Celebrated Kiwi musician Tiki Taane loves the fact tattoos are much more accepted these days.

'When I was 14 it was just gang members getting tattooed so it's cool to see so many All Blacks, lawyers, doctors, police officers, all sorts of people with tattoos; it's really awesome.”

The New Zealand International Tattoo and Art Expo returns to Tauranga in February and alongside live tattooing by top local, national and international tattoo there'll also be a ton of entertainment like street art competitions, burlesque, a beatbox battle and a live performances from Tiki.

With his body literally covered from head-to-toe in tattoos that have been inked by 47 artists from across the globe, Tiki performing at the tattoo expo is a bit like peas and carrots.

'I went to the last expo and it was really cool, it's great to see tattoo culture make it into Tauranga. 'And there's so many amazing tattoo artists in Tauranga so it's a really good chance for people to check out what's going on locally.”

Tiki's first tattoo was of Uenuku, the god of rainbows who is particularly special to his iwi Ngati Maniapoto, which he got inked at the age of 14. He says when he was younger getting tattooed was all about being rebellious.

He grew up in Christchurch and was in the minority – a Maori boy growing up in a very English city, he recalls.

'My iwi Ngati Maniapoto is in the King Country, so I didn't grow up on the marae or around any of my cousins. For me, I was trying to grasp hold of some identity of who I was.

'So the way I did that was by going to the library, looking up books on Ngati Maniapoto and Tainui waka and find designs which I took to a Pakeha tattooist, because there were no Maori tattooists, and said: ‘I want this'.”

That tattoo at 14 paved the way for what has become a lifelong obsession for Tiki and something he's still chipping away at – he went under the needle again getting two tiki tattooed on his armpits earlier in December.

All of his tattoos have a story and a meaning, he says. Some of them quirky, some of them funny, some of them very deep and some have been massive journeys.

'Getting my puhoro [thigh moko) was a massive experience, especially getting it done traditionally with the uhi [chisel]. That was a really spiritual, intense, painful but rewarding journey as well. It made me learn a lot about myself, perseverance, the power of the mind overcoming pain.

'There's a point where you sort of submit to the pain, and when you submit and realise there's nothing you can do, relax and tune in, you reach this euphoric point where the pain almost disappears. That's the part I love and I think I'm addicted to.”

When Tiki takes to the stage on the Sunday of this year's expo he'll be sharing it with one talented young performer who'll perform his hit tune ‘Always on My Mind' alongside him.

To get in the running, all young performers aged 12-18 need to do is record themselves singing some or all of the song and post it to his Facebook page.

'All I'm asking for is maybe a verse, a couple of lines of vocals, maybe 30 seconds to a minute of singing and just post it on my page, then I'll go through all the posts and choose someone by early February.”

The NZ International Tattoo and Art Expo is on at Tauranga's Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre on February 18-19, 2017, from 11am-9pm. For more information, visit: tattooexpo.co.nz

Tatu Baby. Supplied Photo.