Artists and clients enjoy laid-backatmosphere at Houston event
By Maggie Galehouse
If you walked into the swanky Hyatt Regency lobby on Saturday, you'd never know it was home to the Houston Texas Tattoo Extravaganza.
That's because the tattoo party was in the basement. A carpeted basement, but still.
In a vast windowless space under ceilings with exposed pipes, artists hunched over clients in various states of undress and clients contorted their bodies to give artists the best access to their skin canvas.
To the buzzy white noise of tattoo machines, people shopped and socialized and families navigated the aisles with strollers.
The atmosphere was laid-back. Welcoming.
'Hottest it's ever been'
"This is our second year in Houston," said Don Patton, who runs the event and lives in San Antonio, where he has organized a similar show for the past decade. "Many of the artists have a big following and people will come from out of town to get a tattoo."
Some of the tattoos take no time."We call them 'bangers' - tattoos that can be knocked out in under 30 minutes," Patton said. Others, of course, take hours. The more intricate the work, the more they cost.
"Good tattoos aren't cheap and cheap tattoos aren't good," said Weldon Lewis of San Antonio, repeating a well-known mantra in the tattoo world. What distinguishes this event is that it isn't run by promoters, said Dan Martin, owner of Houston's Scorpion Studios.
"Shows done by promoters are sort of half-baked, with women walking around with next to nothing on, shock-value stuff," Martin said. "What we're doing is a family-friendly show for artists."
Martin, who has owned Scorpion Studios since 1990, said tattooing is "the hottest it's ever been." He's seen a resurgence in "old school" tattoos with bold lines and large-scale Japanese tattoos.
Steve Holt of League City is working on a full-body sleeve of Japanese imagery that represents strength and perseverance. A koi dragon points up his left arm, a tiger dominates his right, and his back offers an intricate scene with a samurai. Holt's legs are inked, too.
"This represents five years, 284 hours," said Holt, 48, who was shirtless and in shorts. "I made some major life changes about seven years ago. This is an expression of those changes."
By midafternoon, most of the crowd had gathered in a back corner for the tattoo contests, which while clean were not for the modest. Dozens of contestants traipsed up to a low platform stage and took off their shirts or hiked up their pants or wore bikini bottoms to show the three judges their ink. The judges got close, using flashlight apps on their cellphones to see details from the tattoos.
A frightful collection
Agustin Martinez, 25, won the large black/gray category for the ink on his left leg: a collection of classic horror characters including Chucky, Annabelle, Beetlejuice and Captain Spaulding from "House of 1000 Corpses."
"My cousin, Eduardo, is the artist," Martinez explained. "I was his first tattoo. His guinea pig. We grew up watching horror movies together."
The leg isn't even close to done.
"Yeah," said Martinez, excitedly. "We're gonna put on Jason, Freddy Krueger, and 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.' "
Source: http://www.chron.com/life/article/Hundreds-turn-up-to-show-off-ink-at-Tattoo-6121580.php#photo-7626044
By Maggie Galehouse
If you walked into the swanky Hyatt Regency lobby on Saturday, you'd never know it was home to the Houston Texas Tattoo Extravaganza.
That's because the tattoo party was in the basement. A carpeted basement, but still.
In a vast windowless space under ceilings with exposed pipes, artists hunched over clients in various states of undress and clients contorted their bodies to give artists the best access to their skin canvas.
To the buzzy white noise of tattoo machines, people shopped and socialized and families navigated the aisles with strollers.
The atmosphere was laid-back. Welcoming.
'Hottest it's ever been'
"This is our second year in Houston," said Don Patton, who runs the event and lives in San Antonio, where he has organized a similar show for the past decade. "Many of the artists have a big following and people will come from out of town to get a tattoo."
Some of the tattoos take no time."We call them 'bangers' - tattoos that can be knocked out in under 30 minutes," Patton said. Others, of course, take hours. The more intricate the work, the more they cost.
"Good tattoos aren't cheap and cheap tattoos aren't good," said Weldon Lewis of San Antonio, repeating a well-known mantra in the tattoo world. What distinguishes this event is that it isn't run by promoters, said Dan Martin, owner of Houston's Scorpion Studios.
"Shows done by promoters are sort of half-baked, with women walking around with next to nothing on, shock-value stuff," Martin said. "What we're doing is a family-friendly show for artists."
Martin, who has owned Scorpion Studios since 1990, said tattooing is "the hottest it's ever been." He's seen a resurgence in "old school" tattoos with bold lines and large-scale Japanese tattoos.
Steve Holt of League City is working on a full-body sleeve of Japanese imagery that represents strength and perseverance. A koi dragon points up his left arm, a tiger dominates his right, and his back offers an intricate scene with a samurai. Holt's legs are inked, too.
"This represents five years, 284 hours," said Holt, 48, who was shirtless and in shorts. "I made some major life changes about seven years ago. This is an expression of those changes."
By midafternoon, most of the crowd had gathered in a back corner for the tattoo contests, which while clean were not for the modest. Dozens of contestants traipsed up to a low platform stage and took off their shirts or hiked up their pants or wore bikini bottoms to show the three judges their ink. The judges got close, using flashlight apps on their cellphones to see details from the tattoos.
A frightful collection
Agustin Martinez, 25, won the large black/gray category for the ink on his left leg: a collection of classic horror characters including Chucky, Annabelle, Beetlejuice and Captain Spaulding from "House of 1000 Corpses."
"My cousin, Eduardo, is the artist," Martinez explained. "I was his first tattoo. His guinea pig. We grew up watching horror movies together."
The leg isn't even close to done.
"Yeah," said Martinez, excitedly. "We're gonna put on Jason, Freddy Krueger, and 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.' "
Source: http://www.chron.com/life/article/Hundreds-turn-up-to-show-off-ink-at-Tattoo-6121580.php#photo-7626044
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