Even by Hawaii island standards, Roland Pacheco’s tattoo shop is pretty remote.

Working in Hawi on the island’s northern tip, his nearest business rivals are 52 miles away in Hilo and 75 miles away in Kona. Pacheco doesn’t keep late hours at his Xisle Custom Tattoo shop because in the "sleepy little town" there’s no point in that. He employs only one other artist, an apprentice.

"Living in Hawi and working there, I am kind of in a bubble," he said. "I am not in contact with a lot of other artists. I am not in the crowd because there is no one around here."

But last fall in New York City, home to about 8 million people, Pacheco got a heavy dose of tattoo reality as a competitor on the Spike TV series "Ink Master." He is one of 17 tattoo artists whose quest for the $100,000 prize starts with the fourth season’s premiere at 8 p.m Tuesday.

The experience was like being in a meat grinder, said Pacheco, a 43-year-old self-taught tattoo artist who specializes in traditional and contemporary Polynesian designs.

"I wanted to see if I could handle the pressure of what they were going to throw at me," Pacheco said by phone from Hawi. "I really needed to put myself out there with other artists."

The tattoo challenges given to the contestants tested their technical skills and creativity. They had to create original tattoos on command. They had to design tattoos in geometrical, aquatic and other styles. They had to demonstrate their skills at photorealism, tribal and traditional tattoos.

One challenge found them working in teams to create mirror images on identical twins.

There were times when the challenges became a cutthroat environment, but Pacheco said he was able to stay calm throughout — and that bothered his competitors.

"They didn’t know what to make of me," he said. "I was very positive, and I think it really unnerved people that I wasn’t all full of drama and yelling and screaming. I made some close friends and there were some who couldn’t get their head around how calm and mellow I was."

Pacheco, who was born and raised on Hawaii island, started drawing and writing when he was about 10 years old. His father was a rancher, but the young Pacheco wanted none of that life. Instead, he created his own comic books and learned to play the electric guitar.

"Art and writing and having a creative outlet was something I always had to do," he said. "It was always something that has come out of me, like breathing."

Pacheco has been a tattoo artist for only eight years. He got into the profession after a string of pursuits that included graphic design, computer animation and a clothing company inspired by free diving (one of his passions). At one point he even played guitar in a grunge band that performed with Sublime and Queens of the Stone Age.

Making tattoos was the last piece of his creative puzzle. Fortunately, his skills developed quickly, he said.

"I am completely self-taught," he said. "I started practicing on practice skin that you can buy on eBay. They make fake limbs, too. I was practicing on bananas and papayas."

Whatever the outcome of the new season of "Ink Master" — and, no, Pacheco isn’t hinting at anything — the Hawi artist figures he’s already come out ahead.

"It was something that was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I couldn’t pass up," he said. "It was awesome being around artists and talking about tattoos, eating, living, breathing it, everyone talking tattoos. It doesn’t happen to me every day."

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ON THE NET
www.spike.com/shows/ink-master