Meet Melia Mariko | Handpoke Tattoo / Hajichi Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Melia Mariko and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Melia Mariko, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I have always wanted to sustain myself by the way of art. For most of my life, I wasn’t quite sure how or what this would look like. After years of working in the service industry and juggling motherhood, my health started to suffer. I felt I had no choice but to start letting go of the jobs, relationships, and habits I had been holding onto out of fear insecurity and scarcity. I was so tired, bitter and angry at myself for not living more fully. Simply, getting older can also light a fire under ones ass. I am a hard worker. I felt if could work this hard for other folks doing work I wasn’t necessarily passionate about, there was no reason I couldn’t support myself and my children doing what I love. I just didnt know how….
I love many mediums of art making. Ive drawn and painted all of my life. I doodled my way through grade school, hid in the bathroom to draw during P.E class, and dabbled in graffiti through my teens. My mom always had me sewing and crafting at home. I worked in tattoo shops in Okinawa after high school where i was exposed to the art of Japanese tattooing, tebori.
I studied darkroom art, photography, and ceramics in college, studied Tibetian Thangka painting in India, dove into screenprinting for a bit, but struggled to figure out how to use these skills to make a living for myself.

Then in 2019 I started handpoke tattooing friends for fun and quickly received a lot of positive feedback and support. Handpoke tattooing is done by manually poking a sterile tattoo needle into the skin to administer tattoo ink without the use of a machine. Ive always loved doing things as simply as possible, so i found this slow dot by dot process forgiving meditative and cathartic.

While still working for others, I started an instagram account for my handpoke @lefthandpoke and tattooed out of my home in the mountains while dreaming of having a shop one day.

Soon after leaving my job in the service industry due to the burn out, my good friend Lauren, @ritualblack_ also a tattoo artist approached me to look at rental space with her. We had been chatting the week before about how amazing it would be to share a shop together. Little did we know how cosmically perfect this space was going to be, already equipped with everything we would need to open a tattoo shop.
15 minutes after seeing the space, we signed a lease and quickly
got all the legalities in order. In fall of 2021, we opened Sunfolk Tattoo in Salida, Colorado..

I feel when I started to let go of some of my fear and insecurities, it made room for the right people and situations to flow in. I am still learning how to get out of my own way, listen, discern, act and balance. I believe in divine timing. I feel the experiences that led me here were preparing me for where I am now. I am humbled, grateful, and in disbelief everyday for all the seen/unseen support that has led me here and continues to show up daily.

I want to live a life that inspires and teaches my children that they too can create a life of living from the heart.
A quote that kind of sums up what i believe…

“Nature loves courage. You
make the commitment and nature will respond to
that commitment by removing impossible obstacles
Dream the impossible dream and the world will not
grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick.
This is what all these teachers and philosophers who
really counted, who really touched the alchemical
gold, this is what they understood. This is the
shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is
done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and
discovering it’s a feather bed.”
– Terence McKenna

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I grew up in Okinawa, Japan and of Okinawan Heritage. Im honored to have recently been included in @hajichiaa a collective of tattoo artists dedicated to the revival of Okinawan/Ryukyu Hajichi Tattoos. Hajichi tattoos were mainly worn by women and tattooed by women on the back of the hands as a right of passage, symbols of protection, marriage, status, and beauty. These ancestral tattoos were banned by the Japanese Meiji government in 1899 as a push to assimilate the Okinawan people. Now Hajichi is making a comeback as we research and re-educate ourselves on this practice.
While there is very little information on hajichi, as Okinawa was a oral culture and as most of our ancestors that had them have passed, I am grateful to all those in the community doing what they can to keep our culture alive. I believe that the act of reviving this culture, understanding the history, and significance of sacred markings brings a sense of reverence and gratitude to the Okinawan community and a connection that transcends beyond the physical. I am honored and humbled to be a part of this reclamation.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I live in a small mountain town at the base of 14rs in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. So a hike and a skinny dip in one of our many creeks is a must. A visit to the Tashi Gomang Stupa. This 42 ft tall buddhist structure, believed to radiate the essence of enlightenment with a view overlooking the San Luis Valley is very special to me.
We could grab a fine cup of coffee or traditional Japanese matcha from the Cloud Station Cafe. Get some tacos or a burger from OFIA, the only other food establishment in town, and spend the rest of the day at the Sand dunes pool. Definitely end the evening with stargazing as we are in official dark sky country.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My shop-wife co-owner of @sunfolktattoo all round badass tattoo artist, friend, and mother Lauren Wood @ritualblack_ It was Lauren that suggested i tattoo and the first let me tattoo her and has been nothing but an encouragement on my journey since Ive known her. She was practically my midwife at my child’s birth, a dream coworker when we worked for the man, my therapist during my lowest times, and now my business partner.
Watching her give up her side-job and pursue her own tattoo career so fearlessly is how I was able to let go of a lot of my own insecurities and fears.
infinite gratitude for her role in my life for i would not have made it here without her. . Love you Laurma 💗

Instagram: @lefthandpoke