2014 Belize City Tattoo Exposition Gets Me Seriously Thinking…
That I want a tattoo! Not a full sleeve! But something small and classy (tee hee) like this…
I had my postcard out and was considering…
But let me back up a bit. Yesterday, I attended Day 2 of the weekend long expo in Belize City. My friend Margie and I ignored the high winds and the small craft warning and jumped aboard the hour and 15 minute water taxi ride to Belize City.
We secured a seat at the top of the boat…surely we couldn’t get wet up there. WRONG. It was like a log flume ride. Fun times but not if you spent any time brushing your hair that morning.
This guy in front of me decided to embrace the whole experience and pretend like there was a GQ photo shoot happening. Rock on buddy.
I had no idea what to expect when we arrived at the ITVET Technical School building…
A beer tent, some food vendors, a DJ and kids bouncy house…
these pretty ladies doing henna body art at an outside table for those not willing to commit…
You can contact Diya for parties – her henna tattoos are beautiful – at 625-0580.
Good clean fun. The tatoo-ing though was going on behind closed doors. Thankfully in air conditioning. And then we ran into Carlos.
NO WAY! I hear you saying. YES WAY. Carlos is a super nice guy (I was TOTALLY intimidated at first) and his body is work in progress. Super brave? Hiding behind a mask? We could analyze Carlos all day. But you must admit…the actual tattooing is way cool.
And must have hurt like hell. Jesus. He is a little less scary when he’s smiling…
A little less…right?
We entered and there was a ton going on in this room. You can see my friend Margie waving if you look. She got a tattoo! And is easy to spot…we were the only gringos there when we arrived…
We checked out all the tattoos and artists. And a bit of body piercing. The only place I like it is on a stuffed animals. But that’s just me.
There was so much going on in this room. I found my favorite shop. One that I’ve been a bit obsessed with since I saw the Slaughterhouse logo and shop a few years ago in Belize City.
I HAVE TO MEET THE PERSON that designed this logo. It’s just almost so wrong that it’s perfectly right. Meet Luke. Helping me plan my tattoo…
And his logo in color. Ewwww…
And his pig tattoos. Gruesome…
And pre-slaughter party pig.
Lots more tattoos going on. Lots.
This guy getting a FULL ARM fer de lance (Belize’s deadliest snake)…
A lady was getting this beautiful feather on her side. She didn’t seem to be enjoying the process.
A classic tramp stamp.
This lady was biting a rag.
Trying to get this guy to give me a serious grimace.
This artist has a small shop in San Pedro back by the water taxi dock by the lagoon. He is really good…
Here is this guy’s final product.
Margie went for the foot. Her other one has a dragon fly and lotus flowers…everyone here was in full agreement that this was going to hurt…
There is something very intimate about tattooing…
Right?
Even Carlos was way impressed with Margie’s demeanor while getting this notoriously tough spot inked.
She was a champ for about an hour and a half. Here’s the artist working from the picture that Margie brought to the expo.
And TAH DAH! I think the bubbles are the coolest part. $200bzd or $100US and a little bit of art. Right there on your foot.
I left with some new contacts, some new friends and my buddy at Slaughterhouse’s information. I need to think about this. Seriously. Because after 3 hours in that room with all of these people so super cool and passionate about tattooing? I was about 5 minutes away from getting the Slaughterhouse pig on my body.
What!? Don’t judge. Everyone just wants to fit in.
I left with my henna art drying and something to think about.
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