March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Tattoo artists display skills> Bangor Elks host annual show

BANGOR — Somehow, the tiger and jungle adorning the length of Cheryl Murphy’s left leg weren’t enough.

“I told him I wanted a big cat,” Murphy said Saturday afternoon, partway through the hours she would spend sitting patiently while Mathew Clarke etched more jungle, and then a big leopard to continue the artwork across the woman’s leg.

Clarke, a tattoo artist with Midnight Moon Tattoo in Chichester, N.H., joined a variety of other tattooists from around the country at the ninth Downeast Tattoo Show at the Elks Lodge on Odlin Road.

Murphy, whose arms were also covered with smaller tattoos, wasn’t sure how many tattoos she actually has — or even why she wanted more.

“Her husband’s in the business. She doesn’t have a choice,” Clarke joked.

As the electric needle proceeded carefully around the edge of a leaf on Murphy’s leg, she asserted that the process wasn’t painful.

“He’s really good. This doesn’t hurt at all,” she said.

It may be that Murphy has a high threshold of pain. Another woman who got her second tattoo Saturday — a small moon — described the procedure as “like having a cat scratch you constantly for 20 minutes.”

Actually, said Ryan Bickford of Winter Harbor, “as you progress, it stops hurting.”

Bickford explained this as Cheryl Murphy’s husband, Tom, outlined his own arm with an Indian on a horse. The piece would be a good match for a similar tattoo on his other arm, he said, holding it out.

The young man said he always gets his work done at Tom’s Terrific Tattoos.

“Nobody touches me but Tom,” he emphasized.

Bickford says people with lots of tattoos are known as “ink freaks” because they always want more. “You can never have enough.”

Many of those attending the weekend shows had virtually turned their bodies into canvases — some so colorfully they could almost light their own way in the dark.

Bickford wasn’t among them. His choice was to have each tattoo shaded monochromatically rather than filled with colors.

Tattoo artists, and those seeking their wares, came from several states and Canada for the weekend event. A young woman displayed the back of her leg to show a wolf she had had etched by Squirrely’s Skin Art from Hubbard, Ohio.

Some of the artists worked from patterns picked out by the prospective wearer, some etched freehand. Tattoos range in cost from about $50 to several hundred dollars.

And there were lots of accessories available — T-shirts, gothic jewelry and clothing, and other items that either accentuated tattoos or declared the purchaser’s interest in the art.

The whole deal seemed like a big party as tattoo wearers greeted one another and checked out a newly decorated arm or shoulder. But for all the fun, the aficionados do take the artwork seriously.

Contests were scheduled throughout the weekend, with Sunday’s event due to be judged by faculty, students and staff from the University of Maine.

And for those who have saved some skin for next year, the 10th Downeast Tattoo Show will be held April 6-8 in Bangor.


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