BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Artists fire up their tattoos guns, and get their ink ready.
“That energy in a building with all these artists that may know each other or don’t know each other at all. It’s a special thing,” said Tattoo Artist Zach Lloyd.
Zach Lloyd has been a tattoo artist now for almost six years, and he came all the way from North Carolina to participate in the Green State Tattoo Convention.
He’s been to many events like this. But he came to Vermont to expand his reach and learn from other tattooists.
“It just exposes people to other styles of artwork. Or different cultures of tattooing. Like you see people that are coming from California, it’s a very different style than what we have on the East Coast,” said Lloyd.
The convention was a three day event featuring 60 tattoo artists from all over the country.
It also showcased some live music along with a tattoo contest.
The event attracted over a thousand people and visitors say they were psyched to meet some of their favorite artists from other places.
“A lot of artists are really talented and they book up really quickly. So this is a great way to come get art that you cant necessarily book with during the year,” explained Lexy Larive.
“It offers a variety of different tattoo artists in actually one space. So you can see whose tattooing what genre and go and make an appointment with them,” said Angela Mccluskey.
BT the Green State Tattoo Convention is not the first of its kind here in Vermont. Last year the city of St. Albans hosted a convention as well, calling it the Rail City Tattoo Convention.
Created by 100 candles tattoo shop owners Jodi and Jhon Rodriguez
But tattoo artists with Imperial Collective, creators of Green State Tattoo Convention say it is the First National Tattoo Convention here in the state.
“It was just a lot of hard work. We had to hire attorneys. Work very closely with the state to make this happen since Vermont doesn’t have any existing laws pertaining to tattoo events of this size,” said Green State Tattoo Conventions Alma Sears.
“Not a lot of people are able to travel or see other people or tattooers. That’s what we are doing. Bringing that tatooer to you,” said Imperial Collective’s Jaime Bomba.
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