Seattle Tattoo Expo: On the Road in Washington

By Nicki Kasper
My trip to Seattle started a little rough… I was trying to get to my hotel to pick up all my boxes and drop them off at the venue before they closed at 7 p.m. but apparently there are two Roy Streets in Seattle, and my navigation system had other plans for me. After I got all the boxes loaded into my car, I made my way to Super Genius for Damon Conklin’s pre-funk party…

I didn’t stay long, but I was there long enough to witness Henry Lewis challenge Damon to trade places with him the next day. Henry would comb out his hair and spray it silver, and Damon would dye his black and twist it. I thought Henry was joking, but the next day he was actually dressed as Damon and it was great.

This show was fun for me, because it was the first show I worked that I had several friends attending. I hung out with Jeff Gogué, Cory Norris, Jon Highland, Nephtali Brugueras, Jesso Lange, Sierra Colt and Jared Driscoll all weekend, and laughed so hard my face still hurts.

I won’t name names, but one member of the group thought he was a real ninja when he was a kid. He even had an authentic ninja uniform complete with Tabi shoes, and he’s got stories… good, hilarious ninja stories that made me laugh until I cried.

I saw a couple familiar and friendly faces in Seattle from past Conventions. Jason Kundell kept me company at the booth here and there over the weekend, and that was fun. I also met Atom Messmer, Seth Ciferri, Shawn Barber, Jeff Houston and Matt Lentz for the first time in Seattle. They were all super cool…

Atom stopped to chat with me often and even sent his apprentice, Ryan over to keep me company a couple times. Thanks for that guys!

The show was great. High-fives to Gloria Connors of Connors & Co . and Damon Conklin for putting on a great show and having an amazing staff. Thanks again for squeezing TAM in.

I’d love to do it again next year!