Business Monday: Eighth-generation tattoo artist grows family business into collective for fellow artists

Mehana Pilago was 6 years old when she gave her first tattoo. Not a make-believe one. Not henna. Real permanent body art, on her dad Che.

“It was a little tap situation on his leg,” she recalled. “I think it was literally just a triangle or something. Just small and simple that we did together.”

It helped that her dad could provide expert guidance as a seventh-generation tattooist. He is trained in the traditional art of Polynesian tattooing using serrated bone, tusk or shell combs tied to a wooden handle, using burnt kukui (candlenut) soot to drive into the skin.

Mehana Pilago, and her brother, have become the eighth generation of tattoo artists in the Pilago ‘ohana. In 2022, she took over her father’s body art business – which first opened in 2003 in a trailer at their home in Kona.

She has grown the business into an artist collective, the Kā‘eo Hawai‘i Tattoo and Creative Studio in Kailua-Kona.

The creative studio has a mixture of about 22 people working there, including creatives, entrepreneurs, independent artists, hair stylists, nail artist and estheticians running their own mini businesses.

“We wanted to create like a hub for people that maybe can’t afford a big space to rent and they just want a little room and a community to work around,” 30-year-old Mehana Pilago said.

Her dad’s tattoo business started small, and as his client list grew, he moved into four different commercial spaces. In 2020, the shop was located behind Target in Kona. Che Pilago had named the business after his middle name, Kā‘eo, which means “the calling” in Hawaiian.

When his daughter took over the business, she kept the name, but went big. Just over a year ago, she bought a 3,000-square-foot building about four miles to the north for nearly $900,000, according to Hawai‘i County’s Real Property Tax Office.

The building, located below Costco at 73-5574 Maiau St. Unit 1A, was big enough for the collective and has a space where art shows are hosted, including Art After Dark Kona.

Mehana Pilago said she was shown that buying a building at just the age of 29 was possible because of a motivated Hawaiian commercial real estate agent and strong backing from her family.

“It’s important for us to change the narrative of ‘priced out of paradise’ and create more roots here before everything is bought up,” she said.

The building even has a spot for her 52-year-old dad, who has been creating tattoos for people for 40 years, starting when he was barely a teenager. His work is rooted in his ancestry across the South Pacific: Tahiti, Hawai‘i, the Marquesas and Aotearoa, New Zealand.

“I’ve mixed all their styles for all my bloodlines,” Che Pilago said.

When Che Pilago started his tattoo shop 12 years ago, he couldn’t use the hand tools for traditional tattooing for sterilization reasons.

“I was the first in my lineage to use a machine,” he said. “I felt like it was a disgrace, but it’s kind of cool because it’s so much easier. It’s like drawing with a pencil.”

Mehana Pilago has forged her own path and style, focusing on fine-line tattoos primarily showcasing plants and Hawaiian lei.

While her dad always wanted her to pursue being a tattooist, Mehana Pilago said while growing up “I never felt confident with my art.”

She instead focused on fashion, creating a swimwear line while in high school. She attended college at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise in San Francisco and got a degree in merchandise product development.

But during the COVID-19 pandemic a few years ago, after getting laid off from her marketing job, she launched into the tattoo world. This time, with more confidence due to the graphics work she did in school and on freelancing design projects.

Mehana Pilago couldn’t think of any crazy tattoos she’s done, saying she’s selective about the projects she takes on. But she did go viral in April 2024, garnering 27,000 likes and 885,000 views, for a social media post she made that said: “I’m a safe space for the girls, gays and theys.”

Mehana Pilago said she doesn’t tattoo straight men because her art is feminine, inspired by earth elements like plants and flowers.

“I do try to select each project and make sure I’m really stoked about doing it because I’ve noticed, when I’m not into the project, it doesn’t come out good in my mind,” she said.

Her favorite project was recently done for 25-year-old client Mallorie Vaught, where she has lei wrapped around her entire right arm and ferns wrapped around her left wrist.

“She gave me her whole arm,” Mehana Pilago said. “I was the first person to ever tattoo her, and she literally did a full sleeve of leis with ornamentals throughout it.”

Vaught, from Maui, said she stumbled across Mehana Pilago’s (Instagram) page and was inspired by one of her wrist tattoos.

Vaught flew to the Big Island twice, once in November 2025 and again in March to finish the tattoo that encompasses plumeria, moon and sun elements, and iwa birds.

“I love her fine line work,” Vaught said. “She’s really good with detail.”

Tattoo artist Mareya Dick, 27, who was mentored by Mehana Pilago, rents space at Kā‘eo. She also does graphic design and helps with merchandise at the business.

Pilago helped Dick break away from the structured rules of academic graphic design and think more creatively, particularly with placement of tattoos and making random art look good.

“A lot of people like patchwork sleeves where they just have smaller things,” Dick said. “She’s just really helped me to trust my gut more than follow rules.”

Dick admires Mehana Pilago for the collective she’s building, saying it’s enabled her to believe she can make a living with her art.