Ottawa-Gatineau’s first-ever annual tattoo expo was held at the Palais des congrès Oct. 23-25, featuring live rock bands, beers and burgers, and tattoo artists from across Canada.
Walking around the many booths representing tattoo shops from as far as Moose Jaw, Sask. to Vancouver, the buzz of tattoo machines was omnipresent.
The crowd was largely made up of the kind of people you’d expect to be attracted to such an event: some scantily clad women, long-bearded bikers, university girls with that deviously artistic streak.
One man had ball bearings in his forehead.
But the more you talk to the artists in attendance, the more you realize their clientele is changing.
“I have lots of customers who are nurses, doctors, lawyers,” said Katrina P. Leblanc of Ruby Moon design.
Older women are taking part in the art too, she said, like a 40-year-old female client getting a giant back piece as her first tattoo.
“People are getting wild,” she said.
Clients who see tattoos as fashion accessories or use them to fit in with their friends don’t seem to be able to take the pain, and there are more and more of them lately, said Chet Spriggs, owner of Bloodline.
It’s the clients with real conviction that can get through any amount of time needed to get the work done, Good said.
Some artists, like George Brown of Seven Crowns Tattoos, said some clients like the rush of endorphins and adrenaline they get form getting tattooed.
“It’s just a stepping stone to your final goal,” Denis Prevost of Live Once Tattoo Prevost said.
“You get something beautiful on you that you get to wear, and [you] feel more complete with yourself,” he said.
The addiction, however, is real, Brown said.
“Once you see that [first] piece on yourself, you start to envision all the things you could do with the rest of your body,” he said.
Despite the long-standing negative stigma, and the blood and pain associated with tattoos, TV shows like LA Ink and Miami Ink are pushing the art form into the mainstream.
But far from LA and Miami, the tattoo industry in Ottawa and Gatineau will be re-honoured at the already-planned expo for 2010.