(tattoo gun buzzing)
(ocean waves crashing)
- Oh my god.
I don't even know why I just agreed to go to Hawaii.
(tattoo gun buzzing)
What's up guys?
I'm Q, and I love getting tattoos.
Last time you saw me
I was getting a $2500 tattoo in Thailand,
but this time I wanted to up the ante.
So I'm going to talk to my friend Miryam Lumpini,
the witch doctor, about getting some color onto dark skin.
And getting color on dark skin is not easy.
And getting tattoos for dark skin is not easy at all.
I've been to several tattoo places
who've not wanted to do coverups,
just because of dark skin.
And to have someone like Miryam to work with
is going to be a blessing.
So now it's time to get on a Facetime call with Miryam,
and see about getting color tattoos onto dark skin.
(phone ringing)
Miryam, it is amazing to finally meet you.
- Hi, so happy to talk to you finally.
- Yeah, um, so as you know I was directed
to come to you because I've heard you the perfect person
to put color onto dark skin.
Like, why are you that go-to person?
- Yes, well, I am specialized in color tattoos.
My style's very vibrant, very bold.
I use a lot of contrast in my artwork,
so my creations work very well on dark skin.
- That's amazing, so like, tell me about
some of the people that you already tattooed.
Like, how did you get to this level?
- People like Skrillex, Jhene Aiko,
JaVale McGee, Swae Lee,
Chris Brown, I've tattooed a lot of people.
- So, like can you talk to me a little more about the, uh,
tattoo you did for Rob Stone?
- Yes, so he's from Lemon Grove, so we did lemon blossoms,
and I tried to put the contrast
so that that yellow would show up really bright.
- As of right now I don't have any inspiration
of anything colorful that I want to get on my body.
- So I'm going to Hawaii this weekend
and I was supposed to see only (mumbles)
so I have some open spots.
So, maybe you can come there,
we can find some inspiration together in Hawaii
and create some art.
- Oh, oh (bleep).
Like wait, when are y'all leaving?
- Let's do it!
We're leaving tonight, come with us.
- Yeah, I'm down.
- Yeah? - Let's do it.
- Let's do it!
Come with us, you know we're, we're all one love.
You know what I'm saying?
- All right, I'll see you there then.
- All right. See you there.
(record scratches)
- Oh, my god,
I don't know why I just agreed to go to Hawaii.
Yo, they boutta be pissed.
My manager's about to be pissed, for real.
So I rushed home, I packed my bags
and tried to get to the airport
for this last minute trip to Hawaii.
It was about a five hour trip from Los Angeles to Hawaii,
so I had a lot of time in the air to mentally prepare myself
for the adventure I had ahead.
And it was going to be a lot going on.
So, the minute I got to Hawaii,
Miryam, Jason, and the team from Tattoo Licious
picked me up from the airport so we could
head to our first stop to find inspiration for the tattoo.
The owner from Tattoo Licious decided to bring us out here
to this beautiful beach.
(laughs)
It's nobody out here, like look for as far as you can look.
Nobody.
Nobody, like, this is amazing.
So we gonna get some real inspiration here.
- Nothing is stopping me.
- Don't stop.
- [Miryam] Natural inspiration.
- This beach was the perfect spot
to come to for inspiration.
The clear light blue water,
ivory rich sand, and the different shades of green
we saw in the turtle were all colors
that would pop on dark skin.
Honestly, there couldn't have been
a more ideal starting spot for us.
(insiring electronic music)
(camera shutter snaps)
How can you channel all that energy into this tattoo?
- I think we should do a turtle
'cause the turtle really inspired me.
The fact that he's just chilling and not scared,
is giving us a unique experience.
And this turtle reminded me of how amazing
the world is when we live in peace and respect each other.
We don't have to fear each other.
- Those are manly tears, okay?
Those some manly (bleep) tears
right there that you looking at.
- So after a long but super inspirational day one,
we decided to crash for the night
because we knew that we had a lot ahead of us for day two.
We decided to check out a popular hiking trail in Oahu,
where we'd find more green inspiration
and definitely more wildlife.
The only issue we had was that we did zero research
before we came to this trail
and that was the first mistake of many.
Here ya want me to hold that?
- Yes.
- Oh.
(record scratches)
- [Voiceover] It was at this moment that he knew
he (bleep) up.
- We had these huge water bottles in our hands
and it was stopping us from going up
the first little hill.
So, Miryam's like, "Yo, just drop 'em."
Horrible mistake.
- Okay, so I'm looking for inspiration
For Quinton's tattoo today
and I figure we're going to see fruits and plants
that I've never seen before or drew or tattooed before
but look what we got here.
It looks like an apple
but it's not.
- [Quinton] No, what the hell is it?
- What can it be?
Natural inspiration.
- So, it's the three of us newbies
just walking on this amazing trail.
We got Miryam here pointing out
the stay on the stream sign that we took very literally,
uh, we literally stayed on the stream the entire time.
That was probably our second mistake.
The horrible idea.
Like it was horrible.
So (laughs) but it was so fun like,
we hopping over trees, climbing under trees,
it just felt like we were really out here.
I felt like I was in a National Geographic.
So, I was out here feeling real one at nature,
I'm like dipping my hand in the water and (bleep) like
I'm like "Jason, come here man I got this dope shot.
"I want, I want you to walk and I'm, uh,
"come from behind a tree and it's gonna be so cool,"
and it was super cool and everything was going super smooth
until it wasn't.
And Miryam fell so hard. - Whoa!
(heart beating)
- [Quinton] Miryam, run us, run us through what happened.
- Okay so, the sign said follow the stream
so we followed the stream,
I slipped on the stream
and broke my nail in the middle and it hurts
and now we're trying to figure out
if there will actually be a waterfall here,
or if we're just lost.
Helicopter! (laughs)
S.O.S.!
- Hello!
- [Miryam] Help!
- [Quinton] I see a way we can probably walk up.
- [Jason] Let's get to it then.
- [Miryam] Looks like somebody...
- Mom, if you're still seeing this,
I love you.
I can't go back there
if we don't make it out.
- [Quinton] Okay, Okay.
- [Jason] It's a trail.
- [Miryam] Yes!
- [Quinton] Okay.
- [Quinton] Oh, shit.
- Almost made it, but not quite.
- [Quinton] Ah, we finally got some reception.
We trying to look up...
- "For all you need to know
"before you go to the hike trail."
It says the hike takes around four to five hours
and is on some places difficult to go
but it's a wonderful journey with great views,
nice waterfalls and really good exercise.
"Take plenty of water with you."
(laughs)
"I wouldn't recommend the hike without it."
(Miryam laughs loudly)
- [Quinton] Who idea was it to leave the water, man?
- Mine.
- Congratulations, you played yourself.
- [Quinton] So at this point we're about
two to two and a half hours into this hike
and we've officially made it back to the original trail.
It was a great nail, sorry to see it go so soon.
- R.I.P. - So dramatic.
- The remainder of the hike was tough
but we stuck it through,
made some new friends along the way,
and finally got the reward we were looking for.
All right, so after all of that,
getting lost, we finally made it.
We did it.
I've never been so happy to see
a piece of water before in my life.
But we did it man, feels good.
Now we gotta hop in here.
I was just planning to look at it, but
it was a hot long walk; we gotta hop in.
So we did it.
We saw so many vibrant colors.
We knew what worked for the tattoo
and we were truly inspired
but unfortunately there was more bad news to come.
So, even though we made it to the waterfall,
we accomplished our goal, we fought through
all the adversity of getting lost,
Miryam getting hurt, unfortunately,
Miryam had to cancel all the rest of our appointments.
So the plan was to just leave Hawaii
and head back to L.A. and we'll finish the tattoo there.
All right, so we back in L.A., um,
I just got to Miryam's spot.
It's been a couple days since we've seen each other.
They actually stayed in Hawaii
for a little bit longer than I did.
So let's do it.
(knocks)
- Hi!
Welcome.
- [Quenton] Yo, I'm excited for this tattoo.
- [Miryam] Yes, so we just got new floors
and I'm about to start painting murals all over the walls.
- [Sean] You came at just the perfect time, man,
about to cook.
- [Quenton] So, we going to do this consultation?
- [Miryam] Yes, come with me outside here.
- [Quenton] All right, let's do it.
You got a beautiful space.
- [Miryam] Thank you.
It's my private oasis.
- So Miryam, what do we think we should do?
- I think we should do a turtle with a jungle flower.
- Sean, what you think?
- [Sean] I also think turtle.
- Turtle?
- Turtle!
(Quenton laughs)
(groans)
- It was amazing to finally see Miryam in action.
For the last few days, I only knew her as a friend
not as this talented tattoo artist.
But once we got into the tattoo
it was easy to see why she's so successful
and why all these celebrities trust her with their tattoos.
It was honestly astonishing to see the vibrant colors
going into my dark skin,
and it reminded me of the amazing ups and downs
we had in Hawaii.
It reminded me of the people who said it wasn't possible
and most importantly it reminded me that there's no limits
to the things you can do in life,
especially the things that you can imagine for yourself.
And all we needed was a vision to make it happen,
some color for inspiration,
and a mindset to look at dark skin as a canvas
rather than an obstacle.
We experienced so many cool things
to get inspiration for this tattoo,
and to see it finally all be executed
is such an exciting moment for me.
Yo, so I just finished surgery with the witch doctor
add this beautiful color onto my arm.
I mean I thought it was impossible.
(energetic dance music)
Dope.
So I'm really happy that the tattoo came out so well
and Miryam was able to put this color onto dark skin
but I'm also really excited about future episodes
and different ways that we're going to be able
to push boundaries with getting tattoos.
(laid-back dance music)