K U N T A
Every morning when I wake up. Next steps and new ideas on my mind, ready to get it. Setting goals, making money and doing what I love. I am trying to find balance between spending time with the fam (love you) and to grow my franchise ‘Kunta Inc.’ Giving as much as i can to the worlds i love most.
As a child and teenager i struggled with life, a lot. Authorities, expectations and setting goals were the enemy. School and 9 to 5 jobs were like poison to me, which made me take short cuts along with smoking weed everyday. I didn’t give a fuck and blamed the world for it.
I’ve come a long way since then and I’m still learning about life every day. The last 2 years have been a rollercoaster and i'm not looking for a calm sea right now. I need this adrenaline and pressure to keep pushing myself.
Now I’m still screaming ‘Fuck them’. But added ‘Do you’. I work my ass off every day to achieve my dream and live the life I want to live. We are all in control of what’s coming next so keep dreaming big, believing and working hard. Keep being grateful and humble. Enjoy your journey and most of all.. Fuck them. Do you.
Love, Kunta
S O J A
Tattooing is something that has been in my mind for a long time. When I was about 15yrs old I got a crappy tattoo gun from a Chinese site. While looking at youtube tutorials I tried to tattoo some oranges, which didn’t go that well to be honest. Eventually I put it aside when I started studying Industrial Product Design. Secretly I already knew that wasn’t what I wanted to do in my future, designing products for mass productions. No thanks. Give me craft, artistic handiwork which creates only one unique, exclusive and special final product.
During these years I spend a lot of my free time on painting and drawing. The dream to become a tattoo artist never disappeared. It was a bit of a coincidence that I ended up at Kunta Inc (how grateful I am for that).
The name Soja
Some time ago I started as Sofa Jane. I made special kinds of personalised jewellery. To give you a better idea: I wrote names on grains of rice in small glass vials. Due to a busy period during my studies I had no time left to continue with this. But Sofa Jane is not only writing on rice, it includes all of my creativity. Sofa Jane shortened by taking the first two letters of both names creates my name as a tattoo artist. SOJA, quite suitable as I am a real herbivore and want to focus on using conscious materials and vegan ink.
Role
For now I’m still working on my apprenticeship. As an apprentice my main tasks are sketching, designing, learning about tattoo techniques and of course getting the hand of tattooing by practising on fake skins. Next to that I support Koen with making design and try to help wherever I can.
I challenge myself to take a step outside my comfort zone and think out of the box. For now I do this by choosing a weekly Dutch proverb. I start sketching around this topic and let people think along about what kind of design suits that weeks saying. This way I create stuff that I normally wouldn’t even think about!
Goals
My body tingles when i can’t be creative. My goal for now is to create my own recognizable identity as an artist, learning the craft of tattooing and fulfill people's wishes with that. Getting the chance to develop myself like this within Kunta Inc and eventually turning my creative ideas into eternal works of arts is a dream come true.
So for now learning how to tattoo, after that I will see how it goes. I live in the moment and enjoy every part of it. I rely on my feelings and intuition and believe things will come my way in the right moment, and i will be prepared for it.
R A F
Originally I have a degree in Applied Psychology. In addition, I have always worked in the hospitality industry and had a passion for sneakers and music. After my studies I founded my first company called PNB Eventlab (also known as Pardie & Bullshit). Together with one of my long term friends we built an R&B/Hip Hop concept and organised events starting in our hometown.
The recipe for us? We missed events with good music and a nice vibe, so we basically said: “fuck them, do you” let’s do it ourselves. That became an important drive for me.
In the end, my passion really lies in building and growing a new brand/concept. Developing an idea into a plan, to eventually make it grow into an existing thing is what I always like to work on.
Role
My role at Kunta. Inc? All kinds of stuff except tattooing. I mainly work behind the scenes. The Website, The identity of Kunta INC, Social media and the development of the shop.
The most important task is to be a sparring partner for Kunta's new ideas.
Goals
- World domination by Kunta INC.
- Kunta INC. Concept store
- Inspire others to think “Fuck them do you” more often