Tattoolapalooza 2009
Three weekends ago I had the privilege of attending Miami’s first ever Tattoolapalooza. For being a new convention, the artist list was quite impressive — Nikko, Paul Acker, Mike Devries, Mike Demasi, Jesse Smith, Stefano, Cool-Aid, Jason Stephan, Josh Woods, and many more were there tattooing.
I flew down to attend on Saturday. Because I had a tattoo appointment that would end up lasting over 10 hours, I wasn’t able to walk around for the majority of the later evening, but I did have a few hours to myself while Jesse was setting up.
It was pretty overwhelming to see such a large number of people in so small of an area, but the hall was extremely well laid out. For some reason, there was an exotic animal section to the far left, complete with a baby leopard in a caged area hanging out with a French bulldog. There was a live alligator as well as tanks filled with spiders and scorpions and snakes. There were also a ton of sideshow performers walking around with their faces painted like clowns. Both of these elements seemed a bit out of place and were generally avoided by the majority of the tattoo community, instead seemingly there for the casual spectators who arrived in droves.
Also quite strange was the abundance of near naked women, with multiple stages set up that were doing full body airbrushing on girls wearing nothing but g-strings and pasties. This all happened at a convention advertised as kid-friendly, although arguably children don’t have much place at any convention, naked girls or not.
Aside from those two minor gripes, though, there was little else to complain about. There was live footage from the booths periodically displayed on the main projection screen up front, the tattoos that were submitted for tattoo of the day were all spectacular, and every artist in there was more than happy to take a few minutes to anyone with a question or a comment.
With such a great lineup and turnout for its first year, this convention is set to blow up even further in 2010. I’ll definitely be back, although next time hopefully not for such a long sitting. I only had a chance to take a few pictures, which were done with my camera phone, but next convention I’ll bring an actual camera and get more shots.
