Tattoo you?

While the tattoo conference has been a fairly long-standing concept in other countries around the world in recent years, Ireland has been a notable absentee on the world circuit.

This autumn, however, saw that all change with the recent Dublin Tattoo Conference at the SFX, the brainchild of Paddy O’Donnahue of Bodyshock. A veteran of the tattoo scene, O’Donnahue had been a regular at many such events and had always harboured plans to bring something similar to his hometown.

“This year I said ‘fine, let’s do it’,” he explains, sitting backstage at the venue. “Nobody wanted to help at the start, and at the end of the day everybody wanted in, which was when all the artists found out about it. People were calling from everywhere. It started off as a small thing, we had to chase venues and even change the date three times, but here we are”.

Despite the relatively small nature of the event, certainly compared to shows such as Berlin and Massachusetts, interest throughout the industry was huge, with top artists from the UK, Europe and USA mixing with homegrown talent. “Loads of them have never come to Ireland before so they’ve kind of made a holiday of it, hired cars, gone on the tourist buses, that sort of thing”.

While the interest from the artists was assured, there was still some doubt as to how the event would capture the public’s imagination – worries dispelled by the queues forming outside the SFX on the opening night. In the end, the conference was a massive success in terms of numbers – due in no small part to the quality of artists attending, particularly those from the US.

Perhaps most keenly anticipated was the arrival of Paul Booth, a genuine superstar of the field. When not signing autographs, Booth was in constant demand for designs, even given his £250 an hour price tag and attracted a continual crowd watching him at work.

As a casual observer, two things strike above all else. One is the sheer quality of the work being undertaken. Gone are the days of the untrained artist scratching away on people from a back room, this is now a serious art form. A varied one too – the Celtic themes that were so popular a few years back have been surpassed by designs from Maori and Chinese culture. A strong connection also exists with ’50s America and the whole rock’n’roll scene from the period – indeed the after show party is held at the splendid Rumble Club at the Shelter. It is this increased standard of work that has helped destigmatise the genre. Paddy O’Donnahue agrees:

“Five years ago, you’d be followed down the street. Nowadays, people are more interested than freaked out”.

What is also obvious is the massive sense of community that exists within the scene. Everybody seems to know everybody else, resulting in an atmosphere of support, friendliness and plain good vibes that you’d be hard pushed to find at any other public gathering.

When Paddy dedicated the show to his late partner Ricky, who played a huge part in the show’s organisation before succumbing to kidney failure earlier in the year, the sense of emotion and loss in the room is tangible. Suddenly, the reasons for people’s addiction to body art (and all will maintain that it is an addiction) start to become clearer. All the talk of freakishness and being an outsider is largely inaccurate. The men and women from this scene – and it is nowhere near as macho as you might suppose – have simply transplanted one idea of society for their own.

From where I was standing, it looks a damn good place to be.