Ohio is for Lovers… And Coil Machines!
It would be an understatement to say that a little over two weeks spent in my hometown flew by. My primary intention was to spend time with my long-distance girlfriend, Meaghan, then secondly, to tattoo and learn from the veteran artists at Ensō Tattoo. Not to undermine the importance of my career in tattooing, but this would be my second visit to Columbus in 2024; and since Meaghan and I met in February during my first guest spot, she’s been an incredible source of stability, love and support along my tattooing journey. My primary focus was to enjoy and feel-out this time we would have together in person while making some money along the way. Per usual, what lies ahead in this blog post are some play by play events, thoughts, photographs and experiences I’d like to hold onto the memories of.
For the vibes:
I landed in Detroit after a long 8 hour flight from Honolulu. The plane wasn’t equipped with Wi-fi or an outlet to charge my phone, but I wasn’t particularly worried about it. I kind of liked the idea of enduring a long quiet flight without the luxury of disconnecting from the present experience. The three complimentary Voodoo Ranger IPAs I had once we reached 10,000 ft in the air definitely relaxed me even further.
After the two hour layover, I hopped on the hour and a half flight to Columbus. I’ll be honest, I was way irritable after that first one and despite anticipating a fun visit home, I was missing the Hawaiian aloha spirit. There’s just a liveliness that I could sense was missing from the midwest… Or at least in the airports. It truly wasn’t until I landed in Columbus, picked up my bags from the carousel and settled into Meag’s place that I would be open to what the next two weeks had in store for me.
Meaghan and I had been planning for my visit home for about 4 months — Like I had mentioned, our main focus was to spend quality time with one another since we’d truly only spent a total of 10 days together since we’d met in February. Between our plans, working at the shop, and spending some time with family I had a lot on my plate to manage.
Sunday, the 13th was when I’d meet up with Curt, one of the shop owners for coffee and pastries at Fox in The Snow Cafe, then i’d take my machines and tattoo equipment to Enso to settle in, and introduce myself to the artists.
The first day, I met Kevin, Steve, and Zak, a couple of the shop’s veteran tattooers. Kevin has about 20 years of experience under his belt and mainly focuses on large scale Japanese Traditional, often working on back pieces. Steve, has about 30 years of experience, focusing on Japanese Traditional as well; and Zak is going on 13 years with an affinity for American Traditional tattoos. Talking to these men throughout my trip was incredibly humbling as they offered stories, encouragement and wisdom.
I’d meet Brock, Trayvon, and reunite with my friend, Kei a couple days further into my visit. Fun story— I had met Kei about 4 years ago at a rooftop bar in Columbus just before I had moved out to Hawai’i and gotten my first traditional tattoo from Curt at Enso. Back then, I had no experience with a tattoo machine and very little with tattoos, and mentioned that I had a passion for painting flash sheets. I was in awe that Kei was an actual tattoo artist that had a shared enthusiasm for the American Traditional style. Throughout my journey since, starting about a year and a half after this meeting, Kei’s been an encouraging and helpful presence.
Now, jumping back to Meaghan’s and my projects— First on our agenda, was hosting a halloween themed dinner party on Friday, the 18th, where I would get to meet most of Meaghan’s close friends. The guest list was quickly approaching 30 people, so we decided on Tuesday that a potluck would be more sustainable. We pulled together the last details of our costumes during the week and prepared the house for our guests.
On the morning of the 18th, I would get to tattoo Meaghan— giving her an original flash piece that I had designed and turned into a piece of art from the beginning of our relationship. We would also pay homage to the design with our costumes that evening, I was dressed as a magician, and she was my rabbit. Both nods to Chappell Roan, the lesbian pop star known for her drag inspired style and matter-of-fact expressions of queer identity and sexuality. If you didn’t pick up on it already — I identify as a lesbian myself.
It was a really lovely evening getting to meet Meaghan’s community and support system. It’s something that I miss about Columbus dearly, and something I admire about Meaghan. She’s got an amazing ability to embrace the unconditional love mindset that having such a friend group requires; and Columbus is very progressive in some cultural pockets that had made me feel very much at home. At around 10pm we got an Uber to a local venue and danced to some old-school bops/Halloween mash-ups.
The next morning, we’d take the day fairly slow — I don’t remember celebrating too heavily the night before, so I was more than able to make pancakes for everyone at the house, Meag made coffee and we caught up on evenings happening. That afternoon I would prep to tattoo Mal, one of Meag’s closest friends the next day.
It was important to me to create a meaningful tattoo for Mal based on the image she gave me. I had redrawn it by hand and added a few more elements that made sense for the tattoo’s theme— an opossum skull that was found at the zoo Mal works at in Cincinnati. Meag would spend some time at the shop that day taking photos of me while connecting with the artists I was working alongside. Mal’s tattoo would kick off the following week of appointments and catching up with familiar faces… That following Tuesday I’d tattoo my former personal trainer, Andy, an incredible source of support and inspiration since before I moved out of Ohio and to the islands.
All of the ideas that my Columbus peers brought to me were fun, traditional, and meaningful. They all definitely put my creativity chops to work, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a challenge balancing life in addition to executing well made tattoos. Following Andy’s custom peony and lilac tattoo (a dedication to his wife and mother) his close friend, Sean would come in a couple days later to get a custom spaghetti wrapped around a fork tattoo, this one as a nod to his Italian heritage.
Another couple of Meag’s friends would come into the shop that weekend, including Xavi— A history and philosophy buff that I would connect with over his requested tattoo design. A design of Cincinnatus, the Roman Statesman that the city of Cincinnati was named after. An amazing story of civic duty and nationalism that would survive beyond borders and centuries after.
There was a tattoo that stood out in particular which was a couple of Dan Higgs designs— He’s an old school tattooer that really leaned into the esoteric themes of traditional. Eric, who I hadn’t met prior to his appointment, emailed me about getting his tattoo while I was in Ohio, and I was so stoked. These would land on my last Sunday before I would fly back out to Hawai’i early Monday morning. Perfect tattoos to close out my trip.
If you can tell by the photos, I was focused in on my technical execution and doing the original designs justice. Emphasizing saturation and line work. After all was said and done I was was happy with the end results and overall, happy with the tattoos I had done on my trip. In addition to this, all of the knowledge I had gained from the guys at the shop. They were all very passionate about the traditional tattoo art style and shared an immense amount of knowledge with me on design improvements. From diving deeper into the history of tattooers that laid the foundations for much of the work we are doing now, to sharing more immediately actionable knowledge like helpful techniques on shading. Trayvon— the shop’s apprentice was working on painting much of the time that we were in the shop together. I got to share my tattooing story with him (as it’s been written so far). He’s got a bright light that drives him and a patience that keeps him present in the work. From what I’ve gathered in my short time working in the craft, this is a key to beautiful work. A balance of depth, drive, and consistency. Below are some photos I got of the guys working around the shop.
Beyond the shop I got to spend a lot more intentional experiences with Meag. I took her to a Blue Jackets hockey game, we went out on some nice morning and evening dates, visited the Circleville Pumpkin Festival, and got out to see The Substance at the Gateway Film Center. I was honestly surprised we were able to fit sleep into the schedule!
Before leaving Ohio, Meag and I would take turns taking photos with our cameras— Mine on digital, and hers, on film. This is something that I really love to share in with her. I’ve always admired photographers in the way that they can see beauty in the moment and have trained their awareness to capturing it in an artful way. Ever since 2020 I’ve made it a point to learn and make myself useful with it through practice and exploration. Meag’s use of film requires more patience, intention and education due to the fact that there are a limited number of photos she has available to her.
All in all, my trip back home was a very dynamic and intentional one. It was extremely difficult to pack everything that I wanted to share about it in this blog post, but I think I’ve got out as much as I have in me. Thank you for reading and catch you on the next post!
—Dani
