The hair and ink specialist
Tua Peniamina’s had a few desk jobs in his working life, but his current one is a solid mix of art and style.
DRAWING temporary leg sleeves on his mates used to get Atua Peniamina into trouble at school.
These days, family, friends and newcomers are all flocking to to see Tua, as he’s known, but this time it’s to get inked permanently.
The 25-year-old is one of four tattoo artists working out of Wellington’s Taupou Tatau Tattoo Studio in the CBD.
‘‘When I was at school, I was always drawing on people – my mates would ask me for a leg sleeve and I’d sit down with a pen and a Vivid and tattoo them up so they’d look good at lunchtime playing rugby.
‘‘I’d get detention after school for doing that,’’ he laughs. ‘‘But that’s where my love for drawing on the body started’’.
‘‘Now I use real ink and a tattoo machine, and I don’t get detentions!’’
When Peniamina isn’t tattooing, he’s turning his hand to his other love, barbering, for Killa Kutz Barbershop, which shares the same premises as the tattoo studio.
‘‘I wake up every morning feeling grateful, it’s like a gift that’s been given to me. Barbering is my number one passion, it’s in my blood.
‘‘And I didn’t foresee any of this [tattooing], it was something I thought about as a little kid. I knew I wanted to do something with my art, I’m just grateful I can do something about it and be a tattoo artist.’’
Growing up in his homeland, Samoa, Peniamina learnt first-hand about both crafts.
‘‘My uncle has a full traditional tribal tattoo, called a pe’a, and I remember when I was a little kid, visiting Apia every year for a festival that showcased traditional tattoos.
‘‘There was a tattoo area where you would sit on mats and get tattoos done, I thought it was pretty cool.’’
Barbering on the other hand, has been passed down through the generations – Tua’s great-grandfather, grandfather and father were all barbers in Samoa.
‘‘Growing up my Dad would cut everyone’s hair, including mine, and everyone in the village would come to our house for a haircut.’’
However, when Tua’s family moved to New Zealand in 2005 and he went through his schooling at Wellington College, he didn’t think of barbering or tattooing as possible career paths.
‘‘I thought about personal training or being an accountant. I took art and photography towards the end of school but I never figured out what I really wanted to do.’’
In the meantime, he landed a job as a bank teller at Westpac in Kilbirnie but after a year grew bored of it.
He successfully applied to be a membership consultant for City Fitness, enticing people to join the gym. After a year he got bored of that too.
‘‘It was the same kind of environment as banking – I was stuck behind a desk and I realised I couldn’t see myself sitting behind a desk forever.’’
All the while he was following in his father’s footsteps with friends and family visiting his home for haircuts.
‘‘It all started when he asked me to cut the back of his hair one day because he couldn’t see it. I was stressing, I knew if I did it wrong I’d be in trouble.
‘‘But it was fine, he taught me how to cut hair and after that my little brother and all my cousins would come to my house to get a haircut.
‘‘I had a lot of practice on them, my little brother was my model, he would have three different haircuts in a week!’’
While still working his day job at the gym, Peniamina went to his local barber for a haircut himself one weekend and walked out with a job.
‘‘He messed my hair up – instead of doing my sideburns properly, he cut straight from the top of my hairline down, so I told him he’d done it wrong.
‘‘He asked if I was a barber, I said yes and then he asked if I’d set up his second shop in Island Bay!’’
Peniamina promptly resigned from his gym job and did just that.
‘‘He gave me the keys to go open the shop, he didn’t even ask if I was qualified. And I started cutting hair for a living.’’
A year later, Peniamina started working for another barber in Lower Hutt, where he learnt more about the profession.
He’d also take photos and post images via social media in order to get his name out there. That led to an opportunity to work in a new barbershop back in the Wellington CBD where he remained for another year.
While working there Tua began tattooing from home.
‘‘I’d never done tattoos before. My first tattoo was on myself, I decided to put this little dot on my thumb to test out whether it’d stay – I used Indian ink instead of normal ink.
‘‘I woke up the next day, and it was [still there], it felt like an addiction. I wanted another and asked my little brother to stretch out my arm for me so I could tattoo it some more.’’
Peniamina began practising his newfound skills on his cousins and mates, one of his first on a mate being the initials RC for his old school, Rongotai College, and incorporating a Polynesian design.
Eventually, he first put his tattooing and barbering skills to use in the workplace he has now returned to, Taupou Tatau Tattoo Studio and Killa Kutz.
After two years he moved to Nelson to take time out, play rugby for Waimea Old Boys, reflect and decide what he really wanted to do with his life.
‘‘Those two years opened up a massive window for me. I actually grew up and realised what it was I really wanted to do.’’
He returned to Wellington to take up a barbering job at Mavericks Barber & Emporium, his dedication and hard work rewarding him with accolades along the way – and more clientele.
‘‘I won the regional hairstylist of the year award, a barbering event held in Wellington in 2016. I was nervous, to be honest. It was my first competition and I didn’t know what to expect – I had to do one haircut in 25 minutes, and I finished with seven minutes to spare.
‘‘I got my mate to grow his hair out for six weeks. I did a pompadour with a skin fade, and added a design on one side. I finished by trimming his beard and lining him up with a cutthroat razor.’’
Since moving to his new workplace, he combines the two things he loves most under the one roof.
Friends, family and new clientele now call on Peniamina’s expertise for their designs, some of which they come up with and some of which he designs from scratch. He’ll then draw the design on the skin before getting out the tattoo machine.
To date, the most detailed tattoo he’s completed is a full arm sleeve he did recently for a friend.
‘‘It took us multiple sessions, two to three hours on weekends, and a total of 12 hours. I’ve got a picture of it on Instagram, I’m proud of it.’’
Being Samoan, Peniamina is passionate about traditional tattoos and often calls on his cultural background to come up with Polynesian designs. He has a Samoan sleeve adorning his own left arm, his right arm has pictures and his left leg has a leg sleeve too.
‘‘I’m hard out interested in our culture, I’m really proud of being Samoan, and tattooing something that has meaning is cool.’’
Most tattoos have meaning for those who want them, says Peniamina, and he enjoys hearing their stories.
‘‘I recently tattooed a lion on three grandchildren whose late grandfather had a lion tattooed on him. It’s like that for most people who walk through the door, everyone has family history or a story.’’