Ink Masters draws tattoo enthusiasts, artists to Arlington
Dan Adcock has tattoos all over his body, though he says it’s really all one piece. The only exceptions are his eyeballs and the soles of his feet. At 71, he said the tattoos sometimes solicit weird looks but usually just garner curiosity. He doesn’t regret any of the work he’s had done.
At the Ink Masters Tattoo Expo in Arlington, though, his full-body tattoo wasn’t that out of place.
The exposition visited Arlington’s Globe Life Park, formerly the home of the Texas Rangers, for the second year in a row last weekend. With more than 150 artists, 30% of them from out of the U.S, and 5,000 visitors a day, organizer Raymond Hernandez said it is a place tattoo enthusiasts can come to learn about different artists, different styles and meet others who share their interests.
For Thomas Hernandez, a tattoo artist from the Los Angeles-based Magic Tattoos, it’s a chance to get his name out to more people.
“You get a tattoo and your friend sees it and asks where you got it, then other friends ask, and they tell their friends,” Thomas Hernandez said. “From that maybe 12 people now know my name and then maybe two come into the shop or come to see me at an expo.”
Since all the artists at the convention were offering work there, most attendees were looking to either get new ink or have an existing piece fixed or updated.
Al Luna came to the show to get a faded tattoo redone. At 57, Luna said he needed to have a piece depicting the cross and “John 3:16” updated because of fading.
He and his wife, Paris Luna, each have a handfull of tattoos. His first was a picture of the tow truck Mater from the Disney movie “Cars.” He said he got it because he owned and operated a wrecker. Paris’ first tattoo was of an angle wing on her left shoulder, which she got at the same time as her sister.
Michael McNeal was at the convention Friday to get another Celtic tattoo. His body art serves as a reminder of his Irish heritage, he said, and it’s something he’s proud of.
Not everyone was there to give or receive tattoos, though.
Adcock, a retired lawyer, said he doesn’t have any more work to get done. He was there to support an artist friend of his.
Adcock got his first tattoo when he was 53, a small piece on his ankle. He said he shopped around for weeks before an artist whose shop he’d been to multiple times asked him if he was ever going to follow through with it.
“I said, well, I guess we’ll just do it now because why not,” Adcock said. “I put $100 down on the table and said, ‘Go ahead and take this. That way even if I get up and run out in the middle of it you still get paid.’ ”
He went back the next week to get another tattoo. By the time he retired, everything but his hands, wrists, neck, face and head was tattooed. That way he could cover any work he’d had done while he was working.
Now he even has a large nose piercing and multiple ear piercings.
While he wasn’t at the expo to have any work done, he said it was probably one of the best places to go.
All artists at the Ink Masters Expo, which does not have any direct relation to the TV show and actually started before the series, hand picks all its artists based on portfolios they send.
This brings in artists from all over the country and even internationally.
Karin Jonsson, an artist from Stronsund, Sweden, said she came to the show with hopes of making money and maybe winning contests.
She gave her first tattoo in high school. She tattooed a friend’s foot in her home kitchen. It wasn’t a good tattoo, she said, but it wasn’t the worst either.
After that, Jonsson tried to get an apprenticeship with one of the three studios in her home town but was laughed at and told to find another profession.
She decided to become an art teacher and stayed there until three years ago, when she decided to again try for an apprenticeship. This time, she got one. Now she runs her own studio.
Other artists came from Hawaii, Alaska, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Mexico.