Samoan tattoos
Apia, SAMOA & Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — I lay on the mat of the open-air bungalow in Apia, Samoa, looking up at a gecko. As its tail quivered, I felt a sympathetic twitch in my leg. Su'a Sulu'ape Paulo III, the sixth-generation Samoan hand-tap tattoo master leaning over me, paused to see if...
Long Beach, CALIFORNIA — In a vacant fenced-in North Long Beach dirt lot just a few doors down from where Leah McKenzie grew up, a mural depicting the 21-year-old now emblazons a bordering wall once used by neighborhood kids to play handball.
The mural, part of an effort to beautify blighted areas...