these years.  Same thing with Char and Loraine, friends that came with… Uck.  I don’t understand how someone can talk all this shit to someone else, reciting stuff, like, detailed stuff about me, as though we had been in a friendship turned sour… it’s kind of, psycho?  Stalker-ish?  Haha.  But yah, we had a blast, catching up on stupid highschool going-ons and, to my surprise, my sweets joined in on the kava circle!  Haha.  I LOVE the look of stained glass.  My grandma actually taught me how to do it, and it’s WAY hard, so I think I’ll just stick to doing them tattoo style versus the real, super tedious way.  Till next week…

Oh Cisco Nabisco… Our crazy friend.  Okay, to explain this tattoo… haha.  Cisco ORIGINALLY came to me with the Guiness beer logo.  You know, the harp?  He just wanted it straight forward, like outlined then blackened in.  I pitched an idea to him, knowing that his other favorite drink is Crown Royal, I told him lets do a detailed harp and crown so he doesn’t seem like much of an alcoholic, haha.  Make it cool.  He went for it, and I’m having a lot of fun on this tattoo.  So, this is his absolute pledge to alcoholism, hehe.  He better get sponsored for life from these two companies after this tattoo is finished!  Love ya my Manong!  Chee!  And of course, after the outline was done, he went to an all you can drink party at Tsunamis… any guess on what he drank?

Steve… I blame him for all the super chronic details that I do in tattoos.  He came to me back when I was tattooing at Tattoo Krew, wanted all these small details in his sleeve.  Haha, and since then, it stuck.  Every time he emailed me regarding a new tattoo, it usually started off something like this, “So, I know I’m probably being over-ambitious to want all this in one tattoo” or “Don’t hate me but I want all this stuff in here”… Haha, Oh Steve.  He has the coolest job in the world, so I force him to tell me all his adventures.  I wish I flew a helicopter with a bunch of missiles and grenade launchers!  I swear, I should have been born a boy.  I give him credit, he sat through seven horrible hours of torture, cause I gave him pay back for all those insane tattoos he ever wanted.  Haha, just joking Steve.  But I really had a fun time with this one, and it’s a sort of charicature of his wife, so he can take her wherever he goes.

And my Kelly!  I’ve missed her!  She’s been away at college, and now she’s back!  We just caught up on all the crazy shit that has been going on in both of our lives.  All along, this crazy chick was getting tattooed on the ribs!  It’s seldom that someone just lies there casually and just get drilled on the ribs.  At one point she’s like, “Oh yah, it’s been sore.”  And I was like, “You’re fucking kidding me right?  You haven’t even seemed like you were EVER in pain.”  Dork.  Well, this is also the girl that had that big ass tiger on her back as her first tattoo.  Time was limited so we didn’t get to the third butterfly.  But I can’t wait till this whole thing is outlined… in the back of the butterflies, we’re going to put a bunch of totally bloomed roses, a change up compared to the usual tattoo rose.  I’m stoked.  But holy shit, I’m telling you, this girl could probably sit through the WWIII if it were all compacted into a tattoo machine.  Crazy ass Kelly.  I’m glad to have you back!

…As I’ve said time and time again, I’ve been so lucky to have amazing customers, ones that make me laugh, smile, think, reflect, be amused, entertained, elated, cheered up, and just set the tone for my day or week.  So lucky.

Poor Kelly had the flu the first time her appointment was scheduled, so I’m glad that she got better and was able to make her reschedule because we had a really good heart to heart.  Being a fellow Kamehameha graduate, we had a lot to talk about, and catch up on, seeing as how we graduated in different years.  But that wasn’t the main topic of conversation.  Just a lot of crazy stuff, stuff that made me feel really at ease and happy.  If I could, I would go in to depth, but that’s for us, and it would be a novel in itself.  Not to mention, it was a fun tattoo to do!  A little change up as far as content with the female figure that I usually do.  She’s not too sure on color, but she knows that she’ll be doing a full sleeve, so she’ll probably wait until all that is lined before we do any color.  Thank you Kelly for sharing your time and stories with me.  It was definitely a pleasure.  Until next time…

Then there’s Melia and her first tattoo… which definitely leads to a very interesting tattoo session.  Her little “family” as they like to call themselves made me crack up the WHOLE time, it was hard for both Melia and I, to tattoo and get tattooed.  So of course the tattoo didn’t even bother her cause she was too busy concentrating on not laughing.  I swear, my face hurt SO bad from laughing.  At one point I was crying from laughing so damn hard.  It was, “open panel for questioning” in which I asked question I’ve been DYING to ask, but have always been too afraid.  They were definitely more than happy to entertain me, and we had a damn good time.  I felt at home, and usually it’s a little bit of a challenge on the nerves when there’s a group watching you tattoo, but it was like having some of my closest friends in the room.  I was bummed that I was working, cause it would have been awesome to just sit in that circle and shoot the shit and laugh my ass off without having to worry about an extra line or two possibly being added on, if you know what I mean.  Hehe.  I’ll be seeing them soon, cause Shawna is up next week!

This past few weeks have been pretty craaaaaaaazy as far as booking goes.  My back it killin’ me, haha.  Also, it was craaaaaaazy because I had craaaaaaaazy customers!  Seriously, everyone is going HUGE, it’s awesome.  Why not right?

I tattooed Ratanha about a year ago, then out of the blue, she comes in and is like, “Okay, I want a big piece on my shoulder, going to my chest and back.”  Okay… then, after that was lined, she’s like, “Okay so this is all going to connect to my back piece!”  Dang girl… I had a lot of fun with this one.  She’s Thai so we tried to incorporate her Thai culture… which, as we all know, I am a HUGE fan of the Thai culture, ESPECIALLY the art.  We’ll be adding in more stuff next week… so check back!

Justin is another one too… I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when he came to me. I thought it was going to be smaller than the usual rib piece… I was obviously mistaken.  Top to bottom, no rib left behind, he bulldozed through this.  He got his daughter’s name, “Summer.”

And then there’s my Uncle Beaver.  Don’t call him that haha, he might punch you.  I hadn’t seen him in a great while, but he showed up, anxious to get tattooed.  At our first consultation, he had said maybe a half sleeve.  Then he shows up and is like, “Lets go full.”  I was stoked.  The basic lines were laid out today, next session will be a bunch of line work, doing the scales and belly of both snakes.  I’ll take more pictures once it starts looking like we’re making progress… yeeeeee.

Chee hooo for fellow Kamehameha peer and friend.  We have our reservations on subjects of the Kamehameha sort, hehe.  My steady client along with his lil bro Leyo, my boys from Kalihi.  I’m pretty excited about this piece, approved and collaboed by legendary graffiti writer KIROS.  Definitely outside of the box as far as writing for me, so I asked him for help after writing and writing and drawing and drawing and not being happy with the outcome, considering this is for my boy!  I can’t wait to finish this thing… Thanks Jay for everything, especially trying to fix our Cadi beater!

KALIHI REPRESENT… definitely a commitment… across the chest…. owwwwww!

Today was my day of double trouble… Two Melissa’s!  Actually not double trouble… double fun!

First off was Melissa, Justin from Arkeo’s (coolest guitar player from Hawaii ever because his stuff sounds like Explosions in the Sky, who I LOVE, by the way) new GF.  It was a pleasure to meet her and tattoo her, she’s so sweet.  ABOUT TIME JUSTIN!  Haha.  She wanted me to add on to her existing foot tattoo done by Kenyo at Banzai Tattoo, one of our friends and amazing artists!  I won’t ever forget getting my damn foot tattooed by Orly… it was HELL, so anyone that can sit through any more than a 2 hour session on the foot gets MAD props from me.  I told her, it’s ALWAYS the petite girls that can hang and sit through the worst of the worst tattoo spots!  Nice catching up guys, see you both soon!  Morning glories and vines by me.

And of course, my weekly therapist, MELI/Melissa… Yup, my last blog was about her, and here she is AGAIN!  You’ll probably be seeing a weekly blog about her, considering she has like ten tattoos that she wants me to do all lined up.  Her praises and compliments are always appreciated, but as we all know, I’m horrible with accepting compliments, as I always know that there’s someone out there WAY more deserving of the credit that I get.  Always always always trying to stay humble.  But hey, we always have fun talking about the way life SHOULD be but, unluckily, probably never WILL be due to the conditions and nature of mankind, and more jazz and philosophical babble.  So fun.  Heart Meli!

…And I found another friend in my drawing folder!