This weekend, I attended my first tattoo expo. January 27th-29th was the 31st annual AM-Jam Tattoo Expo, held at the Ramada Inn in East Syracuse, New York. This exciting three-day event hosted over 100 artists, both local and international, giving tattoo enthusiasts quite the selection to choose from. Each day, they also ran a series of contests, from best "Virgin" tattoo, to the classic best black and white or color tattoos. Didn't want to get a tattoo? That's cool too! Many of the shops that had a booth there also did piercings. Didn't want to do that either? Also cool! Just being there and being a part of something so awesome is enough!
I went on Sunday, which was the last day of the event, and took a friend of mine with me who ended up getting his first tattoo (shout out to Ty Delarm and Queen City for doing an awesome job)! I'll admit, hearing the buzzing of multiple tattoo guns all around me at once made it extremely tempting to get some new ink, and watching my friend get his first piece didn't help, but I managed to resist the urge. I was also just completely overwhelmed with the amount of talent in one small space. There was so much to look at, between the artists working on new pieces to just the people walking around the venue showing off their old tattoos. The amount of incredible work is truly amazing. Also, you get to see and meet some well-known faces in the body modification world, like Lizard Man. If you've never seen or heard of Lizard Man, look him up.
After spending five hours at the expo, it is very easy for me to say I will definitely be going back next year! I highly suggest checking out a tattoo expo, there are tons across the country, even if you're not interested in getting anything done; it's just a cool new experience to check out...and who knows! You might just give in and leave with some awesome new body art!
Oh, and make sure to check out the AM-Jam Tattoo Expo out on Facebook and explore some of the websites of the artists that were there!
