Keone nunes tattoo cost

Keone Nunes (born September 8, 1957) is a self-proclaimed tattoo practitioner of Portuguese and Japanese descent.^[1]. Operating out of Waianae, Hawaii, he runs the small business Kaʻānaniʻau ^[2] as well as his own tattooing practice. Keone is founder of the group Pāuhi, of which students like Keliʻiokalani Mākua have been trained in.

Early life

Born John Estrella Nunes in Morioka, Japan on September 8, 1957, Keone is the child of James Joseph Nunes ^[3] and Kuniko Yuzawa ^[4]. At the age of 2, Nunes moved to Hawaii where he attended Waianae Elementary, Waianae Intermediate, then Waianae High School. He graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1975 with a major in anthropology.

Career

Graduating with a certification in Hawaiian language Keone Nunes began teaching at Hawaii Community College then worked for the Bishop Museum and Kamehameha Schools.

Tattooing

Keone Nunes claims to have indirectly learned about Hawaiian tattooing from teachers such as Paul Cathcart, Muriel Lupenui, and Emma DeFries. He began using machine tools as a tattooist in 1990 and eventually contributed to a documentary by Henk Schiffmacher. Henk later introduced Nunes to Sua Sulu'ape Paulo II where they then met at a festival in 1996 in Samoa. Following the untimely passing of Sua Sulu'ape Paulo II, Keone Nunes claims that he finished the tattoos that Paulo had left behind and was later given a Suluʻape title by the Suluʻape family ^[5].

Contradictions

There are contradictions in the stories that Keone Nunes has provided to establish who and where he learned from. One such example is where he refers to a "Paul Cathcart" as one of his teachers. No such person exists, for there was a Arthur Cathcart who was an informant of the researcher June Gutmanis, but Paul Cathcart ^[6] does not exist. Much of the Native Hawaiian informants Nunes claims to have learned from are no longer alive, and thus can not speak out to validate or contradict Nunes' statements.

In addition to his informants, Nunes' body of work obviously contradict the cultures that he claims to have knowledge of. The following is a summary of some inconsistencies in his given reasoning for design usage:

A design claimed to be known as "makapo" by Nunes covers the entire eye with a thick black marking. Nunes earlier did a collaboration with Defend Hawaii labeling this design as the "makauhi" ^[7]. The latter is a more accurate description of this mark, which is actually a mark of shame. This is corroborated by Mary Kawena Pukui^[8]. Furthermore the box shape of this mark is actually a theft of Marquesan tattooing by Keone Nunes. It is derived from the style of tattooing known as "mataʻepo" or "tiʻi-mata"^[9]. The "makauhi" can be seen on such people as Keli'i Makua and L. Frank Manriquez.

Nukuhiwa is another tattoo that Nunes claims is for orators which blacks out the mouth. Kalehua Krug is one such person who Nunes has marked with this. Unfortunately this is another theft, but of the name Nuku Hiva and a Marquesan style known as "kutuʻepo" or "tiʻi-nutu"

Nunes also uses a motif he refers to as "makani." He uses it in his tattooing as well as for a 2019 collaboration with Defend Hawaii. This is not a Hawaiian motif, but rather one of Samoan origin, known as the "faʻatigipusa"^[10]".

Nunes further says that designs are meant to be on one side of the body for women, and the opposite side for men. Throughout his career he has consistently contradicted himself, stating that the left side is for males while the right is for females, and likewise ^[11]. This is not a universal truth. body placement differed across islands and districts, and the drawings of John Webber from 1778 invalidate Nunes' claim as Webber observed Kauai natives with marks on both sides of their body^[12].

Aside from his tattooing work, Nunes states his company is "a Native Hawaiian owned and operated small business firm," but Nunes' genealogy clearly proves that he is not of Native Hawaiian descent. As such, Nunes is ineligible to the inherent native rights and responsibilities allowed by the law to be a traditional practitioner, and to claim native descent for the sake of a business.

Samoa Connection

Keone Nunes claims to have learned the practice of tattooing from Sua Sulu'ape Paulo II. He claims to have met Paulo at a convention in 1996 in Europe where he supposedly learned to make a tattooing tool in one night and became Paulo's student. He further claims to have infrequently flown back and forth between Hawaii and wherever Paulo was to learn from him. There exists no such photographic evidence or statements from someone besides Nunes that validate these relations between Nunes and Paulo. It is more than likely that Nunes never embarked on the apprenticeship under Paulo as he Claims.

Apprenticeship under a tufuga ta tatau (master tattooist) takes years of learning and studying under the master ^[13]. Graduation is marked by an extensive ceremony of gift-giving, bestowal of a tufuga ta tatau title, and a basket of tattooing tools specially crafted by the apprentice's master. Nunes claims to have received such a ceremony by Paulo after a shocking two years where he says he demonstrated his first tattoo with Samoan tools to Paulo in 1998^[14], but he also contradicts that by claiming he received his title after Paulo's death^[15]. Nunes neither possesses the tools or the basket from Paulo that validates these statements; also the style in which he crafts tools and uses them neither demonstrates usable craftsmanship as the "master" he claims to be, nor resembles the methods that Paulo would have bestowed upon him.

Learning to tattoo as a master does often takes years of consistency, and even living under a tufuga ta tatau. An analysis of Nunes' work, as well as his teachings to his apprentices by a true master practitioner would demonstrate that he possesses an inexperienced, cursory understanding of tatau at best.

Regardless of these inconsistencies, Keone Nunes further claims to possess the depth of knowledge behind tattooing the structures and motifs of traditional malu and peʻa, and thus finished Paulo's tattoos after his untimely passing 1999^[16]. It is likely that this is another false claim as Sua Suluʻape Paulo II's family members would have been chosen to finish up Paulo's tattoos after his death, but strangely Nunes claims otherwise.

References

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