art tattooing: 12th Annual Richmond Tattoo Arts Festival

Another successful show put on by B.I.R.D. productions and Sacred Heart

I got in Thursday at 6:30am to help put the rooms together for the show. Billy and his staff -- Ben, Bexx, Scott, Jon, Racheal, Troy & Drew and I'm sure a few more I'm forgetting showed up and all got busy.

Lots of details go into these conventions, from the plastic under all the booths, to electric service to be run to each one, as well as registration tables, vendor booths & setting up the art gallery, and another hundred details. It’s a lot of fun though, and I enjoy helping out when I can.

Billy has got a system, and he knows what he wants. Just don’t fuck it up and you'll be OK. Seriously though, Billy is the coolest guy, I have total respect for the man. He is an icon in the biz and I enjoy listening to his story’s and his words of wisdom. He has a lot of knowledge of the tattoo business and I have learned a lot from him already.

Tony Olivas is also a legend in the game, and I always enjoy our conversations together. You can see an interview with Tony & Porkchop that we did recently available now in Volume 5.

The place was filled with great artists from all over the country, with lots of the big guys were there. In one row alone sitting side by side, was Jack Rudy, Deano Cook, Bob Tyrrell, Hannah Aitchison, Guy Aitchison, Michelle Wortman, just to name a few.

Jeremiah sat down with Chris Longo and Ed interviewed Shahn Anderson, I got some great Jack Rudy antics, it was a fantastic show!

This lucky collector was only one of the many tattoos I got to see Guy work on thoughout the weekend, he stayed busy the whole time.

Amazing to watch him do his thing.

I hung out with Bob for a while as well as Hannah, they will be traveling to Berlin, Germany this week to attend a tattoo convention there. Wish I could go... but, that will come in time.

The spectator turn out was great in Richmond this year, it seemed like all the artists were working constantly, and doing some awesome tattoos. Many awards were givin out as usual and we took some great photos and got plenty of footage.

I shot footage of Deano Cook & Miami Burgess working on some amazing back pieces, and one of Deanos newest paintings was in the art gallery on display. A 5 foot by 5 foot canvas of a sea turtle, with crazy detail.

Deano has some outside projects that are truly amazing. He just completed a mural on a building that wrapped the entire building, a warehouse the size of an airplane hanger. He used a cherry picker, a airless spray rig, a car sprayer and a one and a half inch paint brush. He said it took 16 days to complete. The results were like a giant fish tank just standing in a field. The size of one whale was 105 feet tip to tail. He tells me that he has a another large scale mural in the planing stages right now and that I will be able to film that one.

Little John was also there, and had a special mission to accomplish. John’s friend Otto the woodman recently had a leg amputated and they auctioned off a large Otto carving to help raise money for his medical expenses.

Pat Sinatra was the lucky recipient of the Statue. How she got it home on the plane I have know Idea, it must have been over 6 feet tall.

Good luck to you Otto! hope to see you at a show real soon!

We got some excellent interviews, Dennis Dwyer, Shahn Anderson, Lourcifer from Last Rites and many more.

Be looking for the entire coverage of the Richmond Show, coming soon in a new issue of the Tattoo Video Magazine.

See you at a show real soon!

Scott McCool