Brewsday Tuesday: Maui Brewing Edition

It's the return of Brewsday Tuesday on Tattoosday!

This installment features Maui Brewing Company (@mauibrewingco) based in Kihei, on the island of Maui in the great state of Hawai'i.

Having grown up on Oahu, I am thrilled to feature another great brewery from my home state. I may be a New Yorker now, but the Hawaiian Islands will always be home to me.

Our tattoos today come from Jon DuPont, Maui's Brewing Supervisor in Kihei. Jon has been with MBC for a little over four years, having originally applied to be a bartender in the new tasting room when they were moving production from Lahaina to Kihei. He ended up starting as a packaging tech and moved up in the organization into brewing and has been in his current role for about a year.

Jon was kind enough to share his Super Mario sleeve with us:

Jon credits this cool work to Kevin Reinert (@truetattoos1923) at Zen Tattoo Maui (@zentattoomaui).

Jon told us how this sleeve came into existence:

"It started as just the green 1-UP mushroom many years ago. I had been kicking around the idea of some kind of Nintendo-themed tat and my girlfriend (now wife) had just given me a little tin of mints (or something) that was shaped like the 1-UP shroom so it seemed like a good fit...my good friend had been planning to road trip (Coeur d'Alene to Boise, Idaho) to see one of his old artist friends so I tagged along for the ride and ended up getting the mushroom done with I was down in Boise with him. At that point it wasn't outlined, just had a little orange starburst around it that fell out pretty quickly. CdA to Boise is about 8 hours so I never had it touched up.

So fast forward about 8 years from that and I'm living on Maui and had become buddies with Kevin...our wives worked together just down the street from the MBC tasting room so we become drinking buddies pretty quickly. My wife ended up getting a big mandala back piece from him and I was digging his work so I plunged back in and started working on the sleeve piece by piece...Mario/Bowser/Luigi first combined with lining and touching up the mushroom. Next was Princess Peach followed by the flying goomba and bullet bill, and finally the background."

Thanks to Jon for sharing this cool tattoo with us!

As for Maui Brewing Company's beer, you'd think that I couldn't get Hawaiian beer in Brooklyn, but you'd be wrong. I was able to track down  several of their brands for this Brewsday Tuesday:

I had previously had MBC's Coconut Hiwa Porter and their Big Swell IPA, but the Bikini Blonde Lager and Pineapple Mana Wheat were new to me. These are four of their year-round brands. Alas, the Pau Hana Pilsner and Double Overhead Double IPA eluded me. Jon said the Double Overhead, or as he called it, "Big Swell's Bigger Badder Brother," is really something special, and is the tattoo artist Kevin's favorite beer.

It was great to be trying these in August when the hot New York City summer made the Bikini Blonde lager really light and freshing.

 

The lager is super crisp and I could almost hear the surf while drinking it. And the Pineapple Mana was really nice, as well. I love pineapple, and the flavors are super subtle. It is not overpowering, but it definitely makes its presence known.

As for the Big Swell, I've had this before and it is a solid, great-tasting IPA.

With a 6.8% ABV and an 82 IBU, this has the perfect amount of hoppiness and flavor to give you a rock solid IPA.

As someone who is partial to darker beers, the Coconut Hiwa Porter was already on my radar and having an excuse to track down another one (they don't stay on the shelves too long in Brooklyn), was a treat.

This baby is smooth, and so robust with flavor. Just the perfect amount of coconut to give this 6.0% porter a nice touch of the islands. I can't recommend this enough.

Maui Brewing has some limited releases, as well, which I will be constantly on the lookout. Their Lilikoi Saison looks amazing.

Like in previous editions of Brewsday Tuesday on Tattoosday, Maui Brewing Company has been generous enough to throw a little swag our way:

So, you know how this works. Commenting on the post below will get you two entries into the giveaways (there will be at least two prize packages), social media likes will garner one entry, as well. There are hats, coozies, stickers, keychains and magnets to be had.

A hearty mahalo to the good folks at Maui Brewing Company for joining us in this Brewsday Tuesday post. Thanks, of course to Jon for sharing his tattoos, as well as to Marsha Hansen in MBC's Marketing for setting everything up, and lastly to Garrett Marrero, Maui Brewing Company's CEO.

Cheers from Brooklyn!

This entry is ©2018 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Steve's Sleeve and the Narrative Behind It

Earlier this month, I was in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn for a mixer for The Brooklyn Crescents lacrosse program.

The event was held at Der Schwarze Kolner, a beer garden that offered up some tasty beverages. Over the course of the evening, I noticed one of the employees who was diligently passing out frosty steins to patrons. I introduced myself and asked if I could photograph his sleeve:

Since Steve was working, I asked him to e-mail me with details about the tattoo, and he didn't disappoint, even sending along a collage of the sleeve so our readers could get a better look at the full scope of the artwork:

One of the aspects missing in both photos is this part, which I captured when Steeve bent his arm:

Steve explained:

"First, one needs to know that this tattoo was about 4-5 years in the making before I sat for my first session. So I definitely thought about it for a long while. It was originally inspired by a Bansky stencil in which a woman in a dress is shooting herself in the head. From this bloody mess emerges a number of butterflies. Interpret what you will... I took this to mean rebirth after death and the cleansing properties of fire. I had studied medieval alchemy heavily as a graduate student, and this symbolism of death and rebirth through flame resonated with me greatly. Plus, I know that each of us has a fiery  self-destructive side and I am no exception. I wanted to honor that side of myself and also to silently pay homage to those friends over the years that I have lost to suicide.

So working closely with Joy Rumore at Twelve 28 Tattoo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we designed the upper sleeve [that] would show a woman, slightly cartoon-like and pin-up styled, holding a gun to her head. Rather than a bloody mess like in the stencil, I wanted her face to be content and pretty. Her hair burns red and orange like the fire elemental she is. From the gun, which has been fired, emerges stars and smoke. From the smoke, moving down the sleeve, emerges a spiral galaxy and more stars in negative space. The bottom sleeve is dominated by a salamander and a phoenix inside of a retort.

These two creatures are mythical symbols of fire, as they both burn up and rise from their own ashes. Fire blows from the top of the retort, and a 1up Mario Mushroom [visible in the top photo at the bottom of the sleeve, near the wrist], the one overt pop-culture reference on my arm, comes forth again illustrating rebirth and 'extra' life after death. Other features of the sleeve are the bullet casing, which is haloed inside my elbow pit, and the final black star on the inside of my wrist, which has the alchemical symbol for Mercury within. Mercury is the activator, the 'invisible, secretly working fire' of the purification process. Lastly, the Latin words MUNDUS VULT DECIPI are inscribed on my arm. They translate to 'the world wishes to be deceived.' I agree with this saying, attributed to the Roman Petronius (1st c. AD), as many individuals live life 'asleep.' Only though the fire can one truly awake into a higher self.

Still, despite the short novel of meaning I find and imbue into this tattoo, overall it is a beautiful piece of art and I couldn't be happier with Joy's work. She was very patient with me as we completed the piece over the course of three years! Money ran tight at times and our schedules conflicted, but in truth the time allowed for us to work together and for the tattoo to organically take shape. For instance, the bottom sleeve was not designed at all when we began the top sleeve. I remember suggesting to Joy the idea of the 1up Mushroom blasting from the retort, only to have her laugh with enjoyment at how nicely it would bring things together. You know you have found an excellent tattoo artist when they are genuinely interested and excited to work to create a shared piece of art.

I guess that's my sleeve's story then. Oh, and by the way, the girl has no name and I doubt she ever will!"

Steve's praise for Joy Rumore is not unfounded. She's a remarkable artist who has had work featured on Tattoosday several times before (click here to link to all previous posts tagged with her shop).

I greatly appreciate Steve sharing his sleeve with us, and for taking the time to give us a full and thoughtful explanation of the design process. Thank you Steve!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Maria Shares a Valuable Wing

Last month I met Maria on the West 4th Street subway platform. She had this interesting tattoo on the upper right side of her back, and I was curious:

Maria explains:

"I'm a big gamer, and my favorite video game of all time is Super Mario Brothers 3. The P-Wing is the one item you always wanted to get."

Maria credited Rich Smith at Thicker Than Water Tattoo on the Lower East Side as the artist who gave her this wing.

My own appreciation for it it it's originality in contrast to the more common inking of angel wings on backs.

Thanks to Maria for sharing her wing with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Horror Goulash with a Side of Power Mushrooms

I was passing through Century 21 Department Store when I spotted Jason, a web designer who estimates he is 50% covered in tattoos.

He offered up this sleeve, which he worked on for six sessions with the tattoo artist Sean Sweeney at Lola's Tattoos in Bogota, New Jersey:


Sean has subsequently moved to Virginia.

They called this piece "Horror Goulash" as it was a big pot of ideas for a sleeve, with an emphasis on the dark and macabre. Over the period of its creation, they collaborated to add ideas to it.


Jason also had this piece tattooed on the back of his left calf:

These are, for the uninitiated, the power mushrooms that are sought after in the Nintendo Super Mario Bros. video games.

Jason loves Nintendo and admitted, it was a "spur of the moment" piece tattooed "somewhere in the Village".

Thanks to Jason for sharing his amazing ink with us here on Tattoosday!