The inaugural Arkansas Tattoo Fiesta Convention was well underway Friday afternoon with a television personality and more than 60 booths filled with over 100 artists at the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa.
Big Jaz, tattoo artist and competitor on Season 12 of the television show "Ink Masters," was at the convention Friday giving tattoos and "drawing up for whoever wants something kooky."
The Brooklyn artist said his friendship with event promoter Brian Everett and others drew him to the convention, and he had no complaints about his first visit to Hot Springs so far. In his opinion, the convention can "definitely" grow, but he thought there was a fair turnout for a Friday afternoon.
"I think it's great. I'm happy to be here," he said.
"You know today, a lot of people don't get off work until after 5 p.m. So normally Friday is kind of a warm-up. Some of the people that already have appointments lined up, that's who's tattooing now. We're expecting a bigger crowd this evening when people get off work," Everett said, noting today will be the "main day" of the convention.
With artists spanning from coast to coast, many styles of tattooing are offered to those wanting some new ink, including traditional, realism and Japanese-style tattoos.
"We have some real good artists here, some very talented artists. A lot of them also do our other show, so we brought some of the same lineups from the New Mexico show," Everett said.
"This whole area is an absolutely beautiful area, and it has an appeal for a lot of these artists that do travel around the country to come here. They not only come here to tattoo, but they get to enjoy what Hot Springs has to offer."
Everett said the general public's reception to the convention has been fairly positive.
"While we were promoting it, we were going around talking to people about it. Everybody seemed to be really excited about it. All the people, even the ones who weren't tattoo people, were very excited that we were doing it here at the Arlington. The people have that Southern hospitality here, and it seems like everyone was real warm to the idea," he said.
"We didn't get any people that were kind of put off by it at all. They all seemed like they were excited that it was coming. So we felt real welcomed. We're happy to be here, and we're happy at the response that we've gotten so far. We hope to make it an annual event."
Everett estimated that somewhere between 650 and 1,000 tattoos would be inked onto convention attendees over the weekend. The event also features tattoo equipment, such as the over 220 inks available for sale from convention sponsor Eternal Ink, clothing and other artworks for sale.
Such events are meant to help local tattoo artists draw attention to and generate interest in their work, Everett said.
"Your next tattoo is your best advertisement. What these do is all of a sudden there's this influx of new ink out there. So they're advertising their ink. People start coming in because they go 'Yeah, I want to get a tattoo. That's beautiful.' It stimulates the whole thing," he said.
Among other local tattoo shops, Studio 621 Tattoo, of Pearcy, was in attendance Friday, where artist Matt Pumphrey gave the shop's first tattoo of the convention. Pumphrey's father in law, Randy Draswell, and brother and assistant, Paul Pumphrey, were also there to represent the shop.
Draswell said the convention was proving to be "higher class" than many other tattoo conventions he has attended in the past.
"We hope to build on this every year. As long as the local artists in the Arkansas area help support it and help us promote it and stuff like that, it'll help us drive the public in here," Everett said.
"Tattoo artists want two things from a tattoo convention: one is money and one is a good time. If they get either/or, they're happy. If they get both, they're real happy. So that's what we're shooting for."
Doors open to the public at 1 p.m. today, with a performance from local band, No Fronts, at 7 p.m. Doors close at 11 p.m. Doors open at 11 a.m. Sunday and close at 7 p.m. Daily admission is $20, and a three-day pass costs $30.
Local on 08/17/2019