Tristen Amal Ikaikamaikai’ikaneokalani Persons, also known as Tristen Ikaika to his thousands of social media followers, sells rings for a living. However, these aren’t any old rings you can pick up anywhere – they’re handcrafted spoon rings you’re going to want to pick up immediately.
So Who Is This Guy Anyway?
If you can’t already tell from his cool name, Tristen’s dad’s side of the family is from Hawaii, but Tristen himself was born and raised in Utah. He spent his summers in Hawaii, and they greatly influenced who he is today.
Besides rings, Tristen is also a videographer who films the occasional wedding, advertisement, or travel adventure – he edits them into visual masterpieces you can find here. He’s also dropped some photo editing presets and an online videography workshop with his best friend and fellow influencer, Indy Blue Severe.
How Did He Become The Ring King?
Now only nineteen years old, Tristen first gained interest in the idea of making spoons into rings when he was twelve. Inspired by his family friend, Cody Barker, who had some spoon rings, Tristen saw how effortlessly and naturally rings elevated a person’s appearance and expressed their personality.
Not soon after, his dad helped him set up tools in the garage to make his first ring. He originally made these rings for his closest friends in junior high as well as himself for +7 years, but after seeing so much interest gathered around his rings from his social media following, he decided to sell a few and here he is today, selling out collections in under a day.
From starting at the age of twelve to selling out in twelve hours, Tristen explains people’s interest in what he does like this: “I think the reason people respond to it so well is because it’s something that’s always been me. It’s authentic, it’s a passion, it’s who I am, it’s a story, it’s a deeper meaning, it’s just ME, TRISTEN. NOW KNOWN AS THE ICE AND RING KING.”
How Does He Do It? Where Are The Rings From?
Each set of rings that he drops on his website usually correlate to a recent trip he’s been on around the world. I’m currently wearing a ring from his recent Iceland collection, but he’s had collections from Japan, Canada, Europe, Bali, Bahamas, Anaheim, and more countries/cities across the globe.
These rings are unique and personal not just because they are individually handcrafted to your ring size by Tristen himself, but because most rings are one of a kind finds from different shops he sees on his travels. He even has an option on his website to send in your own silverware that he’ll turn into rings.
He also added a new option to have the inside of your ring stamped with any date, word, or phrase you want (with a limited number of characters of course). So whether you want the coordinates of your grandmother’s house on the inside of your ring or your wedding date, Tristen has amped up his rings to a new personal level for you.
The process itself takes him around four days of working from 6 AM to 11 PM to make all of the rings in each collection and ship them out by himself. And while it’s a long, tedious, and organization-oriented process, Tristen says he does it because he loves it and the happiness his rings bring to others is priceless.
“I’m so happy to be sharing my rings with people and see them take them on their adventures around the world.”
The Most Important Part….
The names of the rings on his website are singlehandedly the most iconic part of the process. They’re funny. They’re relevant. They’re entertaining.
According to Tristen, “Most of the names are puns, lyrics from my favorite rap songs (love you king gold chains), jokes from the trip, things about the country I visited, or what’s relevant in pop culture.”
And while it’s getting harder to keep the ring names unique, fresh, and different each time, Tristen always has his followers to turn to for help. For his most recent Iceland collection, he turned to his Instagram followers for inspiration.
Names like “I Miss The Cold Kanye” based off of the song “I Love Kanye,” “You’re Such an Eskimo, I Love It” inspired by the current popular song by Kanye West ft. Lil Pump, “Ice For What” from Drake’s song, “Lil Pumpkin Ice Latte” from the festive Starbucks drink, or simple ones like “You Ice Hole” add another level of individual personality to each of these rings.
How Can You Get Them?
The rings are sold on Tristen’s website and usually sell out within 12-36 hours. He just dropped a new collection October 21st from his recent trip to Japan, and it’s already sold out! According to Tristen, it was his most personal and meaningful collection yet.
He usually posts the time when he’s releasing his new collection as the date gets closer, so I recommend sitting by your computer and refreshing his website so you have options because once they’re gone, they’re gone.
Each order also comes with a signed thank you card from Tristen himself made from a picture from that country for supporting him and his passion.
Get Them While You Can!
Tristen’s rings are one-of-a-kind unique statements that can up your style to another level. Whether you want to send in some of your grandma’s old silverware or get a ring made from utensils from another country, you can guarantee that each of these rings will be passionately made just for you.