Custom Ink

Like so many kids who grew up in the 80s, tattoos always fascinated Emmanuel Hele.

Growing up in California’s Central Valley, tattoo was the purview of outsiders – bikers, gangsters, outlaws, freaks, seafarers, and rockers. Aside from the mystique of craft – a craft which was, at the time, virtually impenetrable - that outsider legacy spoke to him.

Throughout the 90s, he became increasingly fascinated by outsider subcultures and body modification and he soaked up everything he could about the insular world of tattooing. He read tattoo magazines, hung out at the piercing shop, and talked to gangbangers and ex-cons who tattooed and were tattooed. At the time, the tattoo trade was undergoing a revolution. Hip hop culture and new color palettes were making their way into the craft. A once slow-moving evolution was growing by leaps and bounds as new blood flooded in, bringing with it the courage to push the craft forward with new ideas, new influences, and new possibilities in perspective, realism, and style. The old guard, who always were keen to tell you “that’s not possible”, were being challenged by younger and more talented kids from art and graffiti backgrounds who dared to push the craft in new directions.

As a new global culture emerged in the 00s, tattoo culture began to rediscover its spiritual legacies, and form-fitting blackwork and large-scale ornament began returning to the culture in spectacular ways. These new forms fused with the quality, aesthetics, and trailblazing of the 90s, and the digital integration of new styles and techniques helped to create the tattoo renaissance that we know today. In 2009, inspired by the explosion in innovation, Emmanuel traded in his henna business for a tattoo apprenticeship. He began tattooing professionally in 2010 and spent his first decade working in custom shops in Portland’s inner east side.

In 2022, he founded Tumbleweed Tattoo - a private, off-street studio dedicated to providing a quality collaborative tattoo experience. Here, Emmanuel specializes in large scale black and grey ornament. He makes a point to meet new clients where they are in their tattoo journey, and enjoys a broad range of projects from small to large, including covers and reworks.

Emmanuel is a devotee and lifelong student of tattoocraft. From his youth drawing flash for tattoo magazines, through his early days learning to build needles and tune coil machines and tattoo whatever project walked through the door, through his first forays into dotwork and freehand, into the digital tattoo matrix of the 2020s, Emmanuel is committed to evolving with the craft and creating a safe, healthy, informed, and intentional space for personal transformation.

Books are currently open. If you would like to work together or find out more, please reach out!

Also available for commissions in other mediums.