05.17.06

Hell City Tattoo Festival, Columbus, OH

Posted in Body Mod, Fun Stuff, Personal News at 12:18 pm by divinity

Whew.. finally getting a few minutes to sit down and blog my weekend in full. Friday afternoon I hopped in the car after work and took off for Columbus, OH. After getting stuck in rain, traffic, and construction I finally made it to Columbus around 2:30am. Luckily Tony was awake, welcomed me and then we crashed out so we could get up at 7:30 to head down to the Hyatt to help set things up for Hell City.

We walked into the Hyatt at an ungodly time in the morning to find that it was being overrun with a bunch of middle school/high school? volleyball players and their suburbanite parents for some sort of championship match. What a mix with a tattoo convention, eh? We spent the morning moving things into new rooms where there was more space, and then I spent the day either watching the fine art gallery downstairs, registering people for the tattoo competitions (I got to register the “Unusual” category), working the merchandise table, or just running around doing things here and there. Some of the highlights of the “Unusual” registrations included Jesus on a toilet, Michael Jackson with a boy on his knee, a food inspired work of art including Lucky Charms, the Quaker Oats guy, Chef Boyardee, McDonalds, and more. Most of my afternoon was spent at the merchandise table with Jamie and Dana, with the occasional stop in by other people to help out. It’s amazing how often people don’t bother to read signs, as we clearly stated the answers to the most commonly asked questions in ink and paper. Oh well, we still had fun.

When the actual convention floor closed at 11, it was time for everyone to hit the bar at the hotel. A few drinks later somehow Jamie was convincing me to stay out while Dana and Tony went home to crash. My arm was twisted so hard. lol Walking the streets of Columbus, a late night taco bell run, some sexy Mila Jovovich in Resident Evil, and about 2-3hrs of sleep and before we knew it we were stumbling back to the Hyatt for Sunday.

Sunday was a long day of merchandise selling. We sold out of so much stuff. A few hours into the day, I realized that there was no safe way I could make the 6 hour drive in the rain back to Chicago, so I let work know, and keep drinking red bull to get me through the day. Oh, and don’t forget the obligatory mother’s day call.

After things shut down on Sunday for good around 8pm, we began the long process of breaking stuff down. Several hours later I found myself at Stained Skin with a needle getting shoved through my arm and Tony putting in a surface piercing on the top of my forearm. Then finally we made it back to a nice comfy bed for some well deserved sleep and then the drive home the next morning.