Villain Arts Chicago Tattoo Con 2017

This weekend Frank and I attended the Villain Arts Chicago Tattoo Convention. Not only was it a great networking event for artists but we were able to get some work done and I was able to meet the extremely talented Kelly Doty.

For those of you that don’t know her, Kelly Doty is an extremely talented tattoo artist who recently was a finalist on Ink Masters. As a tattoo enthusiast and “collector” I have watched Ink Masters since the very first episode. But it wasn’t until Kelly was on the show that I was so awed by someone’s work that I anticipated every week so I could root for her. I won’t even lie.. when she didn’t win I was bitter. I just really thought she deserved the title and find her work to be incredible. So when I found out she was going to be at the con I decided to make her one of my Dead Girl Skullerfly Decay Barrettes… completely inspired by her.

When I met her I told her I made her something and when I told her it was a barrette she said “Girl you are speaking my language” and dug into the gift bag. She loved it and ripped the rose out of her hair.. threw it to the side and said “stupid rose” and immediately put my barrette in it’s place ha ha. She was an absolute delight to talk to and when I told her I loved her work she pointed at her new barrette and said “I love your work”. When I said goodbye and thanked her for rocking my barrette right away she said “try to stop me from wearing it” ha ha ha. Here is the photo a friend at her booth took of us during our meeting..

And the day just got better because our tattoo artist, Dave Togtman (of Black Devil Tattoo) was working the event and reserved time for both Frank and I to get more work done.

Frank got the netherworld priest added to his wrist as a part of his Beetlejuice sleeve and I got my Neo Traditional style Captain Spaulding skull on my calf next to my Baby Firefly pinup. These pics were taken right after each piece was finished. He did an amazing job on both of them and we couldn’t be happier with them.

 

On top of it Dave also gave us this amazing art piece he had on display at the show. It will definitely be getting framed and hung up in our tomb sweet tomb!

Stay Spooky!
LDG Nicole