Help Create Hawaii's Biggest Community Artist Collective

Aloha, my name is Mehana and I’m an 8th generation tattoo artist from Kailua Kona. My dad has had a tattoo shop since I was a little girl, and I took it over a few years ago and I’ve been growing it ever since.

My passion in life is cultivating creativity and community growth with art, self-expression, and truly being your own person.

I created an art series called Art After Dark Kona a few years ago and have been growing the most amazing community of artists, creators, and entrepreneurs.

In our studio, and at Art After Dark Kona, we focus on giving independent artists a place to showcase their work to the community and to help support one another. We have plans to complete our 501c3 non-profit registration this coming year.

I’m currently in escrow for our new headquarters. This space is going to give us the opportunity to create the largest community hub of creators on the Big Island of Hawai'i.

Our vision is to create a safe space where art flourishes and creativity is born. We plan to continue growing our art show series, supporting independent artists, and showcasing their work to our community and to the world. We are set to also share space with world-renowned artists from across the globe and continue to share our skills, stories, and culture with each other.

As a business, I plan to inspire others to change the narrative of being priced out of paradise here in Hawaii. And to show people that if we push hard enough as a community, we can take back our land and create more local roots. I plan to offer affordable space where local creators can share their craft and where local makers can share their creations.

A place where workshops of all types of art, culture, or craft can take place and an overall creativity hub for our community from keiki to kupuna.

We’ve been jumping through hurdles and hoops to make this building happen. This building stuck out to me because of its beautiful character and unique mana.

We are currently dealing with some unforeseen major renovations that are needed to the building. We found out that the entire central AC system is not running and needs to be replaced. We are trying to hui together as a community to tackle this project cost. We will be sharing a flash tattoo fundraiser our team will be putting on, and proceeds will be going to this project as well as taking donations.

If this speaks to you, I greatly appreciate your support in this project. I’ll be having a donation link where your money will directly be funding this creative hub for our community.

Please help us by sharing our story. We have so much in store for the future, and I truly can’t wait to show you all what we have in store for Ka'eo 5.0.

Mahalo,

Ka'eo Collective