Tattoo Art Goes Mainstream in SLC
February 16th, 2009
SLC tattoo convention attendees include: punk rockers, metal heads, hippies and....housewives? --That's right, it's now impossible to stereotype people with tattoo fever.
by Jonny Glines
Most might not consider Utah a tattoo art mecca, but at the 2009 Salt Lake City International Tattoo Convention, I quickly learned that neither Utah artists or those getting inked, are atypical. In fact, housewives were some of the enthusiasts in attendance at Salt Lake City's International Tattoo Convention last weekend at the Salt Palace Convention Center.
The convention room was filled with rows of booths of people lying in chairs while artists tattooed amazing artwork. The buzzing sounds of tattoo ink guns chimed from the booths of local studios such as Good Times, Big Delux Tattoo and Lost Art Tattoo, who hosted the convention. I noticed the walkways filled with heavily tattooed individuals, skateboarders, rockers and....baby strollers?
Among the crowd of tattoo enthusiasts were families browsing booths and admiring artwork. Convention creators say the old stigma, that tattoos are exclusively for sailors and bikers, is completely gone. I spoke to two mothers from Sandy that agreed.
"I wanted to come to see which artists have the best portfolios and see what I wanted," said Dani Renfro, while holding her baby in her arms. This is the second year that the two mothers have attended the convention. Dani has one tattoo and her friend Kristin Fowler says she's in the market for one. "I loved her tattoo and wanted to see about getting one similar," said Kristin. They say they love the artistic value of the tattoos and enjoy seeing different types of artwork. They were among a number of people roaming the room with a stroller. Dani browsed the booths, joking about getting her baby a tattoo.
Now in the convention's sixth year, event creator CJ Starky says the success is all due to the Salt Lake City public. "The public really makes this convention," said Starky. "We've got people from Holland, Germany and France. The public is extremely nice, we go really big on tattoos and there's skiing and snowboarding for them." Starky is from Richmond Virginia, but has lived in Salt Lake City for the past 12 years. He said he was "blown away" by the artwork and the amount of tattoos in Salt Lake City. Starky said that Utah's religious influence is similar to Virginia's. He believes tattooing has its own sub-culture and that it is often influenced by dominant religious communities. "Whenever you have a repressed society, there becomes a stronger rebellion. You see that in the south with the bible belt too," Starky said.
Starky pointed out all the world travelers that attended the event. I met some enthusiastic Germans that didn't really speak English, but enjoyed demonstrating the universal "thumbs up" sign with smiles to anyone passing. Their portfolios consisted of beautiful portraits of people and landscapes. I noticed the number of local booths was heavily out-weighed by the number of booths from out-of-state studios. I spoke with a man who goes by the name "noodles" and who owns a studio in Chicago.
"A lot of people just think, 'Mormons,' when they think about here, but just walk around this area, there are a lot of great artists here." Noodles gained appreciation for tattoos when he was a young boy, hanging around with his Grandfather and his friends who all had tattoos. He decided at an early age that he wanted to be a tattoo artist, but received a lot of criticism for his goals. "I've had counselors and teachers, telling me not to do it, but I went ahead and did it. For some reason, this made sense to me."
Noodles has attended conventions all across the U.S. and believes the Salt Lake City Tattoo Convention is "one of, if not the best convention in the country." He says the event has a great "vibe," but he's not sure what creates it. "This one I like a lot because of the people that come here. It's also a harder one to get into because everyone wants to come here," said Noddles.
Artists also believe the Salt Lake City International Convention is one of the best in America because the creators and promoters tailor the convention to tattoo enthusiasts and not the general public. They say oftentimes promoters try to turn tattoo events into circus freak shows to try to attract more attendees.
(Photo by Jake Maxwell)
"I don't like it when people dumb down tattoos. A lot of promoters will do freaky things to draw a crowd and those people aren't really serious about tattoos," said Teddy Safarian, owner of Empire Tattoo in North Carolina. "I'd much rather see quality artwork than a guy sticking a nail in his head."
Empire Tattoo is one of the biggest tattoo parlors in North Carolina with seven studios in the state. Teddy began his artistic career in art school but said he was "spending more time getting tattooed that going to class." He became good friends with his tattoo artists and ended up opening his own studio.
"The first time we came out to the convention it was really good and now we're back," said Teddy. "It's just a really well-ran convention. A lot of time the biggest draw is your friends. You come out and you meet a lot of people and build friendships."
(Photo by Jake Maxwell)
Teddy said he now has friends from all over the country due to the conventions. He said it isn't odd for tattoo artists to travel to far away cities or countries to visit the studios of friends they met at conventions. It's a network created by the art they all love and bridged by these conventions. That's something CJ Starky likes to hear. "It really builds relationships, people are meeting here from all over the world and they're staying in touch through facebook and myspace, it's awesome," said Starky.
There's no doubt that tattooing has become more than a simple art form, creating its own sub-culture. Through conventions like these, Starky hopes he can keep people in the tattoo culture together, while educate the culture's values. "It's about family and support and acceptance," Starky said.
