Sunday (my first day off in ages), I wake up with a hangover of course... after some time tossing and turning in bed and feeling sorry for myself, I get up and make some coffee just to be informed that since the clocks where set ahead the nght before it is not 8:30 but 9:30... great! (the abuse I have to put up with even on my day off.... poor me!)
Into the car, to the gas-station, off we go.... wheee! The highway is pretty empty and thankfully Chrystal drives less iratic than usual, so I only get a little car-sick and don't throw up. I look out the window, there is a clear blue sky, it is warm and live is good... until we get to the show that is. As usual in Florida and the US in general, the AC is running full force and it is in the lower 50s in the hall or better said the rooms of the convention, since the artists are split into 2 rooms and the hallway in between and the contests and bands are in another room. We head to the booth of Needful Things (where I'm doing a guest-spot at this time) and Nickee lays down on the table to get a heart with "mom" tattooed on her calf by Piper. I take a strol throught the convention and say 'hi' to everyone I know.... 5 minutes later I'm back at the booth.
There is realy not much going on! There is a ton of studios from Florida and only one international artist as far as I can see and he is never in his booth. Mark Longnecker is in attendence as is Lisa Schmolt, Schane O'Neill and a bunch of people I haven't seen in a while. A couple of the artists are working, but most sit around bored. This convention seems to have shrinking visitors numbers and people less willing to spend money on getting tattooed, less interest by international artists and there is realy nothing going on Sunday afternoon.
I try to sell some flash, but since no one made any money, I don't make any ether. But no matter, I'm there to write an article! I take some fotos of nice work and check out the band. There is an auktion to sell off the art-fusion drawings for the benifit of the Childrens Diabetis Help, but no one realy bids, which could be the lack of big-name signatures on the paper and the lack of real creativity (the pictures are a mix of dragons, skulls and biomechanic that look like everything else).
A bunch of other stuff gets auktioned, even a snowboard!, and since I´m feeling somewhat run down at this point, question myself what all this has to do with tattooing, why I´m here and not getting tanned at the beach, freezing my ass off, I decide it´s time to have a drink. I run into Lyle Tuttle in front of the bar, he is promoting his show...
I run around some more, but it is still dead. Nickee is still getting tattooed and I´m starting to get bored... (that´s what happens when you´re not working at a show... usualy you just get drunk!) But I stick to one beer and have a Red Bull right after to stay awake during the contests. There is a bunch on nice tattoos on stage, but since attendance is low there is not much compettion (in "black and grey" it´s enought to enter to win a prize!) Nickee wins second place in "best of day", wich is great for her and Piper. After that it is time to pack and head home, so we help by standing in the way and giving good advice.
After cramping everything into 3 cars, we head home (to bed). All in all the Tampa Convention was disapointing and I´m glad I didn´t book a booth. It seems there are more and more shows, but less visitors and even less people spending money on tattoos....
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