Arms broad as coconut palms extended from his sleeveless army surplus jacket, and etched into these limbs were black markings symbolizing his ancestors, family, job and personality – he literally wore his heart on his sleeve. He then took off his hard hat to reveal a face and bald head almost completely covered in dark ink. I didn’t know it then, but in many ways Mahalo was a microcosm of how French Polynesia was changing.