Manchester Tattoo Convention

I was supposed to be in the tattoo studio on Saturday but I couldn’t get in touch with the tattooist so ended up at the demo in Manchester instead. Whist there, I heard about a Tattoo Convention at Manchester Central Convention Complex (G-Mex) on the Sunday and wondered if that was why I couldn’t get in touch with anyone at Middleton. Ended up forking out £10 to get in and that was with student discount! It was like going to a market, except the stalls were mini tattoo parlours. There was quite an eclectic mix of people at the convention, 
a sign of how tattoos are more acceptable in mainstream society. There were some real interesting characters there too who would have been brilliant photographic subjects but I didn’t want to get too much into their personal space and the opportunity never came up anyway. I concentrated on photographing as many tattooists at work as I could and tried to soak up the general atmosphere. I also checked out the work of most of the artists, some was excellent, some not so hot. I know that when I went for my tattoos I wanted them to be created by a professional, not a wannabe. Picked up business cards and postcards of the good/original ones. There were a few more traditional tattooists such as Mr Nu, a traditional Thai tattooist and it was fascinating to watch them at their trade. Not sure which looked more painful, the gun or the traditional tools that they used. Spent a few hours there all in all. No one seemed to mind me taking photos, maybe the size of the camera fooled them into thinking I was a professional!

Here are some of the photos that I took on the day anyway. Oh and it transpired that Louis was in Switzerland anyway!  

 

© Andrea Percival