Manchester Tattoo Show

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I went to our second tattoo show (the first being Brighton for my birthday). This time, however, it was a lot closer to home, in Manchester. Initially I was planning to go via train, on my own, and only for the Saturday, as Dan and I are saving up for a working holiday and are trying to reduce our spending.

But by some miracle of the Gods, we won a pair of two-day passes from Tattoo Revolution magazine – thank you, you marvellous, marvellous people!

Odd, but wonderful side note: this is the third competition we’ve won in the last four months. Just goes to show that if you enter things, you do actually have a bloody good chance of winning!

So, happily, I was able to take my boyfriend along with me, we were able to drive and park in Manchester for free, and we went for both days. We saved even more money by taking packed lunches (like primary-school-style.)

Here is Dan looking pleased with himself…


Anyway, this show was by far a lot more fun than Brighton. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Brighton – the seaside, the atmosphere, the endless body mods, cupcakes and candies – but for some reason I felt more relaxed in Manchester.

For it’s 10th Anniversary, the show took place in the Central Exhibition Centre, a place I’d visited before when I went to the Manchester Stitch and Creative Crafts show. Whilst the crafts show utilized the entirety of the exhibition centre, the tattoo show only used about half of it, making it a much smaller event than Brighton.

However, it was far more spacious, with better lighting and a larger stage area for the competitions. There was also music playing over the venue from Rock radio, which was pretty awesome. I later learned from some tattooists that they kept repeating the same songs over and over, and it was annoying those who had to sit there for hours on end.




There were a few things missing from Manchester, that weren’t at Brighton: live bands, seminars, scarification, an art gallery… On the other hand, they made up for it with a hoard of Harley Davidson Motorbikes on display, several more international and traditional tattooists, a piercer from Affleck’s Palace and tonnes more free sweets from most of the stalls (I’m a sucker for free stuff).

Here's me planning to steal a bike...


So after taking hoards of pictures, which you can check out below, I really enjoyed myself. And so did Dan. We stopped by the Tattoo Revolution stand to thank Alex Guest for our tickets, checked out some of the competitions, and I came home with two new piercings from Quincey the Piercer, taking my body shrapnel count up to fourteen – twenty by the end of the year I hope!

And whilst there were no cupcakes for sale, there was something called The Cupcake Club. Now, I loved this, and had I not wanted to have my first tattoo be a design of my own I would have gotten one there and then. The idea behind The Cupcake Club is that you have a tattoo of a cupcake, and the money goes to the Help For Heroes Charity. Whilst some people were having large, customized cupcakes, I couldn’t help but admire the tiny £30 cupcake designs on display. I was eyeing up a lemon cupcake, a cupcake with spider legs, and a “bleeding” cupcake with a dagger protruding from it. These tattoos were no bigger than a 50p piece and were really cute. I’m hoping for The Cupcake Club to show up at the Liverpool Tattoo Convention in May, as I’d love to get one!

I stopped by the Vivid Tattoo Arts stall to watch my friend Sam getting scrawled on by Jonny Handsome.


I couldn’t help but coo over Cathy Sue’s artwork either. Her sketchbook was full of colourful punky chicks, and her style along the lines of what I would like to do. I managed to sneak a photo of her working too:


Sam showed me some of his work, two by Miss Sue:



And work by Jonny:



Whilst there were a huge number of fantastic artists working that day, I only managed to photograph a few of them. However, take a look at this awesome selection of artwork:




Dan Gold:






Hayley from AAA Tattoo Studio:


Golden Dragon Tattoo Studio:









Body Garden Tattoo:


Check out Richie the Barber, who didn’t mind posing for plenty of photos. Only wish I’d stuck around to see his stage show…



What I love about these conventions is that it’s not just tattoos and piercings; there are also jewellery and clothes stalls, plus places to buy bizarre ornaments and decorative items for your home. I came across these fantastic customized skateboards:



I absolutely love this sexy cartoon pin-up style, and I’d really love to know who the artist is. If you know, please tell me!

I also fell in love with a little store called Vampire Bunnies. The girl who owns it specializes in making what I can only describe as the nerdiest clothing line ever, and it was awesome! I found dresses and handbags made with prints of The Little Mermaid, Pokemon, Fairly Odd Parents, among others. And the gal can customize too! I really wish I’d bought one of them now, but I do know that the shop resides in Affleck’s Palace.

Typically of tat-cons, there was the usual collection of artist’s sketchbooks, which was handy, as they give me a good idea for what I’m aiming for in my final year project (more on that in the near future).


And finally, I can’t go without mentioning the Cha Cha Chilli company. This was an odd discovery, but a really cool one, as I absolutely love chilli! I had several free hot-as-hell tasters, and finally decided on a gorgeous fiery coconut sauce, so I can pimp up some chicken. Nice!

So there you have it: a great weekend out, and one that really inspired me. Really wish I could go on and mention everyone and everything I saw, but I’d be here forever. I cannot wait for Liverpool now!

Until next time (probably this week…)