Tattoo artists converge on the ‘Burgh

While tattooing has only become widespread in recent years, it’s been a lifestyle for many for… While tattooing has only become widespread in recent years, it’s been a lifestyle for many for a long time. Jesse Buman, an artist from the tattoo parlor In the Blood, has been tattooing for almost six years.

“I’ve wanted to do it since I was 15,” Buman said.

Keith Elliot, who has worked with Transcending Flesh, a tattoo and piercing parlor in Lancaster, Pa.,  said he got into the business simply “’cause it’s cool.”

Buman and Elliot were among more than 60 vendors who came together at the Radisson Hotel in Green Tree this past Halloween weekend for the 18th Annual Meeting of the Marked, a tattoo celebration for artists and aficionados from all over the globe.

Two ballrooms were nearly overflowing with booths set up by different tattoo studios advertising their designs and offering live tattooing on the spot. Hundreds of people from all over — some covered head-to-toe in decorative ink and others looking to get their first tattoo — came to Pittsburgh for the event. Along with the numerous tattoo vendors, there were also zombie-caricature artists, hair-wrap stations and jewelry designers all selling their wares.

Tim Azinger of Pinnacle Tattoo, helped organize the event, He estimated that between 2,000 and 2,500 people attended over the course of the weekend. “Tattoos are very popular,” Azinger said, adding, “This only comes once a year — it’s a rarity.”

Azinger got into the business “around 1992-1993,” when he worked as an apprentice before going off on his own. He attended his first tattoo convention in 1993.

“There were very few tattoo conventions when I started doing the show,” he said. “Everyone in the tattoo community wanted more … we organized the first one, it went well, so it continued.”

Now, he said, organizing the event isn’t nearly as hard.

“It’s not terribly challenging anymore …  after 18 years, there’s kind of a little template that most things fit into that makes it a little easier to come back and do it again the next year,” he said.

Having come a way in the business, Azinger now registers tattoo artists — who hail from places as diverse as the West Coast, Montreal, Japan, Australia and Sweden — to set up their venues at the convention.

The age range of attendees varies just as much as the origins of its artists. Attendees often range from 18, the legal age required to get a tattoo without parental consent, to 60- or 70-something, Azinger said.

The expansive age range of participants underscores how widespread this burgeoning art has become.

Matt Grossi from Butler, Pa., sees his tattoos as a form of self-expression. He attended the convention to get tattooed by his best friend, who was one of the vendors. “All my tattoos mean something to me,” Grossi said. “They all say something about my life.”

One of his tattoos, a milk bottle with “Pap” written above it, symbolizes his late grandfather, who was a milkman.

Azinger uses his tattoos to illustrate different moments in his life.

“Not all of them have a story behind them,” Azinger said, “but they’re all significant in some aspect because they mark different points in my life.” For example, he has the facial portraits of his three children on his thigh.

As for Pittsburgh itself, Azinger sees tattooing as a common interest of the area, relating its popularity to the working-class ethic of this “Steel City.” He called tattooing a “working man’s art” that has evolved, an art that now “crosses so many different social classes. We tattoo everyone from construction workers to nurses and lawyers.”

Lately, the craft has has proven to be an increasingly lucrative career. The tattoo artists themselves can see no better way of life.

Elliot referred to the benefit of being his own boss, saying, “I’m the master of my own destiny.”

As for Azinger, he considers the satisfaction of his clients his reward.

“Probably the most satisfying thing is that smile at the end,” Azinger said. “Or the look in their eye when they look into the mirror and see the finished product.”