300+ artists gather for inaugural Syracuse Tattoo Festival

Entertainers swallowed swords, contortionists fired arrows with their feet and acrobats hung from the ceiling by hooks in their knees.

No, this was not the circus. It was the Syracuse Tattoo Arts Festival presented by Villain Arts, the largest traveling tattoo convention in the world. This weekend, the Oncenter hosted over 300 artists, marking the festival’s inaugural event in Syracuse’s downtown area.

It is a simple idea really: bring in hundreds of artists, and create a massive walk-in tattoo parlor. All that’s needed is a ticket, and anyone 18-years-old or up can get a tattoo on the spot. Whether a festival goer has had their tattoo for a year or just a few hours, they can enter it into one of the several daily competitions, additionally helping local artists display their work.

It’s like a three-ring circus in one room,” emcee, host, and red beard enthusiast Dr. Carl Blasphemy said.

He was not wrong. Outside of the tattoo booths, the festival attracted vendors selling jewelry, clothing and all the other weird and wacky trinkets that you would, and wouldn’t expect to find. Between the vendors, the lineup of sideshow acts and nightly tattoo competitions, organizers expected between 5,000 and 8,000 attendees.

“This is a great community for tattooing,” Blasphemy said. “We got a great response.”

Having worked in the tattoo industry for 25 years, Blasphemy knows almost every artist in the room. The few exceptions were local Syracuse artists that he met for the first time this past weekend. 

Getting a booth at the festival is no guarantee. After artists apply and submit portfolios, Villain Arts’ organizers review and verify artists meet the professional experience standards before they get to take part, Blasphemy said. In every city Villain Arts visits, the organizers recruit top tattoo artists from the best local shops, then they complete the floor with artists and groups from television such as “Black Ink Crew,” “Ink Master” and “Tattoo Rescue.”

At the Black Ink Crew booth, several artists worked behind a table of completely unique flash sheets. Black Ink Crew member and Atlanta shop owner Trocon Talhouk encouraged me to get one. 

“Every design you see on the table is completely unique, and once you get that tat, it’s gone,” he said.

In Syracuse, Blasphemy said that the floor was roughly 5 to 10% local artists. While the majority came from other cities, the artists on tour knew exactly who the Syracuse artists were. Well, one in particular. 

Carmelo Silva, owner of Carmelo’s Ink City, seemed to be the man every visitor and artist alike wanted to see. “Go find Carmelo,” said Leo Torres, a cover-up specialist out of New Jersey. “He’s the Syracuse tattoo king.” 

Unfortunately, he had no time to talk. He was bent over a client filling in a massive stomach piece with bright red ink: A tattoo one can only assume Silva meant to enter in one of the many end-of-day competitions. There are more than 50 separate competitions across 49 different categories, ranging from Tattoo of the Day to best neck tattoo.

Blasphemy said local artists get double the benefit. “The people that come through, they’re like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know you were around here,’” he said. The competition rules help these artists extra, as they can enter pieces they have done from years before. Also, their clients can show off their work without excess travel.

Silva is well aware of this. On Instagram he encourages his past clients to come and enter their tattoos into the competitions. “Bring that ink out and let’s see if we can bring home some trophies together,” he wrote.

At the end of the weekend, local artists like Silva can head back to their shops. But for many of the artists on the floor, that is not the case. About 40% of the festival’s artists are on tour with the festival week in, week out, Blasphemy said.

“They don’t even have shops anymore,” he said. “They just kind of do laundry on the road and go to the next city.”

One artist mentioned she went to her first Villain Arts festival in Nebraska, left with the tour and has been on the road with them ever since.

The whole festival is on the road. Everything in the room is owned by Villain Arts: the ATMs, the stage, the chairs, all of it. The crew built the setup Thursday morning, Blasphemy said. When it ended on Sunday, they packed it all up and headed for Savannah, Georgia.

“It’s kind of hard, just the life we have on this road,” Blasphemy said. “You gotta balance it with your family.”

By the end of the weekend, the festival was all packed away into two semi trucks and on the road heading south. But if you missed it, worry not. According to Dr. Blasphemy himself, they will be back. This “circus” will make its return to the 315 sometime next year.