probably be about
as welcome as a ‘rat in the refrigerator’ by the
other shops.
Aside from
one comment by one of the artists already there
that “pretty soon
Anderson is going to have
every swinging dick from the mainland over
here”, I was treated very graciously by all. (We
kicked around the Idea of naming the shop
Swinging Dick Tattoo, but opted for Banzai since
it would be first in the phone book). Trying
with no luck to rent a space in Kailua, near the
Marine base at Kahneohe, we started combing the
island. Landlords in Kailua at the time weren't
very receptive to the idea of a tattoo shop. I
guess they figured we belonged any place but
there. Within a couple of days we were looking
around the town of Waipahu.
Finding a vacant space on
Waipahu Depot Rd., just below the sugar mill, we went to
talk with the owner, Mrs. Agmata. Mrs. Agmata was a
wonderful elderly Filipino lady whose only criteria
seemed to be the fact that we could pay the whopping
$400.00 per month rent. (This also included living
spaces upstairs). Lease in hand, we started working on
turning the space into Banzai Tattoo.
Waipahu was a sleepy
little town ‘where da sugar mill stay’, with a
predominately Filipino and Samoan population. Not a lot
of tourists made their way to Waipahu! However, being
the closest shop to Pearl Harbor Naval Base, it seemed
like a good spot. The Marines that we wanted to attract
with a shop on the other side of the island found their
way to Banzai Tattoo, so we ended up with a great
following from them after all. It was the locals
however, that became our best and most loyal customers.
Waipahu had the
reputation, undeservedly, of being a pretty rough and
tumble place. I found it to be anything but that. It was
a great little ‘local’ town full of wonderful people. We
had a Filipino restaurant on one side of us, Ann’s
Saimin (noodle) place on the other side, and a Philipino
store on the corner of the building. Across the street
was the Green Hills Lounge and Disco, a ‘Korean’ or
‘hostess bar’ as the newspapers referred to them as.
Whatever you called it, they added flavor to the
neighborhood when the sun went down. I can still hear
the Banana Boat Song drifting through the open doors
from across the street, hear the click of high heels
made by the hostesses as they came over to giggle and
flirt with customers, smell the cheap perfume and the
scent of plumeria being carried through on the gentle
night time breezes. This was a great time for tattooing
in Hawaii, before every swinging dick really DID show
up. My Hawaii State Artist License is number 22. They
are well over 1000 now.
In 1986 Bal Dasa, the
owner of my old shop in California, came to Hawaii for a
visit. Before he left, we had agreed to sell Banzai to
him and take Gold Coast back as partial payment. After
six months back on the mainland, we had Gold Coast
running smoothly and I headed for the airport and my
next adventure, the Philippine Islands, or just PI to
those who have spent any time there.
Banzai Tattoo is still
in business and is now the oldest established tattoo shop on
the island of Oahu, a fact I'm just a little proud of! |
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