Manifesto for 2024
There’s a lot in the world that has changed since I began my tattoo journey. It’s wild to think that it’s already been 9 years since I began it in earnest, and to think I would end up in one of the most beautiful places in the world boggles my mind. Since the beginning, I’ve learned a lot about how people get into tattooing, how some people take it seriously and how others let it slide off them. For me, I am enveloped by it. My lifestyle is only possible through tattooing. My place in society is linked to my profession in a way that many other tradespeople cannot comprehend.
There’s a lot about the old days of tattooing that is good and bad. Gatekeeping is good and bad. Not everyone deserves to tattoo. Not everyone who deserves to tattoo does, and not everyone who doesn’t deserve to tattoo is prohibited from doing so. It’s a crazy world. A real up-front, devil-may-care, balls-forward, survival-of-the-fittest kind of profession. Fitness in this world means not only ability, but drive, dedication, and tenacity, and not just a little bit of luck.
For me, maybe my best tattoos are yet to come, but I’ve always felt more comfortable in a mentorship position than in the spotlight. The gratitude of one worthy human is worth more than the adoration of a million two-faced jackals. The thanks of one gracious and dignified patron is worth more than a river of filthy money from million ignorant rubes.
In this, my mid-career, I yearn to accomplish a few things with my time, namely the education of several students who can, by learning what I can teach, ride the tides. I hope they can take what I can teach and make the world a better, more compassionate, fairer world, and that doing so makes their craft even more sought-after. We are all on the same journey, and it’s up to us to help each other get there. There’s no God, no smiting hand, no divine justice or retribution, and no consequences beyond us, and so it’s up to us, on our only trip through existence, to make the world a better place.
Lofty goals? Maybe. Maybe it would be simpler to say I want to maintain a tattoo shop that treats every client with the respect and care they deserve, and attract or sponsor plenty of talented, dedicated, compassionate artists who share this idea with joy de vie, but I would also like to build a community around this.
My goals over the next five years are:
1. To manage Happy Yokai Tattoo as a street shop with regular guest artists from all around the world, to use it as a way to build community and have fun.
2. To grow a worldwide network of artists that want to grow and better themselves, while also learning from them to become a better artist myself.
3. To do larger pieces focusing on Neo-Traditional, Japanese, and Polynesian style tattooing, and to bring happiness to my clients while learning those lessons that only tattooing and getting tattooed can teach.
4. To purchase or lease a 2-bedroom in or around Lihue, which would provide the space needed to create an artist’s retreat and room for visiting guest artists.
5. To cross at least one tattoo travel-related thing off the bucket-list every year.
All of these things I pursue humbly with intent to thrive, provide for others and myself, and bring joy to the world through my ikigai, tattooing. I intend to use all avenues in my purview to make it so with an Aloha state of mind.
Brian Sveniker Shay, Wailea, Kauai, Hawai’i, Earth, 2024
Postscript-
If you are a tattooer who shares some of these goals and would like to visit for a guest spot or extend an invitation to guest, please reach out to me via Instagram to start a dialogue. Currently there is one station regularly available at Happy Yokai Tattoo for guest artists, and many opportunities throughout the year for guests to experience what it’s like to tattoo in one of the coolest places on earth, the Island of Kaua’i, in the Kingdom of Hawai’i.
