Kiernan Forbes, affectionately known by his stage name AKA, was a man who wore his heart on his sleeve, according to the rapper’s tattoo artist.
Brad Pretorius, who tattooed some of Forbes most talked-about, said the award-winning rapper was easy to get along with. Among his tattoos are his favourite football club Manchester United and king of pop Michael Jackson.
As tributes continue to pour in for Forbes, who was gunned down outside a Durban restaurant on Friday evening, Pretorius spoke fondly of him from his studio in Edenvale, in the north eastern Johannesburg.
He said he was introduced to Supa Mega, as Forbes was fondly known, by his other bodyguard whom he refused to identify.
“He laughed a lot. He was a great guy,” said Pretorius of Royal Ink, who counted six tattoos he had done on the late rapper.
He has known and tattooed Forbes through three of his most public relationships with current partner and rapper Nadia Nakai, his late fiancée Anele “Nellie” Tembe, and the mother of his child, DJ and entrepreneur Zinhle Jiyane.
Pretorius added that his most recent work on Forbes was in November when the South African Music Awards winner came to his studio for matching tattoos with Nakai. “They looked brilliant together,” remarked Pretorius of Forbes’s relationship with Nakai.
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“I did a couple’s tattoo for him and DJ Zinhle,” he said.
Forbes has a seven-year-old daughter, Kairo, with DJ Zinhle. Pretorius, whose youngest daughter is the same age as Kairo, said he cannot could not imagine what Kairo daughter is going through.
“He was an incredible father. He loved his daughter. He loved children.”
He said when his eldest daughter, now 16, was celebrating her 13-year birthday, Forbes sent her a video message, making her the envy of all her party guests. “That showed me the kind of person he was. He loved kids,” said Pretorius.
He explained further that Forbes, who won multiple hip-hop awards, preferred to have his tattoos done at his own home in Bryanston, northern Johannesburg.
“I sometimes would ask him to come to the studio. I also tattooed Anele [Tembe]. He worshipped the ground she walked on. He really loved her.”
He added that he would sometimes struggle to reconcile his larger-than-life personality as a rapper with the humble person he interacted with.
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