OCEANSIDE -- A few weeks ago, at the prodding of neighborhood kids, tiki artist Steven Tustison, 44, carved large, grinning faces -- one with a pineapple nose -- into two towering palms in front of his Freeman Street home.

Watch a related video from our Artist Profiles series.

He's proud of the work and beams when drivers slow down and point.

But his street-side artistry may have repercussions.

"They're city-owned and maintained trees," said Joe Arranaga, Oceanside's deputy director of public works. What Tustison did -- artistic or not -- is "defacing city property," Arranaga said Thursday.

The gently bowed palms are in a grassy strip between the sidewalk and street, about 20 feet from Tustison's pale yellow house in south Oceanside.

Carving the faces into the trunks, then torching the grooves to make the details pop, took about three hours, said Tustison, who stood proudly beside his creations Thursday, wearing flip-flops and a Hawaiian shirt.

"They make everybody laugh" he said.

But city officials say the work may have hurt the palms, which stand about 60 feet tall. They've told Tustison to stop.

"We're worried about the condition of the trees and their ability to survive given as much work as he did on them," Arranaga said.

Fearing the city's public works crews will rip the trees out, Tustison stuck a sign in his lawn Wednesday with a petition attached.

"Please sign up to save my dumb tikis," the sign read.

Arranaga said the city will have an arborist inspect the palms. While Oceanside doesn't want to remove them, he said, that's a possibility.

Tustison, who wears miniature tikis around his neck on loops of beige string, doesn't understand the hubbub.

The trees, he said, are fine.

"It's like carving 'Steve & Lisa' in a tree with a pocket knife, you know. It's just a little bigger," he said.

Tustison's entire yard is a tribute to tiki, a Polynesian style of sculpture that often depicts exaggerated faces.

His nickname, "Tiki Daddy," is painted on the side of his faded grey truck. And his carvings are often scattered about or placed on display for passing motorists.

"You come here and you never see the same one twice," he said. "They're like snowflakes."

As for the palms, "I was under the impression that the trees were mine, since I water them and I take care of the parkway," Tustison said.

By Thursday morning, he had more than two dozen names on his petition.

"This is O'side talent," said signatory Adela Lefthand, 21, who works at the Kona Hut coffee shop nearby. "Why do they want to take it away from us?"

City Attorney John Mullen said the city may issue a fine or take some other action against Tustison.

"We'll see," he said. "We don't want people going in and vandalizing our trees."

In retrospect, Tustison said, he wouldn't have done it. But he still believes the city is overreacting.

"We're going to have a problem over this," Tustison said with a grin as wide as those on his carvings. "My friends are willing to handcuff themselves to these trees, dude. I have a good following."

Contact staff writer Craig TenBroeck at (760) 901-4062 or ctenbroeck@nctimes.com.