RICHMOND, Va. -- Since 1992, artists from all over have come to Richmond for the longest running tattoo convention in the world, which will celebrate its 29th anniversary this weekend.
In fact, the River City has been named the third most tattooed city in America. But how did tattoos become so popular here and who are some of the local artists behind the ink?
CBS 6 sat down with Jesse Smith, the owner of Loose Screw Tattoo in Carytown and one of the main organizers of the Richmond Tattoo, Art and Music Festival.
At Loose Screw, art is always at the core, tattooing is just the medium.
"Anything that can make a mark, I try to figure out how to make it work," Smith explained.
Smith has been tattooing for 25 years. He started his career painting caricatures at Busch Gardens, before realizing he could create those same animations on people.
"In the tattoo world, it is called 'new school,'" said Smith. "In the real world, I think it's just called, like, cartoons that are really weird and crazy.”
When he opened Loose Screw in 2011, Smith was one of the only “new school” tattoo artists in the world, landing him a spot on season two of Paramount Network’s Ink Master.
“I remember going to a comedy show one time after I'd been on TV, and I had these three grandmas and they're like, oh my god, we're such big fans," Smith laughed. "And we don't have any tattoos, but we love your work. And so I'm taking pictures with grandmas. My face was now in front of my artwork, which, you know, the 14 years prior, my face was behind my artwork.”
Now, the veteran tattooer takes pride in giving newer artists, like Jen Bean, a place to showcase their work and make a living.
“I always had an interest in like doing something artistic for like a career path," said Bean. "And, you know, sadly, there aren't a lot of career paths in art that don't, you know, have you like starve to death.”
In 2015, Smith also took over the task of running one of the oldest tattoo conventions in the world.
"A lot of the best tattoo artists in the entire world would come to Richmond to teach each other tips and tricks," said Smith. “They would drop off all these amazing tattoos to all the locals, and the locals would walk around to other tattoo shops. Then, those tattoo shops would see these great tattoos, and then they tried to make tattoos like that. And I feel like it just kind of built upon itself.”
The convention has helped establish Richmond’s diverse tattoo scene, with the city averaging 14 shops per 100,000 people. That’s the third most in the country.
"It's like, wow, everybody has a tattoo here these days," Bean laughed. "It's almost like funny when you find somebody that doesn't have a tattoo."
With his two decades of experience, Smith says his goal is to push the art of tattooing to the next level and help everyone feel welcome in the tattoo community. This year, he selected Black Ink’s Melody Mithcell as the convention’s first black female headliner.
"Every time I walk into the convention, you just see it's like, you know, predominantly white people," he noted. "Richmond's got such a thick, diverse scene. Why are we not getting more people like that in the convention?”
"It's a great time to be a woman in the industry," Bean explained. "You know, people are so supportive and it's like not quite like how it was you know, like the pioneers like Shanghai Kate that kind of paved the way for female tattooers. Now, it's a lot more accepted."
Whether or not you feel comfortable rolling up your sleeve, Smith hopes you can appreciate the work and the hours spent creating walking canvases and a legacy of tattooing in Richmond.
The Richmond Tattoo, Art and Music Festival will run Friday through Sunday at the Doubletree in Midlothian. More than 150 tattoo artists from across the world will be at the event, and organizers are expecting more than 4,000 people to attend.
There will also be live music, burlesque performances, food trucks, a free tattoo booth and more. Click here for more information or to get tickets.
