MA Tattoo Festival 2012

Artist Kelly Green working on Obo's tree

Obo and I went to the MA Tattoo Festival in Sturbridge this past Saturday (March 31).  We spent quite a bit of time just wandering around, visiting with different artists and vendors and looking at artwork, tattoos and miscellany (I bought a really lovely necklace from a steampunk jewelry maker – great stuff!). We took a break for lunch and went off-site to a restaurant/bar down the road. I wasn’t feeling great for a while, and wanted a place to sit and eat that was a bit quieter. It took a while, but I finally felt better after lunch – but it took a good 2 glasses of water and two cups of coffee to get me there. Don’t ask how many times I visited the women’s room for the rest of the afternoon – I lost count.

It didn’t take long after our arrival to decide that Obo should get ink while we were there. He decided on an artist – Kelly Green from Hartford, CT – and image (tree, located on the back of his right calf – absolutely beautiful) fairly quickly, although we made sure to do a full walk through before coming back to Kelly. His work was (roughly) scheduled for 4 PM (although didn’t happen in reality until 6 – nothing really went on time there), so we had plenty of time to kill wandering around (even with our lunch break).

A big part of most of these festivals is the competition: people go in front of several judges to get their tattoos evaluated and considered for awards in a variety of  categories, based on attributes such as color (vs. black and gray), size and, in some cases, subject or style (floral, traditional, etc.). I actually entered part of my still-in-progress back piece on the very strong urging of my tattoo artist (who, coincidentally enough, happened to be running the whole affair).  I’ve been remiss about posting photos of the work being done (and now I actually have some, and will get them up here soon, I hope), but one separate part is a beautiful raven which, unfortunately, didn’t win anything. I was so entertained by the whole process however, that I honestly didn’t mind much one way or the other. The competition didn’t start until 8:30 PM (despite being slated for 8), so we didn’t leave until nearly 10, getting us home – exhausted – around 11 pM.  Nearly 12 hours from the time we got there that morning.

It was funny how I felt so much more comfortable there once we focused on Obo getting a piece done. It felt like we had a purpose. I think I was trying to figure out how we fit in up until then. I really didn’t have much to worry about – there was a really fun and wide assortment of people wandering around all day; everything from folks dressed in long pants and sleeves showing absolutely no ink (which made me wonder if they didn’t have any, or just weren’t into displaying what they had), to people very nearly completely covered (and undressed, in some cases).

I didn’t really think about it while we were there, but the amount of artwork – both on skin and off – that we viewed was enormous. I didn’t sleep well Saturday night, and found that I was dreaming about the festival in one way or another most of the evening (except for the hour and ½ I spent awake, reading and/or trying to fall back asleep). Have you ever had nights where it feels like you’ve done nothing but dream about the day you just had? Whether it’s about work, or friends, or family, and everything is so vivid that you felt like you really didn’t sleep at all? Like you might as well have never left what you were doing that day? I’m not sure how else to describe the feeling, but that’s how I woke up Sunday morning.

And in thinking about it, it’s made me realize how deeply I was affected by my surroundings Saturday. Not negatively at all – but just really affected. Sort of how I feel after I’ve been tattooed. Each time I’ve left from a tattoo session (regardless of the artist), the whole experience stays with me for days. The conversations, the smells, ambient sounds, and music that was playing…. Does this happen to everyone? If not, why am I so affected in this way? I’ve been drawn to tattoos and tattooing for years and years – completely fascinated, and always wanting another piece once my current project was finished. The whole process and industry has a really strong pull on me – but I can’t say why, or what it is about it that I’m so taken with. And now the really funny thing is, I’m getting exactly what I’ve wanted for years – a really unique and intense piece of work by an artist who is as drawn to the piece he’s working on as I am. And I’ve discovered that there are aspects to doing something like this that I never considered.

Hmmm… I’ll have to pick up this thread later in the week; I want to get this posted and am out of time. And I do believe this post is quite long enough.