Uncle Tim Tattoos the World

        SUGAR SKULLS!

Even though most tattoo art is pretty good, somewhere around 1999, I became bored with the same "cookie cutter" art that you see in almost every tattoo shop in the world. When I first started tattooing I made the mistake of trying to do what everybody else was doing.  When I quit that route and became true to my own art I began to explode artistically. These are the kind of crazy imagery I've become known for. I've never been afraid to mix styles that aren't supposed to be mixed. This had given me freedom to explore. This imagery has always given me joy in a sometimes serious business. These sugar skulls make me laugh. The reactions to this style are always the same....Smiles and shaking heads. I've done hundreds of these things and they keep selling. Some people like them and some don't. So be it. I do different tattoos every day here on Kauai and at the shows, but these, by far, are some of my favorite ideas. Of course I do just about any design that is interesting, but I prefer to let loose and get nuts. So, if you do like what you see, then read on...

Favorite quotes:

"All we are and all we know is a result of our thinking"---The Buddha

"He who wishes to be creative must first smash and destroy all accepted value"___Nietsche

"Quit whining, nobody ever paid good money to ride a flat roller coaster,"________________Uncle Tim Heitkotter

"Actions are more important than belief. What we do with our lives rather than what we hope and prey for is the difference between fullfillment and frustration. Magic only exists in the minds of children."____________Uncle Tim Heitkotter

If you want to be seen...stand up. If you want to be heard...speak out! If you want to be loved....sit down and shut the hell up!" .............Frank Sinatra

Photo by Justice Howard (link on menu)

I am looking for a full time artist. Male or Female. So if you want to tattoo on Kauai and have at least 4 years of experience in an established shop,(not jail or prison), no substance abuse problems, your State of Hawaii tattoo license and have your Bloodborne Pathogens Training certificate, you can stop by and apply. Bring a solid, versatile portfolio and some strong references and we'll talk. No "Scratchers" or "Rock Stars", please! Non smokers a plus.

I would like to dedicate the opening of Blue Tiki Tattoo, Kauai, to my  dear, departed friend Erno Szabady.

May he finally rest in Peace...

                                                                         Aloha------Uncle Tim

(As of 1/1/2009, Blue Kauai Tattoo LLC is no longer in business and Lad Bak is no longer my business partner. I am no longer responsible for debts incurred by either. It's nice to see you all coming back now that all the problems created by my ex business partner no longer exist. You can now experience a reliable, safe, drug and alcohol free environment in a newly remodeled shop.)

I love to draw these damned things on anything.... including shirts for my favortie tattoo convention in California.

I love how white this guys skin is....makes for great color work.

Hello Kitty!!!! Sure, why not? Nothing is sacred in my shop.

These evolved out of Mexican Sugar Skulls created to celebrate their ancestors on "Dio Del Los Muertos" or "Day of the Dead". I love to mix Japanese with Polynesian and throw in a little Kustom Kulture to spice things up. Open jaws...closed jaws...fangs...fluttering tongues...bats, rats, horns or whatever. These things are so much fun and they always make people smile. Some stare for a while before their smile breaks, but always love to look at them with a positive reaction.

Some of the imagery I grew up with influences me every day. Of course, I always throw in my usual tweak here and there. People like Ed Roth and Ken Howard (aka Von Dutch) have a heavy influence on many a tattoo artist, including me. These images are a permanent part of American Art History. Whether it's flash or an original design I always try to push it a little farther each time. There are so many great artists out there and great art to draw from. I feel that my contsantly evolving style is a gift from the powers that be. I'm going to continue to tattoo as long as it's still fun for me.

All of these began with my love for Traditional style tattooing and it's role throughout American History. The simplicity of the imagery is what startles me to this day. The key to this style is how we use suggestions of the image rather than the actual image itself. Minimalism at it's best, I feel. A very pure and honest artform. No explanation needed. Tattooing on Kauai and Hawaii for the last 4 and a half years has given me obvious influences. The last one was a tribute by Grateful Dead fans with some added Kustom Kulture influences. Kinda bizarre, but interesting and a lot of stuff going on in this one.

I love to take classic designs and add curious backgrounds. And who wouldn't love to hang out on the beach with a lovley hula girl? Uncecessary detail will not necessarily improve these examples. It can enhance them or it will clutter them. Perhaps a coastline and a palm tree would add to our second beauty. I chose to add a little pale blue around the center of the 1st hula girl. The suggestion of sky or water. Then there is the outright obvious addition of island iconography around a mischevious looking hulagirl. A tiny pecker on the Tiki adds some subliminal humor. Lastly, the classic Sailor Jerry Hula girl is just begging for a little extra for that romantic island flavor. A few examples of limitless possiblilities. Kauaiian influences abound.

Again....four more ways to do the same thing. My favorite way is to mix traditional and realistic.  Of course I'm always looking for new ways to do things.

Me and my supertalented friend "Girl Roni" working at a shop in Jacksonville N.C.

Me tattooing a client at Triangle Tattoo in Ft. Bragg California.

Me, and a very sweet client at my old shop, Studio 13, Salinas Calif.

Me tattooing a client at Body Temple Tattoo in Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.

Fishing at a friend's lake here on Kauai. Me just before I blackened these babies with some Cajun Spices.

 This one is of me doing what I do best.....taking the day off and doing nothing on Kauai's Moloa'a beach.

Me and Larry Allen cruising the glaciers in Alaska, Sept '09.

Me and my gal, Betty cruising up the Kern River area in Calif after the '08 Queen Mary show.

Me and Betty all dressed up at the '09 QM show.

I think this guy never found his way to the Emerald City, did he? I think he missed the Yellow Brick road.

I know this isn't a monster but a website glitch won't let me display this anywhere else. I did this one at the Laughlin '09 show. Not bad for a first tattoo eh? She's definately tougher than any guy I know ,including me. We should have won tattoo of the day for this one but entered it in the wrong category. She went skydiving the day before and was going horseback riding after she left the show. Amazing woman.

I just love to tattoo evil, mean, snarly monsters. 60's horror movie imagery stuck to the inside of my skull haunts me with macabre delight. I have sketches that might even make Paul Booth blush. These are some of the more benign tattoos for the sake of website ettiquette. The Sheepshead tattoo is a modified Booth design I did way back in the 90's. (Some are digital photos taken from my portfolio)

           This is one of the things that people know me by. Before Tattooing, I had a sign shop in Monterey, Calif called "Sign language". I used to write a column in Skin&Ink magazine called "Lettering 101". I like to think that I've helped people through that article to improve their lettering skills. I still get comments, now and then, validating that hope from some very fine tattoo artists...

I've always loved lettering and the tattoo business is perfect for a guy like me. I'll share my skills anytime with anyone who wants to improve their lettering. And there is always someone who I can learn from as well.

My art career began while painting petroglyphs inside the walls of my mother's uterus during her pregnancy with me. Later, I began painting signs with my father in his sign shop in 1958 where I filled in huge letters on a billboard at the age of 5. I've been drawing my whole life and after dropping out of the lame art program at Foothill College my career led me to body and paint work and eventually to custom paint. I was painting various imagery on my friends' motorcycles for years so tattooing was a natural progression for me. Around 1976 I began to pinstripe and built a fairly large clientel in about two years so I quit the auto body business and went full time striping cars and bikes. My signpainting skills came into play as sophisticated clients wanted more lavish designs and this helped polish my airbrushing skills. I had a sign shop in Monterey Calif for years called Sign Language. I have been influenced by such artistic greats as Ed Roth, Robt. Williams, Rick Griffin and Stanley Mouse. There was also a local Monterey County guy named Alan Smith whom I ripped off every chance I got. Other sign guys like the late Rick Glawson and guys like Gary Rhodes, Noel Webber, Mark Otis and Carl Rohrs blew my mind with unique approaches to the trade. I won all sorts of awards at car shows and enjoyed attending Letterhead and Pinhead events, sometimes even getting a chance to share my techniques to a gathering crowd. I kept busy doing anything from billboards to Dragsters to choppers. I mastered gold, wood, glass, plastic, metal and various composite materials.I striped thousands of motorcycles for anybody from the Hells's Angels to the California and Indian Motorcycle Companies in Gilroy Calif. After lettering about a hundred race cars I began racing myself and enjoyed three years of "haulin ass sideways". Sadly, after the computer era began to take over the sign business I lost interest in explaining the differences between a computer generated "peel and stick" sign and a finely crafted hand made sign to the customers and eventually began to make the transition to tattoo artist in 1995. After working for a couple of local shops, in 1997, I opened up Studio 13 Tattoo in Prunedale, Calif and eventually moved to Salinas in 1998. I started doing tattoo conventions and began winning awards in 2000 and have been winning at shows ever since,(that is if I can get the clients to hang around long enough to participate).

It's been a long strange trip with tattooing and I've learned loads from friends who helped me through the agony of being an "unknown". It seems that until you are "somebody" in this business, nobody will help you, so, I am, mostly self taught. However, once everybody found out I knew how to letter and pinstripe, it seemed like everybody wanted to be my friend all of a sudden. Guys like Iggy Evans, Erno Szabady, Steve Hendricks, Adam Roach, RJ and Dotty Musolf, Catfish Carl, Rick Walters, Robert Atkinson, Danielle Oberosler, Jack Rudy, Dave Gibson, Henry Goldfield, Da Wei Zhang, Tennesee Dave and especially my new pal Larry Allen, have helped me more than they realize. A strange guy named Dave Lum has also given me artistic freedom by simply being who he is and I've never met him. I am humbled all by their skill levels and I feel so lucky that I have something to share.

Writing columns and articles for Skin & Ink magazine has helped but it was through my clientel and their support that I've been given license to explore and develop along the direction that I seem to be destined for. Funny thing is that the direction changes from time to time. Even though I haven't written seriously for the magazine in awhile, I still contribute now and then however I can. I love sharing anything I can with a business that has been very good to me.

When I came here to Kauai for the first time an July of 04, to visit friends, I immediately fell in love with the place. I came back and forth from the Carribean for a year and eventually bought half the shop when my friends here divorced. After 3 and a half years of unbelievable agony with my former business partner and his irresponsible antics, he eventually cut his own throat and I took over the shop and changed the name to Blue Tiki Tattoo. It's so much easier to run a shop with people you can depend upon. Now I have a newly remodeld shop that is friendly, clean, safe, comfortable and sane.

I don't claim to be anything more that a simple guy who loves tattooing and all that it includes. The people, the art, the history and heritage quicken me on a daily basis. I learn new stuff every day. Anyone who knows me will tell you how much I respect this business for the noble craft it is by refusing hate related work and placements that will insult the trade. I practice stringent guidelines for safety and sterility because I believe in it....not because some authority told me to do it. Skin&Ink magazine editor Bob Baxter calls me "One of the good guys in tattooing". I am honored to have that attached to Uncle Tim. Bob taught me a lot and I owe him even more! (Anybody who dares to bash Bob Baxter has their head up their ass and doesn't understand that it is his job to make them look good!) My good freind Henry Goldfield calls me "The best lettering guy in the business". This is very funny because I think Henry Goldfield is the best lettering guy in the business. A look at any of his famous show banners will cement this as fact! Guys like Dave Gibson, Jack Rudy, Mike Brown and Boog also rate as lettering Gods as far as I am concerned. Nobody can really say who is truly the best in this trade. But as I get older I try to be more gracious with accepting compliments. Even if they are inflated! But, thank you all for your support.

Although I may have some talent and skill my shortcomings originate from falling alseep in Charm School. I like to "josh" and "kid around" to help ease the tension and pain of the tattooing process when I see someone is struggling. To quasi-quote Strother Martin in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: "Most people around here think I'm a little rough around the edges....but I prefer to think I'm colorful." I have a customer from So. Cal. named Brian who flies out a few times a year to get work done by me here on Kauai and a couple of times at West Coast coventions. The first time I worked on him he was asking too many questions, moving a lot and distracting me from concentrating on his tattoo so I told him to "Shut the fuck up!" He got in my face and growled, "I don't like you." I got back in his face and told him he could make a choice between a great tattoo and an animated conversation...not both. Of course, he chose the tattoo and now we are good friends and I give him 110% every time he sits. Be that as it may, my promise to the buying public is this: You will get my very best every time you sit in my chair. Love me or hate me I will make your jaw drop when we are done. Plenty of people on this island and elsewhere claim to be "the best". I've never claimed that....I just try to prove it every day by giving my customers top quality every time.

When I first started tattooing I actually hated tribal. I thought it was some stupid Surfer/New Age-Primitive indulgance. Admittedly, the imagery could be very powerful if done correctly. After spending time here on Kauai I began to see the beauty of Polynesian and other South Pacific imagery and became drawn to the intricate designs and their meanings. What once was an irritation was slowly transforming into affection. I'm still learning, of course, and I invite you to visit the TRIBAL EXPLORATIONS page. I've met some very cool Hawaiian people who've helped me develop my tribal skills. They bring me their family designs and I feel honored to apply them to skin. I'm actually having fun exploring and combining polynesian tribal with other images. This pisses off some of the old school hardline polynesian tattooers but I never complained about them copying "haole" designs. We evolve by learning from each other, brah, so get over yourself!

I absolutley love what I do and I love making people happy with my art. But, first and foremost I love who I am becoming in my life. I live by certain rules that give me peace. Some people can't handle this part about me. They feel uncomfortable or threatened by my personal boundries. That's okay, because that is what Psychiatrists are for. They are easilly found in the yellow pages. So, when people get upset because I don't tattoo children, remember...This is an adult business! And if you get pissed off because I refuse to tattoo a swastika on your girlfriend....that's your problem! I absolutley refuse to be responsible for ruining anybody's life. If you can't understand this then I'm sure you can find someone else who will gladly fullfill your sick ideas. This trade is full of those kind of people. I will also use my discretion over wierd ideas because I don't want my name attached to a stupid tattoo no matter who's idea it is.

BLUE TIKI TATTOO IS SUPPORTED BY SKILL, TALENT AND A STRONG WORK ETHIC. I DO NOT NEED TO GROW WEED OR SELL BONGS, CRACKPIPES OR PORNOGRAPHY TO SURVIVE LIKE CERTAIN OTHER SHOPS ON THIS ISLAND. YOU'LL ALSO NOTICE THAT I HAVE NO NEED FOR APPRENTICES TO PROVE MY STATUS AS AN ARTIST.

NOTICE: What you do with your own life on your own time is none of my business and I don't really care unless you come in to my shop shitfaced. This is a very dangerous situation for everybody concerned so please come in with a clear head or you will be rescheduled and lose your deposit. And if you are looking for a bargain....be advised.....Frankly, I don't really give a rat's ass how much they are charging in some Arizona garage. I don't come to your place of work and ask you to lower YOUR wage, so, don't insult me by asking me to lower mine. Remember...you get what you pay for! "People who show respect deserve respect!"

So, here it is;

If you want a first class, one of a kind tattoo or a classic traditional, please make an appointment and let's get down. I have a chair waiting with your name on it.....and I would love to meet you.

 Faithful servant to the trade

          ---------Uncle Tim

Also check out my father's paintings by clicking on the "Dad's Art" link on upper left corner of this page. He's a very talented guy who's been around a lot longer than me. Really cool stuff.