Indigenous Resources

The staccato tapping of Nunes’ moli is the sound of a craft he revived from the brink of westernized extinction. “I never set out to become a tattooist,” said Nunes. “I wanted to perpetuate a cultural practice. This is my kuleana.” For Nunes, tattooing is no mere surface adornment, it is a celebration of a visceral connection of a people to a place and to each other. “The people who receive the work, it changes them.”