Sunday held for me the promise of excruciating belly slicing, courtesy of the delicate hands of Jo Harrison. Her strikingly beautiful ‘lucky 13’ tattoo took a good couple of hours to ink. As many punters gathered around, snapping pics-aplenty of the lovely Jo at work, some paused to glance at yours truly, the lily-white Irishman writhing and grimacing pathetically under her needle.
Whilst I continued to weather aforementioned storm, Ms HOO-HAA drank in all the entertainment on offer from the convention stage – hola dancing, DJs and bands all performing throughout the day. Particular mention must be made to the rather excellent Lucky Diamond Rich (www.luckyrich.com) and his circus tricks/ comedy show. Lucky was the star of the whole convention, providing kid-friendly fun and frivolity for a good hour – swallowing swords, juggling chainsaws and pissing about on an insanely tall unicycle all part of his merry mayhem. Head-to-toe in deeply inked skin, Lucky pulled the biggest crowds of the day, not only during his performance, but around his stall where he worked as both tattoo artist as well as flogging snapshots beside his blue mightiness, donning his well-earned crown of the world’s ‘Most Tattooed Man.’
Leaving through the convention doors at around 5pm, Ms HOO-HAA and I made our way back into the city, both of us carrying fond memories of an excellent couple of days - Ms HOO-HAA tripping over the bags of shopping she had acquired, me sporting a new addition to my ink collection and perhaps my finest tattoo to date. The Amsterdam Tattoo Convention had delivered on all accounts – an excellent selection of artists on offer, a great line-up of entertainment to suit all tastes, tattoo-themed art and crafts for the kids and a well-stocked restaurant bar for the adults. It’s one for the calendar of the HOO-HAA’s next year… Maybe see you there?
Review by HOO-HAA aka Wayne Simmons
Author of DROP DEAD GORGEOUS
http://www.dropdeaddolls.com
Amsterdam Tattoo Convention 2008
With all the merry chaos on offer in Amsterdam, it’s only natural to throw a tattoo convention into the mix – an alternative splash of colour to the various shades of sideshow to be found in the infamous red light district. Unlike the red light district, however, 2008’s convention was less than central, involving a short train ride out of the city’s urban yin-yang of glamour-stained decadence and quaint beauty, to what appeared to be the less than cosmopolitan venue choice of a leisure centre. Here, artists from across the globe set up their stalls for the long weekend of Friday to Sunday, hoping to attract punters with their proudly displayed portfolios of work.
Weighing in on the Saturday around lunch, Ms HOO-HAA and I found ourselves queuing for what appeared to be a busy convention. Once inside, we discovered not only artists and mediums aplenty (tandem hand-tattooing featuring heavily in the Polynesian / Indigenous corner – www.mokoink.com) but also vendors galore, peddling their tattoo-related clothing and memorabilia. A busy bar area put the cherry on the cake of what was, on first impressions, a happening convention filling nicely with a good cross-section of tattoo-wearers.
After a quick swally of Amsterdam’s finest beer, we began to move around the stalls, hoping to get a feel of who and what was on offer. From the convention’s fairly modest website, I was aware that some of my favourite artists of the moment were billed to attend – America’s horror specialist, Dan Henk (www.danhenk.com), Birmingham’s wonderfully talented Jo Harrison (www.joharrison.co.uk) and France’s crazy-arsed Lionel (www.el.fahy.free.fr) being the crème de la creme. However, there was a lot more talent on offer than this. Utah’s Big Deluxe (www.bigdeluxetattoo.com), Italy’s Spunktattoo (www.spunktattoo.it), Seattle’s Apocalypse Tattoo (www.apocalypsetattoo.com) were among the many that impressed me with their portfolios. Particular mention must also be given to the horror-traditional blend of tattoos on offer by Italy’s Morganic Heart (www.morg.it) a definite future port-of-call for this horror-hungry ink-lover.
I was surprised, however, on wandering around the stalls to see many artists looking a little slack and only too keen to engage me as a potential customer. Some blamed the location of the convention for the lack of business. Others suggested that the paying punters were more interested in black and grey work, whilst the majority of window-shoppers were more interested in the stalls and entertainment on offer. For me, it was as busy a convention as you could expect, invoking excitement and people-rage in equal measure! The sunshine, it could be said, provided a mixed blessing for the artists – whilst making for a great backdrop to the day, many of the crowd were forced by the heat towards the centre’s wonderful beer garden, most of their convention cash perhaps being poured down thirsty throats!