martes, 26 de mayo de 2015

XI Tattoo Show

(March 2015) Today, my wife and I visited the 11th Tattoo Show. This event takes place at the La Rural exhibition grounds. Before talking about the event, we are anti-tattoos; in fact, we don't like having tattoos, not even washable ones or those that wash off after a few days. However, we respect everyone who chooses to get tattooed, whether one or a thousand tattoos on their body, and we always try to avoid falling into prejudice. But a while ago, while watching television and channel surfing, we stumbled upon a tattoo reality show from the US called Ink Master.

And so we allowed ourselves to watch one episode, and we liked it, and we watched another, and that's how we ended up watching three full seasons. Since then, we began to recognize the talent required to be a tattoo artist, managing to see the relationship between tattooing and art, drawing, technique, painting, colors, shadows, strokes, lines, styles, and, of course, those that were a disaster. But we always stuck with what comes close to art and the artist.

And so, driven by curiosity and the intrigue generated by watching artists work live at a convention that brought together a significant number of them, we didn't think twice and went to visit the 11th Tattoo Show. When we arrived, it must have been around 7:30 PM, and night was beginning—a full moon night, which, although not yet fully visible, already had the city lights turned on as can be seen in the photograph.

Flyer Admission cost 105 pesos. With it, you were given a couple of small flyers. One of them, the one in the image, promoted the tattoo show with characteristic Argentine imagery, and right next to it, the upcoming event for the year 2016 was already being promoted for the exact same dates.

The exhibition is organized by Mandinga Tattoo, who have become well-known for hosting the first Argentine television show exclusively about tattoos. They present the program as "dedicated to exploring the world of tattooing and its culture."

This exhibition is the 11th one they have organized, and it is the first time they have held it at La Rural. All previous times, they had held it at the Bauen Hotel, which is located on Callao Avenue almost reaching Corrientes Avenue. I remember once seeing this exhibition there from the outside—a sign indicating what it was about—one or two years ago, though I never went inside. And it was last year, again while watching TV and channel surfing, that we ran into the Mandinga Tattoo program, and there they broke the news of their expansion: due to high turnout and an increase in visitors, they were moving the event to La Rural. Their website is http://www.mandingatattoo.com/

Floor plan with booth http://www.tattooshow.com.ar/ar/ is the event's webpage, and it features various informational material, from stands and exhibitors, their descriptions and presentations, contests, shows, seminars, etc.

The exhibition's website states: "Donations will be accepted. On March 6th, 7th, and 8th, donations will be accepted for the schools we sponsor. They can be delivered at the entrance of the La Rural grounds on the days of the expo. Thank you very much."

Unfortunately, it doesn't specify what kind of donations they receive; they could have specified it or promoted it more heavily, since if you don't visit the website, you won't find out—at least for those of us who don't belong to the tattoo culture.

This group of tattoo artists gathered under Mandinga Tattoo sponsors rural schools in the country's interior, so they travel to those places and bring or do something to improve the school in question. It is explained in greater detail on their webpage, and I also saw it on an episode of their program—the only one I watched—where they discussed the trip to one of those rural schools in the interior.

Devil chair Upon entering, you saw an old barbershop or hair salon chair featuring a doll figure of a tattooing devil. Actually, you bumped into this right at the exit, so you could take a picture sitting there. In some parts of South America, "Mandinga" is associated with the devil, and here Mandinga are the organizers, making the allusion clear alongside the advertising on the background sign. The name is no coincidence. The supernatural is present in tattoo culture, so we find many figures such as devils, demons, ghosts, goblins, angels, etc. Today in Western culture, this doesn't carry much more meaning than highlighting tattooing as something taboo, although it is already deeply embedded in society, and the taboo status is fading away, leaving it only for extreme cases of people who mix tattooing with other practices, some more invasive than others.

Immediately afterward, you entered directly into the Ochre Pavilion of the fairgrounds where the exhibition took place. The first booth you saw sold magazines; I think it was the only one. Tattoo magazines sell well—I don't know if many were sold right there, but outside in kiosks, discount bookstores, online sales, etc., they sell quite a bit. You can also see in the quality of the magazines and their variety that the subject of bibliography is interesting; there is an abundance of literature regarding tattooing, especially for those whose trade is being a tattoo artist.

Tattooing as an object of analysis also presents numerous studies coming from the social sciences, covering a significant number of angles: tattooing in antiquity, tattooing in Eastern cultures, tattooing in urban subcultures, tattooing in criminality (prisons), tattooing in criminal organizations (Nazism), tattooing as art, tattooing as aesthetics, etc.

Pope Francis tattoos Those who decided to get a tattoo—which ultimately was one of the main purposes of the exhibition—got them done right there with their preferred tattoo artist, or because they liked the venue, or whatever the reason. They stepped into the respective booth and were tattooed in plain view of everyone. Part of what the exhibition was about was watching the tattoo artists in action, watching who they were tattooing, watching how they were tattooed, seeing the results, and seeing the happy faces when they walked out with their finished tattoos. The one in the photograph is a young man who decided to get the face of Pope Francis tattooed on part of his back. The booths were strategically positioned for the convenience of the tattoo artist to do their work and for the public to enjoy watching the process. Many tattoo artists had a dual image: the drawn one (which is then traced onto the skin before starting to tattoo) and a digital image on cell phones. They placed both images side by side to visualize them and then began the work. The trade of the tattoo artist is practically institutionalized; many people dedicate their lives or parts of them to tattooing, doing it full-time and making a living from it. You can make a lot of money or enough to live well. But like everything else, certain requirements are needed to succeed in what you do; a certain level of professionalism in various aspects will weigh heavily on each tattoo artist when it comes to the success or failure of their tattooing business venture.

Over time, as it has become more mainstream, new rules for the work have emerged, along with improvements that every tattoo artist must implement: from health and safety regulations for the tattooed person to avoid infections or allergies or any possible and avoidable health risk, down to parental authorizations in the case of minors seeking tattoos, many of whom are teenagers. And of course, there is, as in everything, a fringe area or unserious tattoo artists, but the progressive institutionalization of this trade is limiting all the bad.

In some countries, there are specific regulations through resolutions issued by Ministries of Health that cover tattoo-related issues. In other countries, there are study and specialization courses for the practice of tattooing, courses endorsed by Ministries of Education. In other countries, laws only permit people to get tattooed in clinics and hospitals rather than private shops. In other countries, there is a certain legal vacuum regarding who regulates or should regulate the activity; it is generally framed under other categories and never fully resolved. In some places, unions between tattoo artists have been formalized to find their place in society, make claims, or petition for certain rights that concern them.

The very competition within this activity leads each tattoo artist to improve over time, both in knowledge and practice. It is true that practice is essential—many tattoo artists are proficient through experience alone and lack formal studies—but reality seems to indicate that over time, theoretical knowledge becomes a strong asset and a bonus in the tattoo trade.

Many of the business cards found at the booths and available to take away indicated the professions and studies acquired by the tattoo artist: there were art teachers, fine arts graduates, visual arts graduates, drawing teachers, etc. The fact that they state this implies a certain degree of training and the importance they place on it. This can also be seen in the profile of each participating specialist available on the exhibition's website.

Today, tattooing is viewed as an artistic expression, and indeed around the world, there are museums dedicated exclusively to tattoos, such as:

Concert As is well known—both indicated on the flyer handed out upon entry and known by those who visited the event's webpage—during the three days of the event, from start to finish, every hour features a show, a contest, or a seminar. Thus, visitors have an activity available to enjoy no matter what day or time they go. In our case, we caught the show by El Natty Combo, a band that plays mostly instrumental roots reggae. The saxophone stood out prominently, and we didn't know the songs, nor did I even know of the existence of this band, which—as I discovered by visiting their website and others—has been releasing albums since 2003. The sound was turned up to the max and sounded very good. As seen in the image, quite a few people gathered in front of the stage to listen to them, while many others walked back and forth exploring the venue accompanied by the live music show, which featured multicolored background lighting. This musical group's website is http://www.nattycombo.com.ar/

Steven Tefft Something to keep in mind, perhaps one of the most important aspects, is the international character of the gathering. The giant entrance sign already announced it as an "International Tattoo Convention." Furthermore, the event's webpage reads: "It will host a total of 215 booths with more than 800 tattoo artists visiting us from countries such as Spain, Italy, Germany, New Zealand, France, USA, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, and the best artists from Argentina."

One of these international artists—perhaps the most interesting one—was Steven Tefft, champion of the second season of the US television show Ink Master. This television show is a tattoo reality series, and it was watching its episodes first, and then the full seasons, that got us interested in tattoo artists and led us to recognize their work as true works of art in some cases. The interesting thing about this show, while containing all the ingredients of a reality show, was that it focused almost exclusively on tattoo techniques and tools. That is where art becomes visible: when difficulty increases, when critiques begin, when variables appear, and during the various challenges they had to overcome—all related to artistry and mastery of the different tools that a top-tier tattoo artist can, may, and must handle. And of course, this reality show had its quirks: there was a case of a tattoo artist who reached the final five or six and had never been tattooed nor gotten a tattoo, yet turned out to be an excellent tattoo artist. To learn more about this show, you can check the following link http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_Master (or the more comprehensive English Wikipedia version). The photograph shows the sign with the tattoo artist's image and the name of the booth where he was located. Indeed, we saw him, you could greet him (though he only spoke English), and take a picture. At the adjacent booth were other American tattoo artists from another television show called Tattoo Nightmares Miami, among whom stood out a colorful character who also appeared on Ink Master, named Clint Cummings, accompanied by Lydia Bruno and the rest of the crew, who also posed for photos.

You could see booths with Brazilian tattoo artists and other international ones. It is possible I missed some and don't remember them, as I didn't read every single sign on the booths, but I do remember two or three of the Brazilian ones.

In this photograph, two tattoo artists were working: one on a man lying down wearing only shorts, and on the next table, a woman who was also being tattooed by a female tattoo artist. Around the booth were various images and drawings in frames. I saw a booth with paintings (it looked like oil or acrylic), many pencil drawings in color or black and white, a few mandalas; some had prices, others did not, and I don't know if they were all for sale, but if not, at least they decorated the booth. Other booths were empty, some displayed prints, others just hung a sign or flag identifying the name of the shop they represented. One of the booths had wooden frames with something hanging inside that resembled completely drawn (or tattooed) skin; I don't know what material it was. Something I noticed—it seems obvious, but I'll mention it—is the business cards. In most of the booths, cards were available to take. The novel thing (though not for the tattoo world) was that on the back of each card, there was space available to record details. This is because each tattoo shop usually has several artists working there, allowing the client to take a card with the specific data of the artist who attended to them so that when they return to the shop, they know who served them and what price quote was given for a particular piece of work.

Apparently, according to what was reported on the news channel C5N, a 2-hour tattoo session currently costs around 1,500 Argentine pesos. They estimate that the standard client's pain tolerance lasts about 2 hours; if they can handle more, they continue; if they can't, they return the next day to continue another 2 hours of work. It also depends a lot on the size of the tattoo, its difficulty, etc. Among the people getting tattooed, you could see many who felt the pain and showed it in some way: some with facial expressions, others asking for a break, some clenching their fists or gripping their own clothes. We even saw a woman crush a soda can she was holding in her hand. It's up to each person to guess whether she really did it because of pain or if it was just an act for the public watching from outside the booth. In many cases, the presence of so many spectators watching the people getting tattooed caused their adrenaline to spike upon feeling all those eyes on them, making them feel less pain or tolerate it slightly better than usual.

In the following photograph, some drawings are displayed on a table at one of the Brazilian booths. The place was calm; since there weren't so many visitors at that moment to make walking difficult, you could stroll back and forth peacefully. A few private security individuals were visible, and nothing more. There were a few clothing sales booths, mostly t-shirts, some jackets, bags, and purses—all sharing the habitual characteristic of being black. That's where we stood out from the majority of the visitors. For some reason, the vast majority dress in black clothing; the reasons vary, but black is the favorite color. In a report for the C5N news channel, a person nicknamed "El Mago," who calls himself "the most tattooed man in Argentina" with over a thousand drawn tattoos on his body, when asked by the reporter, alluded to the fact that black t-shirts (and black clothing in general) stem from the music they listen to: heavy metal rock. And of course, the vast majority of visitors were tattooed; many also showed off their piercings in their eyebrows, tongues, navels, and noses, with a few having gauged and pierced ears.

The places to eat and grab a drink were simple kiosks where many hot dogs were sold. There were only a few tables; it looked more like quick, on-the-go food, which makes sense since most attendees were young people walking from booth to booth. There was no shortage of supply booths—from inks to tattoo machines, each with its own features—and all the paraphernalia that makes up tattoo culture: plenty of skulls, horns, crosses, devils, dice, and all kinds of tattoo-related merchandise such as rings, chains, various kinds of piercings, and much more. A couple of motorcycles were also on display. All in all, it was a great experience to tour this tattoo convention.

Publicadas por a la/s
Ubicación: Buenos Aires, Cdad. Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

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