Philadelphia Tattoo Convention
“Buzzzzzzz”
Little more than this sound could better describe the glory of the Philadelphia Tattoo Convention held this past weekend in the city of brotherly love.
As you approached the Sheraton Hotel on the corner of 17th and Race Street, nothing seemed out of place. The hotel entrance seemed to be as cold and dead as the March air I was sucking down with every drag off my cigarette on the walk from the train station.
The doors open to reveal a semi-packed, plush hotel bar, and a circulating line of punks, metal heads, goths, and many more useless classifications of my fellow ink addicts. Two single line escalators revolve a massive moving underground art gallery either to grab a back door smoke or up to one of Philly’s best kept multi-level secrets.
Entering First Floor
The first level greets you with a few website booths featuring rocker babes donning fishnets, piercings, and of course body art. You grab your camo wrist band and silently say “fuck off” to the bouncers as you walk through one of two doorways into underground merch heaven. Everything from hardcore metal jewelry and alternative wall art to Metal garb and Burning Angel Stars Joanna Angel and Bella Vendetta wets your palette.
Tattoo Garb
A small stage and a panel of judges starts off the night in the adjoining room by calling all participants in the Tattoo contest to show off their art. Prizes are dealt out by categories of size and style. About a minute trying to see what kind of art the participants were boasting at the stage sent my friend and I looking for something better, and we found it.
The second level of this convention punches you in the face with the sweet sound of machine. The buzz is so constant you can almost feel a Tattoo artist filling in the latest piece you’ve been thinking about for yourself. Tattoo booths light the rest of the front room with their work lights targeted like spotlights on their “stars of the moment.”
Reptile Man
Each and every booth has a happy, wincing customer getting inked right in front of you. The reptile man is getting pictures with hot chicks who like feeling up his horn implants and fantasizing about how it feels to make out with a split tongue. Rounding one corner brings you to a packed stripper pole and worked up announcer. Singles, wives, and girlfriends take the stage for “donations” from the crowd in trade to see their “tig ole bitties.”
Passing through the tit hungry crowd reveals a kneeling Japanese artist concentrating on his latest piece of body art. There’s no buzz coming from this booth though. This artist hails directly from Japan and is creating the most amazing “stick and poke” body art you’ve ever laid eyes on.
Japanese Poke Tattoo Artist
Moving into the main ballroom unleashes the real pulse of the Philadelphia Tattoo Convention. Nine full isles of nothing but artists, art books, paying customers, and screaming machines. Tattoo booths spanned every inch of the massive room leaving only small isles to traverse the ink wonderland. Locals stop to “shoot the shit” and clog the works, but nobody gives a fuck as long as their beer is full and their eyes are fixed on some sick art.
One of Nine Full Aisles!
Proud bros and freshly inked hoes parade half naked sporting their latest works for all to see. As your head bobs back and forth trying desperately to take everything in, you stop and realize that this is exactly what you wanted to see from a Tattoo Convention.
Ass Portrait Tattoo
Vegas Tattoo
The Philadelphia Tattoo Convention was proudly sponsored by Philadelphia Eddie’s Tattoo Haven
Tags: 2010, Events, Philadelphia Tattoo Convention, Tattoos