The Brighton Tattoo Convention is taking over Valentine’s weekend this February as it returns to Southern England’s largest exhibition centre, the Hilton Brighton Metropole.
Established in 2008, The Brighton Tattoo Convention has now evolved into the premier opening show to the hugely busy European tattoo convention calendar, bringing a glorious burst of alternate culture and multi-coloured life to the heart of the English winter.
Returning to the centre of Brighton’s seafront, this year we’re showcasing over 300 world-class artists from the USA to Australia to Brazil and Scandanavia, all working on dedicated tattoo fans over the weekend.
High on the list of people to see are US Tattoo TV stars Dan Smith, Tim Hendricks, and Billy DeCola, plus Brighton’s very own Phil Kyle, Ade, Stu Francis & James Woodford, to name but a few.
Key to the heart of any top quality show are the competitions, open for all to enter, independently judged, and running this year on Sunday. Come along and see if your work is awarded a prize in one of the highly competitive categories!
Keeping us entertained will be live music and performances at Friday night’s opening party. Saturday sees Ska legend ‘Neville Staple’ headline a night with a distinctly 80’s flavour, featuring Bristol’s ‘The Communicators’ and DJ’d by The Ace Café’s ‘Little Diane’.
New to this year, The Valentine Art Show is being hosted by Nine Tattoo Studio and Brighton Tattoo Convention, featuring work from the visiting tattooists. The originals will be auctioned after viewing with 100% of the revenue going to Cancer Research UK.
Those with spending money left will find trade suppliers, vendors, vintage clothing, bespoke jewellery, unique one-off artwork, show merchandise, haircuts, designer corsets and much, much more.
Add in free entry for under 16’s, and a free Sunday aftershow party hosted by the Brighton Rockabilly Rumble Club, all held on site at the Hilton, it’s a weekend not to be missed!
For more info check out www.brightontattoo.com. Tickets are available from www.skiddle.com, priced at £25 per day or £40 for the weekend.