Today we’d like to introduce you to King ‘Afa.
King, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started practicing tattoo in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia in 2001 after I dropped out of my 2nd year Automotive Engineering Program. I wanted to be part of the Formula 1 racing team but I never finished my Engineering Program. My father was working in Fiji as a diplomat for 11 years and paid for my school and student Visa. I had to figure out the rest of my career.
I built a jailhouse tattoo machine made out of a radio motor, toothbrush, ballpoint pen, sewing needles, shirt buttons and mobile phone charger block as power supply. I had never built a tattoo machine but I had tattoos done in a village in Tonga in 1998-1999 by a friend during my street life. I remembered how the machine was built in a backyard shack. I was around the group of people who break the rules and laws in our Tongan society.
I have a good photographic memory in addition to my understanding of physics and my engineering knowledge of how electromagnetic field and fundamental of electricity works so it made it easier for me to built my own tattoo machine. I was in Malaysia with my young brother Carl Kalia Cocker of Kalia Tattoo in Auckland New Zealand who studied electronics and Electrical Engineering.
When I was in school a lot of the Buddhist Chinese Malaysians were interested in tattoo but they were no tattoo shops in our town. Malaysia is a multi-religious country whose official religion is Islam. There was only 1 tattoo shop in Kuala Lumpur and my brother ended up working there in 2001-2002.
We were struggling financially while in school, we only had enough cash for a pack of cookies for lunch. When we walked back to the dorm from school, I would take the offering fruits from the Buddhist Temple so we can eat. We would walk around the town for miles uphills and downhills in a very hot humid climate, looking for food after school and we had to steal cassava and taro from Malaysian people’s front yards at sunset.
We were not allowed to cook inside our room but I insisted and broke the dorm rules and we were kicked out of the dorm for cooking inside our room using rice cooker to fry chicken. We were homeless and ended up sleeping at the park for four nights weekends, eating a loaf of bread and cream with soda. This is where I saw the idea of starting tattoo. We would sleep very late and wake up very early so people don’t see us sleeping at the park. Sept 9/11 the US Embassy required all US Citizens and NZ Citizens to check in and we would be separated so we decided to just stay with the local Malaysians.
Finally, an old lady accepted us to stay in an empty 5-bedroom house for school students. I decided not to go to school and built a tattoo machine. When my brother came back from school I told we’re going to start tattoo, he asked me if I know how to tattoo, you never build a tattoo machine, and who’s going to get tattoo. I told him, Don’t worry I’ve engineered a tattoo machine and we can practice on each other, trust me this idea will work. The rich Chinese boys always talk about tattoos, there’s no tattoo artists in town and they have money so we tattoo their art. After my first tattoo from my brother I started telling students, we are tattoo artists and we had full operation inside the student housing.
My student visa expired and I had to leave Malaysia and left my brother in Malaysia to stay by himself and he continued tattooing. Our father Edgar Cocker was working in the Marianas Guam Saipan and Rota so I moved to Northern Marianas for 5 months and worked at the Marianas Port loading shipping containers and working on heavy machinery equipment maintenance. I had enough money saved up to pay half of my ticket to the US and my father paid the other half.
I arrived in the United States by myself and the first time I met my mother in 20 years, I started working concrete labor and tree trimming with Tongan Lavaka families at a small town of Pittsburg in the Bay Area Northern California. I hopped on a van to Utah and worked at warehouse jobs and moving storage, commercial buildings and residential homes in Salt Lake City with my uncle Malakai Lavulo.
After warehouse jobs, I built a tattoo machine and tattooed a couple of friends in Utah. My brother Carl’s tattoo was going well in Malaysia and he flew over to join me in Utah.
I worked at FedEx in Utah loading and unloading trucks on the cold winter of 2002, saved enough cash and booked the Greyhound Bus from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles on an 18hrs bus ride.
I wanted to come to Los Angeles with a dream of working in the Art and Entertainment Industry. I settled in Hawthorne/Inglewood and stayed in a backyard garage with a fellow Tongan Alani Foketi family.
I worked at a Logistic Company loading and unloading shipping containers and warehouse job. In the winter I would wash new vehicles at a car dealership early in the morning with cold water.
My brother told me to go back and start tattoo again, so I started tattooing Tongan Samoan Filipino Fijians Mexican friends and people in many garages from Hawthorne/Inglewood Gardena Compton Long Beach Santa Ana Anaheim and all over South California to Bay Area California. People would called me The Tattoo Artist.
There was no professional Tongan tattoo artist in America at this time 2002-2006 and I tattooed many people in street gangs from Crips Bloods and Mexican gang members.
In 2006 I designed the first Polynesian Tattoo art from Tuita Tuiasoa garage in Inglewood LA for an urban clothing brand Live Mechanics and sold nationwide throughout malls in the US.
I would ask friends to take me to Hollywood and Venice Beach and no tattoo shops would hire me. Most people in my LA neighborhoods did not believe me when I told them I will take Tongan Tattoo and Polynesian tattoos to Hollywood. It was not easy. I had tattooed in many garages with street gang members, drug dealers, ex-convicts and I had to find a way out.
When a couple of white Americans came to these LA gang-infested neighborhoods looking for me to get tattoo, that’s when I knew I am getting close to working in the Hollywood area. When I was not tattooing, I worked on classic American muscle cars and sewing tote bags and designed Tongan pattern quilts. I designed Tonga Miss Heilala Pageant dress in 2005 that won best cultural costume.
In 2005 my brother Carl was working at the first Polynesian Tattoo shop in New Zealand Moko Ink started by Maori Master tattoo artist Inia Taylor III who was designed and directed the Maori tattoos on the classic New Zealand film Once Were Warriors. Carl called me from NZ to come and trained with him and Inia to learn Maori tattoo, Samoan tattoo and Cook Island tattoos.
Eventually, after four years living in eight different garages, I was hired by a Texan white woman name Khani and her African American husband Zulu to work at the Best Tattoo Shop in Los Angeles from 2006 – 2011. When I came into Zulu Tattoo, Khani told me your rate will be USD$200/hr in 2006. I was the first Tongan professional tattoo artist in the US and the first Polynesian tattoo artist from California to be hired to tattoo professionally in a tattoo shop.
Polynesians in our LA neighborhoods couldn’t believe why my rate was expensive.
The rest of the Polynesian Tattoo artists in America had to set their price after my rate because now they have a price point in value of tattoo. When we were in the garages, we did not know how to price our tattoo art; we were all trying to figure it out from the garages. I knew I had to create value for this new Tongan tattoo and the Polynesian tattoo culture.
From 2000 – 2003 the Polynesian Tattoo Culture was dominated by Samoan Tattoo, Maori Tattoo, Tahiti Tattoo and Marquesas Tattoo, and so me and Carl had to finesse our craft for Tongan Tattoo to be acknowledged in the Polynesian Tattoo Culture and in the tattoo industry. In 2006 Carl won the 1st Price at the Tahiti Tattoo Convention as the youngest artist at 25 years old and the first Tongan Tattoo artist attending.
In the winter 2010 – 2011, I directed filmed and produced 4 music videos for a group of young ambitious Tongan HipHop artists from Inglewood. It was the first time a music video of Tongan HipHop from Los Angeles of Tongans. It was the first time you could see the lifestyle of Tongans in the streets of LA. These hiphop videos started a lot of tension and conflicts erupted from YouTube to the streets.
On Easter 2011 my life almost ended when I suffered 6 gunshots from 3 gunmen who walked up to my house shot 22 rounds towards me on their 2nd attempted murder while my baby son was sleeping in the house with his mother. When I was in Harbor UCLA these guys from the neighborhoods waited in the parking lot and tried to come upstairs to my ward to finish the job. Not everyone in my Polynesian community was happy for my growth since my arrival in the US. I spent four days in ICU 22hrs multiple surgeries hospitalized for 1 month, seven months of physical therapy trying to walk again. My vision was blurry plus paranoia weak drugged and helpless. I still have two bullets inside my body today and my bypass surgery has a 30% survival rate.
I could not tattoo for a year, I had to learn to draw again as my eye brain and hand coordination wasn’t working properly from the trauma. And I learned to walk like baby. I had to foreclose my home, moved away to the desert valley to heal and lived with my uncle Hame Fifita. I lost many friends and families. I had a bad reputation in the tattoo industry and no tattoo shop wanted to hire me in South California when I started walking in 2012. People were in fear since I was shot in a street gang violence. Many did not know I was at my house with my family and people were out to kill me over envy.
Many of my Island people were happy I was down and rumors spread through Facebook like wildfire that I was done and dead. Many of my clients that were booked four months in advance had to leave and tattoo elsewhere. Some of them later came back to fix their Polynesian Tattoos and continued adding more artwork.
I told my son’s hard-work loving mother Lisa to take me to bookstores and libraries. I read many books, wrote a lot of papers designed more artwork while I was on wheelchair. I kept my mind occupied with documentaries, histories philosophy science economics and waited patiently until I can start walking and gain the energy to work again. I was still fighting Post Traumatic PTSD and I knew it starts in the mind so I must feed my mind with positive resourceful energy to be very strong mentally. I had to stay calm through high-tension stress.
After two years I came back to LA and started rebuilding all over again and I had to work faster to be back on my feet. I had medical debts piled up at USD$400,000 plus many other debts and my credit score crashed to lower 300.
I stopped taking the pain medication Vicodin and Norco that my doctors prescribed me so I can feel the pain. I needed more reason to fight, the more struggle I faced the more I fight to stay alive.
As long as I feel the pain, I’m alive and I’m most creative in pain.
I did not need an alarm to wake me up in the morning; I had all the reasons to get up.
I was able to re-invent myself and I came through the storm collecting more artifacts of Oceania to build a Museum for Pacific Islanders and had been working to establish a library for research studies of history and art.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was tough starting up this tattoo dream. Since I had no college degree to take back home to Tonga, I had to develop a new career in tattoo at times when tattoo was frowned upon as associated with the criminal world. I could not go back to Tonga and face my family with nothing to offer.
There was limited resources to learn from, there was no YouTube no social media and tattoo artists at Tattoo Conventions would not share their tattoo skills, tuning up tattoo machines. I learned faster from trial and error practicing many tattoos on different body parts and different skin color ethnicities.
I had to hand-build tattoo machines, mix tattoo ink from Indian ink and calligraphy ink and handcrafted tattoo needles learned cold sterilization and studied different types of skin. Today you can just order tattoo supplies online.
Clients would be cold in the garages, tattoo machines would break down and stopped working, power supply would burn out, skins would not take the tattoo ink, people would not pay me. I tattooed at many Motels and hotels along Inglewood Hawthorne and LAX area and some Motels managers would kicked us out when they found out I’m tattooing in the room. Sometimes I had to tattoo at Motels in a different neighborhood that are territorial rivals with my people. I had to tattoo against the wall cover the door with the bed mattress.
There was a territorial street war amongst Polynesian Communities of Tongans and Samoans who grew up in gang-infested neighborhoods in South Bay LA, Orange County areas and Riverside areas, and also up North California Bay Areas and Utah Salt Lake City and West Valley areas.
I was FOB “Fresh of The Boat” I was neutral and I was able to tattoo at different cities where street life people cannot cross each other’s neighborhoods due to gang violence and colors of their flag.
I had to start tattoo with street life people from the criminal world as they are the 1st available in the neighborhoods and then find my way out to tattoo professional people on the other spectrum of society.
It was easy for me because I did not discriminate Europeans Chinese Japanese Jews Black Americans Indians etc I tattooed everyone who loves our Pacific Island and Polynesian Art and Culture.
I had seen the street violence and I needed to make a change in my Pacific Island community, so I decided to mix different Polynesian Tattoo styles. And the most needed change was to mix a fusion of Samoan and Tongan art in tattoo, so my people can appreciate a new art that would bring people closer and understand each other’s differences in our community.
But we had different principles and those who did not want change came after me. Today Tongans and Samoans in these LA and Bay Area gang-infested neighborhoods work together now and embrace each other’s tattoo art culture and history.
I’ve faced all the hatred from thousands of angry Polynesians throughout my 20 years career and experienced all the cyberbullying and death threats of all ages of social media from YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Instagram Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok now.
I had to deal with angry Polynesian’s fathers, mothers, uncles aunts older cousins older brothers and sisters in the last 10-15 years for tattooing Non-Polynesians with Polynesian Tattoo.
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Now I have a new challenge, the angry young ambitious prideful lost Polynesians with generations of unhealed wounds from generations of colonialism scars.
I understand why they’re angry and it’s okay it is human nature to blame someone for their pain. There are people who cheer from outside the arena in thirst for blood. I would rather see people have a fighting spirit and pumped their adrenalin to live another day than living with a depression mind of hopeless. Many angry Polynesians online want to argue with me over who is right for tattooing Non-Polynesians.
When we have a discussion, we are trying to figure out what is right.
Many Polynesians Samoans Tongans Maoris suffer from depression, there’s a lot of pressure from home and our society to obey our ancient 2000 years old cultural duties and to practice our new strict 200 years old Christian rules together with our social and customary traditions during this time of fast data information technology.
Not everyone is well-trained and prepared to handle many responsibilities within our communities. It takes decades for a chance to be finally understood by the masses because we change what is normal to many
Some people just dont want to sail the canoe across rough seas. People often fear unknown challenges and the unexpected.
Some people would not get on board to see the new island discoveries.
It is easier to tattoo Polynesian Tattoo on Polynesians. It is harder to tattoo foreigners who never been to the Pacific Islands. However many foreigners have learned of the Pacific Islands history and culture from collections of Pacific Island artifacts and histories displayed and preserved at numerous museums across the globe.
I wanted to tattoo anyone of any skin color, race gender and religion with Polynesian Art and share philosophies I learned from growing up in Tonga with my grandparents. I did not want to see segregation and divide because of skin colors or because of a drop of blood.
It is more challenging to tattoo white Americans and other Non-Polynesian Americans. They ask so many questions they are more curious about this Polynesian tattoo art and history and I have to find more answers every day. It is my duty to do more research to find a new answer.
The most fulfilling part of the tattoo process to me is storytelling and to see how people smile when they wear our historical art and appreciate our ancient culture and willing to learn our ancient history and civilization.
I learnt a lot from hundreds of different people. I’ve spent tens of thousands of hours of close conversations in private tattoo sessions.
I encourage training the psychological mind to be mentally strong and evolve and adapt to changes when facing challenges.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My speciality is practicing traditional patterns of Polynesian Tattoo Art for 20 years now and share History and Culture with the rest of the world. I have practiced Filipino tattoo, Micronesian tattoo, Puerto Rico Taino Tattoo, African Tribal Art, Neo-Tribal tattoos, Aztec/Mayans Incas tribal art and Native American art in tattoos for 10 years now.
I am proud to be able to share the native art of these Indigenous people with the rest of the world to understand each other and people of different ethnicity and nationality can appreciate other cultures. This sharing of new cultures with each other helps us humans live in peace. Many people from another culture can grow another culture at times of ignorance which eases conflicts and often avoid division amongst human race.
I have a gift of being able to transform people’s storytelling into abstract art in tattoos. I can explain abstract art into the minds who cannot understand the artistic expression of our Pacific Island ancestors. Our fallen heroes of ancestors invented these ancient written communication systems of storytelling to be shared in order to live forever. If I don’t share a skill or knowledge, it will die with me.
I designed the Polynesian sleeve tattoo on American TV Series Sons of Anarchy Executive Producer Kurt Sutter in 2007. I had a 4-page article on the first edition Black Tattoo Urban Magazine on Polynesian Tattoo.
I designed the tribal tattoo for Cars.com 2008 Super Bowl TV Commercial Ring of Fire This is the first time a tribal tattoo is on an US TV commercial.
In 2008, I traveled to Tonga to work on a Tongan tattoo research project led by film director Jacob Holcomb funded by the University of Hawaii.
In 2010 I worked on collaborative a Polynesian Tattoo book authored by anthropologist Tricia Allen available at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu Hawaii.
In the winter 2010 – 2011, I directed filmed and produced 4 music videos for a group of young ambitious Tongan HipHop artists from Inglewood. It was the first time a music video of Tongan HipHop from Los Angeles of Tongans. It was the first time you could see the lifestyle of Tongans in the streets of LA. These hiphop videos started a lot tension and conflicts erupted from YouTube to the streets.
From 2012 – 2016, I did not take vacation I had to catch up and I ended up burning out, I crashed and hospitalized 3 times for exhaustion. I realized I had to pace myself.
In 2016, I worked on a Virtual Reality project with University of Hawaii Computer Science Professor Jason Leigh and his students.
During the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic I worked on a collaborative project on Artificial Intelligence, developed by Hawaiian Computer Science Graduate Student Kari Kehau Noe to teach the computer how to speak Tongan, Samoan and Hawaiian with University of Hawaii Computer Scientist, Formerly Illinois University Computer Scientist – Professor Jason Leigh.
My tattoo art was used by Microsoft in 2016 for the demo of the Augmented Reality HoloLens.
I had the opportunity to tattoo many successful professional people with Polynesian tattoo from film Directors, Producers, Corporate CEOs, Lawyers, Medical Doctors Professors Teachers, Animators Navy Seal, US Military personnel, Law Enforcement Officers, Correctional Officers and many people from different walks of life and professions
To name a few notable clients I have tattooed:
Mr. Lee Unkrich – 2 Oscars Award winner Disney’s Pixar Animation Film Director of Coco and Toy Story 3
Mr. Jean Michel Cazabat – Fashion Shoe Designer
Mr. Wayne Best – New Era Cap Former Global Director and Consumer Marketing and Formerly ‘47 Brand VP Global Marketing
Mr. Bernard Luthi – CEO of Monoprice Formerly COO, CMO of Rakuten.com
Mr. Luis Labrador – Walt Disney Animation Studios Modeling Supervidor/Artist
Multi Emmy Award Winning Producer – Mr. Slade Abisor, formerly Walt Disney Producer, NBC Universal former Producer, The Ellen DeGeneres Show former Producer, formerly Oprah Winfrey Network Supervising Producer, TMZ former Co-Executive Producer, Universal Music Group former Executive Producer
Earth Wind and Fire legendary founder Maurice White’s son Kahbran White
Late Australian Millionaire Philip Vasyli’s son Mr. Aron Vasyli
Nigerian American Comedian/Actor – Godfrey
Will Smith Make-Up Artist – Judy Murdock
Jordis Unga – First Pacific Islander/Polynesian music artist on INXS Rock Star and America’s TV Series The Voice
YouTube show Just Kidding Star, actress, powerlifter and model – Geovanna “Geo” Antoinette
Celebrity Photographer of BroadImage Entertainment – Fernando Allende
Celebrity Make Up Artist – Marissa Vossen
Entertainment and Resort Project Architect and Designer – Greg Lyon
Fitness Diva/ Cover Model – Bella Falconi’s husband Ricardo Maguila
Celebrity Hair Stylist – Anthony Morrison
Kaiser Permanente Medical – Doctor Kevin Plumley
Mr. Mike Pascua – Commercial Counsel at TikTok, formerly Axiom Attorney/Commercial Counsel at Google, formerly Legal Counsel THX Ltd, Former Vice President, Legal and Business Affairs at IMAX, formerly Worldwide Business Affairs, Home Entertainment at Paramount Pictures, former Senior Counsel, Motion Pictures Domestic Marketing at Walt Disney Company, former Director, Business and Legal Affairs at NBC Universal Inc, former Director Licensing at EMI Music,
People has been traveling from all over the United States, Russia, London United Kingdom, Austria, Norway, Germany, France, Switzerland, Australia, Gabon, Ethiopia, Mexico, Brazil, Guam, Saipan, Philippines, Senegal, Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Colombia, Argentina, South Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan to collect Polynesian Tattoo and Pacific Islands Tattoos from me.
Some called me the Tattoo Ambassador for Tonga and the Pacific Islands.
By sharing Polynesian Tattoo and Pacific Island Tattoo Art Culture and History with the world, Non-Polynesians can appreciate our intellectual minds and soul to understand our heritage and society. Non-Polynesians and Non-Pacific Islanders learn from our 3000 years old civilization and develop a new language a new Industry, a new culture and new lifestyle such as surfing from the Hawaiians, bungee jumping from Vanuatu, tattoo word from Tahiti language, tabu aka taboo word from Tonga language, Bikini from Micronesians, fire dancing from Samoa, Haka from the Maoris that influenced world Rugby and American football, fire walking from Fiji, tribal art of Papua New Guinea that fascinated the Rockefeller, Marquesas tiki carvings that influenced Picasso paintings, serenading flute music from Solomon Islands, pipe instruments and desert survival skills of the Australia Aborigines.
When I share Polynesian Tattoo Melanesian tattoo and Micronesian tattoo with Non-Pacific Islanders I am honoring the fallen warriors who lost their lives in ancient battles, I keep their ancestral art and history alive by sharing with foreigners. I am not dishonoring those fallen warriors. Many fallen warriors who died in vain were betrayed and sold out by their leaders.
I work on appointments only and I do not take walk-ins
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Yes, I have learned to be more creative and remain calm at times of crisis in order to survive. I have learned that some people can come together to help each other at times of crisis and others can cause more destruction towards each other.
I have learned that we need to be more aware of viruses and to open our mind to science, and to be grateful to all nurses and doctors and medical personnel who dedicated their life to saving people’s life.
I have come across many conspiracy theorists and political extremist who instill fear in people to paralyze the minds of vulnerable people.
We all lost many friends and families and we tend to care for strangers next door. Those of us who stayed alive became more resilient when we’re on survival mode.
Children were the best survivors; they gave us joy hope and courage to not give up. Children adapt very well to a sudden change in lifestyle and does not show fear through this crisis. We all made sure to keep them safe and alive so they can continue our human race.
Animals and birds started coming back to the city and brought peace of mind for those in fear and more humans who felt lonely appreciate their presence in our world.
This Covid-19 crisis was a reset of time to reorganize our life priority and make changes for a better world.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kingafa.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/king_afa
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/Iamking_afa
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/KingafaCocker/videos
- Other: http://tiktok.com/kingafatattoo
Image Credits
Image credit for picture of me and my brother Carl – Janet Hopoi Cocker
