Evian, a little bourgeois town known for its famous water, with a pleasant setting and at the edge of lac Léman facing Lausanne greets every year one of the finest conventions in France. With a poster to die for, the most fashionable tattooists are present such as Téresa Sharpe, winner of the reality show « Best Ink », who did a chest in two days, absolutely jaw dropping.
There was also the eccentric Kelly Doty of « The Gold Dust Gallery » in Salem with her crazy animal tattoos and her scary little girls which reminds you of some painters such as Mark Ryden or Greg Craola Simkins. There's also cartoon tattoo specialist Tony Ciavarro of « Stinky Monkey », Max Pniewski and his realistic lego tattoos, Nathan Evans between Neo-trad and cartoon, Liz Cook of « Rebel Muse Tattoo » who inks some superb realistic tattoos, Steven Compton (realistic cartoons), Timmy B (realistic cartoons), Mike Woods (multiple styles), Jason Martinelli (realistic tattoos), Fabian Lucky 7 (cartoon), Dimitri Hk (multiple styles), Jerome Siempre (Cartoon), Leah Moule, Adrian Dominic (biom-mech pro), Christian « l’encre du peuple », Yogi Barrett (super realistic), Tye Harris (super realistic), Jerome Crazycaps (New-school cartoon), Sid L-Boy (Trash polka), Brent Olson (realistic), Sam Barber (realistic), Audie Fulfer of Fresno in California, Grenoble’s Derm-hospital team, neo-trad and much style art-deco, Aaron Springs and his funnny realistic cartoons, he also did at the convention a brilliant Jimmy Hendrix frog.
The Evian tattoo show is without a doubt the most « new-school » convention in France. But we can also find other styles. There was Dillon Forte who amazed us with his geometric tattoos, Lawrence the Seagula Tatau Samoa specialist was also present to exercise his art.
More than a 100 artists exercised their art all week-end and their agendas were completely booked. It’s one of the many qualities of this event. There is a big demand in tattoos, which isn’t the case of every conventions. The result is numerous quality tattoos and busy tattooists, it’s always more attractive than an empty booth. Evian attracts a lot of american tattoo artists that aren’t often seen around Europe, which is also a good point of that show. And we have Dats, the organizer who regularly travels to the US with an impressive contact book, to thank for. He also prepares a convention near another lac, the Tahoé lac in Nevada. The idea is the same but in the opposite way, it’s a poster of french tattooists and other European artists who come over to the US along with many other american tattooists.
In the animation side of things, there was some contests (the best of show was won by Teresa Sharp for her sublime chest, photo found above), gigs, sixties burlesque shows, an auction in benefit of the red cross foundation, for which some awesome bowling pins were decorated by tattooists attending the convention. It’s always a fun time where you can offer yourself an original artwork made by the artist you love.
The Evian tattoo show takes place in a superb room displayed on three floors, nicely lighted in the city center, with lots of hotels, restaurants, bars all around and even a casino. All you need to party without driving or taking a cab, that's another good point about that convention.
To conclude, we wholeheartedly thank Dats and his team for this rendez-vous i wouldn't miss for anything in the world.
See you next year,
Article by Dimitri HK
Thanks to Dom aka P-Mod, Jem and James for the help (photos and translation).
