Masha du Toit

So I spent some time at the  Southern Ink Xposure Tattoo convention.

I will remember  –  the sound of a perfect swarm of  tattoo needles buzzing all around me.    Strolling in and out of clouds of disinfectant.  The intense discomfort on the face of a man having a Koi tattooed on his leg.  A little girl under a table –  drawing.

Some stalls were surrounded by the faithful worshippers, adhering strictly to the dress code:

And the object of their devotion – the master of the “dark style” of tattooing, Paul Booth.

I loved   Inka Kendzia’s video mix  – she worked with live video footage of  the artists tattooing, which were projected on screens all around the space.   Another aspect worth seeing was the  “Art of the Human Canvas” exhibition, particularly the collection of sculls each decorated by a different artists.  These were some of my favourites:

I was a bit disappointed  at the lack of talks – there was only one.  The ticket price was high simply for the experience of wandering about among the various tattooists stalls.  But its certainly gratifying to  my vanity to spend an evening eyeing other people’s ink and being complimented on my own.

And to round the evening off, this is how I was identified by a waitress at the restaurant we visited afterwards: