THOMAS P. MOUNTAIN AKA “NIPLE”
THOMAS P. MOUNTAIN AKA NIPLE 40 years old, passed away in early June 2018 in New York CIty. His memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 22 at 3:30pm at the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu on the Pali Hwy. Thomas P. Mountain aka Niple was a seminal graffiti artist and tagger part of the DFA (down for anything?) crew based on the windward side of Oahu in the early 1990's. He, KeyOne and others were some of the first to promote graffiti in the Los Angeles style and their work showed an artistic talent admired by many. A local television station did a program on graffiti artists in Honolulu at the time and featured Niple's multicolored work done in the Ahuimanu culvert where they descibed him as "an artist and a poet" for the rhymes he included in his work. Niple returned to Los Angeles later and dropped out of the graffiti and tagging scene as he battled mental illness for the next twenty years, eventually succumbing to his affliction in early june 2018 in the Bronx, NYC. His ashes will be scattered at some of his favorite spots on Oahu, including the Kalihi Valley waterfall (blue pond and ice pond), Portlock Point bodysurfing break and Kaneohe Bay, where his remains will join those of his Grandfather, Thomas G. Mountain. He is survived by his father, Thomas C. Mountain, step- mother, Almaz Welday, mother, Barbara Shank, his sister, Maile Shay-Mountain and his niece, Kaimana Shay-Mountain.
Our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased
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