Expanding through the four floors of downtown Ybor’s Cuban Club, The Second Annual Cigar City Tattoo Convention was an enticing art exposition that celebrated the ink-on-skin medium with three days of tattoos, contests, music and more.
Visitors were served a buffet for the senses. Taste was covered as food and beer were provided, and the unmistakable smell of burning incense lingered through the drafty air of the historical building all day on Saturday. Anyone getting tattooed or pierced was definitely in touch with the feeling of their epidermis and all associated nerves, and background music could be heard everywhere. However, the most distinct sound was the unfading and everlasting "buzzzzz” of the collective tattoo guns, which could be heard humming throughout the two upper levels of the club.
Sight was probably the most indulged of the senses, with a kaleidoscope of artistic tattoos sprawling across the bodies of almost everyone in attendance – a multicolored sea of skin. The Miss Cigar City contest was also a tantalizing sight for the eyes.
A musical and artistic haven where tattoo parlors thrive abundantly, Ybor City was a perfect Tampa locale for the convention, and the Cuban Club’s neoclassic architecture conjured up a vintage atmosphere unique to any hotel-housed tattoo event I have attended.
Aaron Reber of Lost Art Tattoo came to the Tampa tattoo gathering from Salt Lake City. He gave props to the venue and said he was having a good weekend at the “tight knit” convention.
“Conventions are always good for meeting up with people you haven’t seen in a while and meeting a few new clients is never a bad thing,” Reber said. “And when the conventions have cool after parties like this one that makes it even better.”
(See our tattoo gallery after the break)
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2010.