An annual traveling tattoo show stopped in Killeen yet again for the last couple of days, this time drawing thousands of potential customers.
“This is the best turnout; it just reminds me when we started,” said Raymond Hernandez, who organized the Ink Masters Tattoo Show in 2010.
This year, the show has 43 stops — each going three or four days over a weekend.
“We do it four days now (in Killeen),” Hernandez said. “Killeen used to be a three-day show, but every day has been busy, busy, busy.”
As of around 1:30 p.m. Saturday — about two hours into the show that day — 200 people had walked through the doors of the Killeen Civic and Conference Center. The previous two days netted around 2,000 visitors.
“I’m going to tell you why I love Killeen,” Hernandez said. “My first show was in California. My second show was in Killeen. That’s why I love Killeen.”
The Ink Masters Tattoo Show used to come to Killeen twice a year, but with the addition of other cities it is now once a year.
For this year’s event, Hernandez said more than 110 artists followed the show to Killeen.
One such artist, Ricardo Escovar of Sinfully Inked Tattoo & Body Piercing in San Diego, California, was one of the several artists.
“A lot of my family members already have been down this road, so it’s not uncommon in my family,” Escovar said.
As he spoke, Escovar was tattooing a Polynesian design on the forearm of Killeen resident Maile Veness.
“We met Mr. Rick a couple years ago and he’s been tattooing a few of us now,” Veness said Saturday. “I knew he was going to be here, so I made sure I caught up with him.”
Veness said that her Polynesian tattoo will be the second on her that Escovar has completed, though the artist has done one on her daughter as well.
“He’s mastered his craft,” she said. “This is all freehand and he kills it.”
For Escovar, the passion for doing tattoos started with a passion for art.
“I love drawing,” he said. “This is just one of the ways that I can do that and support my family, too.”
The tattoo show continues until midnight Saturday. The cost to enter is $25 for the day or $40 for the weekend.
The Ink Masters Tattoo Show concludes Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the Killeen Civic and Conference Center. For those who have not already purchased a weekend pass, the cost will be $25 to enter.
