In 1995, when S&M Bikes owner Chris Moeller bought a condo, and I was renting a room there, Mike rented a room for a while, and we sessioned on our bikes regularly. He was a pretty mellow guy then. That time period, the early 90's, was when some BMX guys started getting tattoos, usually really bad ones. It's hard to imagine now, but when we were kids, tattoos were almost always pretty simple line drawings in dark green ink, and most often found as a single tat on the forearm or shoulder of a military veteran, or on bikers. The old school, hardcore Harley bikers, before the Yuppies started buying Harley's. Most tattoos came with stories of drunken nights in Singapore or something while on leave in the military. Upstanding citizens didn't get tattoos in the 1970's and 80's.
Then something started to change in the 80's. Musicians, like Brian Setzer, and a few others showed up in music videos with visible tattoos. Skateboarders Art and Steve Godoy and Duane Peters started showing up in magazines with tats. In the early 1990's, members of the infamous P.O.W. House of pro BMXers started getting really bad tattoos from some guy with a handmade tattoo gun made from a HO gauge model trail engine. One guy got "P.O.W." (Pros of Westminster), but it looked more like "D.O.W." We joked that it was for the Dow Jones stock average. Soon after, Dave Clymer got a target tattooed on his shin, so every time he slipped his bike pedal and gouged his shin, he could score the scars. It seemed funny at the time.
But that broke the ice in the BMX world. Throughout the mid 90's, more and more people in the action sports world started getting tattoos. Tats also became more prominent in the music world, and by the late 90's even super models were starting to get little ankle tattoos. The art form exploded, as did the creativity and ability of tattoo artists. I could see the trend taking off, and decided not to get any. I wrote a piece in a zine once that while tattoos were starting to become flat out amazing in quality, I never saw a piece of art I wanted to carry around for life. And if I did, I'd probably just make a copy and put it in my wallet. Obviously, I was one of the few standouts as tattoos and piercings lurched from the counter culture into the mainstream. I did finally give myself a brand at work on night, but that's another story.
Big Island Mike drifted away from the HB scene, and word got around that he became a tattoo artist. I heard he worked at the Shamrock Social Club in Hollywood at one point. Years later, I was driving a taxi in Orange County, and on the radio morning show, then hosted by Dicky Barrett of The Mighty, Mighty Bosstones. He had a Tat-Tuesday segment every week. He announced that BMXer Rick Thorne was in his studio getting a tattoo from Big Island Mike. Since I knew the guys, I called in to the show, and Dicky answered during a commercial break. I said, "Tell Big Island you have The White Bear on the phone," so he did. Mike took the phone and we talked for a minute or two. Dicky came back on the radio, "Big Island? The White Bear? What... am I on a reservation?"
Several years later, I ran into Mike at a BMX contest and we were able to catch up on what we'd both been doing. But he looked a lot different. Like most of us he gained a few pounds, but he also had years worth of tattoos visible. When I first saw him at a distance, I thought some Mexican gangster was at the contest. Then I walked up and realized it was Mike.
Here's Big Island Mike Castillo in this clip at the Hale Nui tattoo shop he works at in Honolulu, Hawaii. I haven't talked to Mike in years, but last I did he was still the chill guy I was roommates with in '95. Mike's just one of the cool and highly creative people I met through my years in the BMX world.
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