Tattoo Expo draws artists from all over

Paolo Cruz was the picture of nonchalance as Seattle tattoo artist Suzy Todd embedded yellow ink into his skin Saturday afternoon, giving life to the "mythical rooster" taking flight on his right shoulder.

"It's all an act," Cruz, 24, said over the incessant buzz of tattoo machines. "It hurts. A lot."

But, he noted, "The pain is part of the passage."

Scores of people made their own passages Saturday as about 285 tattoo artists from around the country inked up bodies with a breathtaking variety of dragons, samurai and portraits of icons and loved ones during the Seattle Tattoo Expo, which continues today at Seattle Center.

The three-day event was expected to attract as many as 10,000 people, said owner Gloria Conners, who invited artists she admires to participate in the event, now in its eighth year.

"This is the most difficult medium I've worked in," said San Francisco artist Shawn Barber, whose haunting still-lifes migrated from canvas to skin in 2005. "There's an infinite number of variables, and it's permanent."

The permanence is one reason Mikey McAllister discourages people from adorning their bodies with the names of boyfriends or girlfriends.

"I know it sounds terrible, but most of the time, they break up," said McAllister, 32, an assistant to Seattle artist Christy Brooker, who specializes in photo-realistic tattoos at her Damask Tattoo studio in Seattle.

Brooker drew a crowd Saturday as she stenciled the chiseled torso of a client with a line drawing of his girlfriend and the word "beloved."

His arms were already covered with black-and-white portraits, including one of Al Capone and the phrase "kind words and a gun," a portion of the quote attributed to the gangster: "You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone."

The migration of fine artists to the skin medium has exploded in recent years, and the techniques and perspectives are attracting "collectors" seeking images ranging from the personal to the profane, said Bill Funk, 46, a Philadelphia artist whose family has run tattoo studios since 1979.

"Seattle has a very rich collection of tattoo artists," Funk said. "When you have that type of talent, it inspires you to do more and push yourself." It also brings in new collectors.

"What we see now is a complete reflection of society in general," Funk said. "There is no tattoo subculture. The lines have been blurred. If you have a love of the art, you're going to get a tattoo."

Many of the collectors looked tough, but their tattoos revealed tender hearts.

Take McAllister, for example. He got his first tattoo at age 15, and has covered up most of the earliest ones with images that have deep meaning to him. His right arm bears thick lines of a freshly inked goldfish, representing his three nieces.

"They picked it out," he said. "We go through art together. We were looking through books and we found these."

The images on his left arm depict maple leaves and water, symbols of the rest of his family, the living and the dead.

"There's always power in them when you see them and remember something," he said. "It's a time line — a part of where you were at that moment."

Susan Kelleher: 206-464-2508 or skelleher@seattletimes.com