Last week I was in The Parlour Tattoo shop in downtown Eugene to get the finishing touches on my new tattoo and I saw an advertisement for the first annual Evergreen Tattoo Invitational and Expo being put on my Joshua Carlton and Riley Smith, Feb. 21-23.  Thinking the event sounded interesting, I moseyed down to the Willamalane Center in Springfield Saturday evening to check it out.  It was the most fun I had all weekend.

                The tattoo expo hosted tattoo artists from all over the U.S., representing 31 of 50 states as well as the UK and British Columbia.  The expo also hosted a variety of other artists and vendors.  Throughout the weekend seminars were offered on various subjects from tattooing and oil painting, to First Aid and CPR.  Live music, rock climbing, food and beer were also offered.  I enjoyed quite the tasty dinner from the Off the Waffle vendor with a nice glass of Hop Valley IPA, while being serenaded by a live rendition of War Pigs from the nearby stage.

After consuming my waffle and beer, I wandered the various booths admiring the live tattooing in progress and books full of the artists’ best works.  I nearly overflowed my pockets with stickers, richly decorated business cards and buttons offered from the vendors.  After a few hours, I completed my wanderings and headed home after purchasing the last deck of custom playing cards from the Club Tattoo booth and a couple of small pieces of art. The whole thing was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to see it next year.

Some prints I got at the expo