SLC Tattoo Convention
Community
Andrew King (Heart of Gold)andrewkingtattoos.blogspot.com
SLUG: Who are you excited to see at the Tattoo Convention?
King: I’m really excited for Danny Reed, and Uzi (Miguel Montgomery), he’s awesome. My good buddy Ishmael Johnson, I’m really excited for him because he’s guest-spotting with us a week before the convention. He has his own private studio in Fort Collins, Co. (inkvomit.com). Uzi works at American Graffiti in Sacramento. Danny Reed is just awesome. He does badass tattoos—clean, solid, bold—stuff that looks like a tough old man would be wearing.
SLUG: What do you like or dislike about tattoo conventions?
King: Dealing with tattooers’ egos is shitty … just people having attitudes. This convention is really awesome, they always get awesome professionals. Everybody at the shop is working there, taking turns.
SLUG: What’s the best tattoo you’ve seen done at a convention?
King: It was at the State of Grace convention in San Jose, some of the best tattoos I’ve ever seen in my life. Some really cool Chad Koeplinger pieces, Robert Ryan, Mario Desa … It was a lot to take in.
SLUG: What kind of artwork do you want to do at the convention?
King: I’m down to do whatever people come up and want. Cool skulls, roses, snakes, daggers, stuff that makes people feel good about themselves. You can come to me with stars and kanji, and I’m going to make them last. I just want to do walk ups, I want to have my own flash painted and have people pick off of that. I don’t like the idea of going to the Salt Palace down the street with an appointment.
SLUG: This is your first time tattooing at a convention. How is it going to be different from being at your shop?
King: When I was there before [as a patron], I was just there to chat with friends that were in town tattooing, get paintings or prints, buy machines, buy shirts, get reference books. It’s going to be different because I’m going to be in work mode, which I’m hyped about.
SLUG: If you could get tattooed by anyone dead or alive, who would you pick?
King: Bob Wicks, Cap Coleman, Charlie Wagner, Stoney St. Clair… Horiyoshi I, that’d be cool … I could go on for hours and hours, I don’t have the room to get tattooed by everybody I’d want to.
Catfish and Eric Sager (Ironclad Tattoo)
by Jeanette D. Moses
ironcladslc.com
SLUG: Who are you excited to see at the Tattoo Convention?
Eric: I like Megan Hoogland from Minnesota. She does realism. Karl Marc from France, I don’t know what you would call his style. It looks like Japanese watercolor, more of a painterly design than traditional tattooing.
Catfish: If Jime Litwalk comes, that’s who I’m most excited to see. He’s my biggest influence. He’s in Vegas at Massive Tattoo. I asked him if he was coming, and he said he is. It’s not on the website.
SLUG: Do you plan on getting tattooed by any of them?
Catfish: If Jime has time open, I’d like to get my hand done by him.
SLUG: What do you like or dislike about tattoo conventions?
Catfish: I like meeting the other artists. If you’re into buying artwork, that’s the best place to do it.
Eric: Or buying machines … There isn’t anything I don’t like, unless it’s real packed. I don’t like wandering the aisles with four billion people—hate being nut to butt with every asshole on the planet.
SLUG: What’s the best tattoo you’ve seen done at a convention?
Eric: We watched Bob Tyrrell do a tattoo [at Hell City], but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was.
Catfish: It was a black and gray portrait; we watched him for about an hour.
SLUG: What do you hope to get out of tattooing at this year’s convention?
Eric: I’d like to meet some other artists in this city. There are a lot of good artists in [SLC], I just never end up getting to meet a lot of them.
Catfish: Getting our younger guys, like Craig [Secrist] and Shae [McAfee], out there, too.
SLUG: What kind of artwork do you want to be doing at the convention?
Catfish: Smaller stuff that won’t tie up the whole day. If I could do a whole weekend of cartoon pinups, I’d be set with that. What’s nice about being in our hometown is we can push a bigger piece to set up at the shop instead of the convention. I don’t want to do quarter-sized kanjis all day. I would say baseball-sized.
Eric: I would say small watermelon-sized pieces.
SLUG: What’s it like to tattoo in a convention setting?
Catfish: The first piece of the weekend is always the roughest. You’re out of your element, but about a half hour into it, you find your flow.
Nick Phillips (Loyalty Tattoo)
by Megan Kennedy
SLUG: Who are you excited to see at the Tattoo Convention?
Phillips: Kenny Brown from Jack Brown’s Tattoo Revival in Fredrickberg, VA and James Cumberland—he works at Black Hive Tattoo in Jacksonville, FL. They work in the traditional style, which is what I work in.
SLUG: Do you plan on getting tattooed by any of them?
Phillips: I’ll be getting tattooed by Kenny at the convention. I’m having him do a bulldog head on my kneecap.
SLUG: What do you like or dislike about conventions?
Phillips: They never quite feel like home. Here, I know where everything is, and I’m comfortable. There, you’re squeezing a lot of people into a little spot, and sometimes you don’t have exactly what you need; like if you’re tattooing someone’s foot, you may not have a footrest, you may have two chairs and half a table. You improvise. It’s a good experience overall, just slightly a pain in the ass.
SLUG: What’s the best tattoo you’ve ever seen done at a convention?
Phillips: This guy Todd Noble did a horse and carriage at the San Jose convention a few years ago, and it was on a big guy. He was getting his thigh tattooed and it was the size of my back. The thing was huge, and the artwork was phenomenal. He was probably six to seven hours into it.
SLUG: What do you hope to get out of tattooing at this year’s convention?
Phillips: Since it’s local, it’s nice to drum up business, especially being [in Clearfield], it’s good to get a Salt Lake influence. We don’t get to do that a lot.
SLUG: What kind of artwork do you want to be doing at the convention?
Phillips: I do mostly traditional, so it would be awesome to do something that’s my kind of drawing, instead of adjusting to what other people are into. It comes with the job, of course, but it’s always nice when I can go off on something.
SLUG: What’s it like to tattoo in a convention setting?
Phillips: It’s a little nerve-wracking. You have a lot of really good artists looking over your shoulder. We were at a Virginia convention not long ago and our booth was between two amazing artists: people who have been tattooing a lot longer than me. I was sweating bullets the whole time, but everyone is usually really nice.
Dean Bodily (Lost Art Tattoo)
by Katie Panzer
lostarttattoo.com
SLUG: Who are you excited to see at the Tattoo Convention?
Bodily: I don’t want to just narrow it down to just a couple. Everyone who comes is family and friends. I get really excited for everybody. Everybody is their own unique character.
SLUG: Do you plan on getting tattooed by any of them?
Bodily: I’m always looking forward to getting tattooed. I don’t have any plans. A lot of times, getting tattooed, it’s in the moment. I’m supposed to maybe get tattooed by James Cumberland (of Black Hive Tattoo) out of Florida. We’ve talked at a few different shows. He has the picture drawn, but it’s just a matter of some time. We always end up tattooing and we run out of time.
SLUG: What do you like or dislike about conventions?
Bodily: It lets the public see really top quality tattoos. The one dislike is the misconception that it’s like a swap meet, that they’re going to get hooked up on a deal. “Oh it’s a big group, I can go and get a cheaper tattoo.” It’s actually guys coming in and paying a lot of money for their traveling expense and you’re going to pay their prices. If they’re from New York or Europe and they have a higher hourly rate, you’re going to pay it because they’ve traveled to you.
SLUG: What’s the best tattoo you’ve ever seen done at a convention?
Bodily: Last year, I won tattoo of the day. It was a large tiger piece on a kneecap. It seems like every tattoo: The next one you do is your favorite.
SLUG: What kind of artwork do you want to be doing at the convention?
Bodily: My usual style, what’s in my book. I mostly do traditional or Japanese stuff. But I specialize in whatever comes to me, from portraits to script, whatever somebody wants. I make that the best I can.
SLUG: What’s it like to tattoo in a convention setting?
Bodily: You’re outside your element as far as where all your supplies are set up and the lighting. At the convention, you bring your stuff, but it’s kind of misplaced—and you’re always talking. There’s thousands of people there, hundreds of people that are excited to see you. There’s a little more distraction as far as a lot more conversation. You have a lot of eyes on you so you want to be at the top of your game.