In an isolated town like Juneau, access to tattoo artists can be limited. But this past weekend, dozens of artists lined Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall for the third annual Ink Masters Tattoo Show downtown.
Demetrius Bowen was tattooing a cartoon character on the leg of his client, Connor Woodhouse.
“I was so surprised to hear about something like this in Juneau,” Woodhouse said.
He works for a cruise line that stopped in Juneau on Friday. His new ink is a Mario character called Shy Guy. Woodhouse heard about the show through word of mouth and decided to check it out. He said he’s glad he did.
“So many different styles, so many different artists,” he said. “You could really walk around and pick and choose who you resonate with, and who you want to get tattooed by, which is so cool.”
It was the third annual Ink Masters Tattoo Show hosted in Juneau. This year’s expo featured nearly 50 artists who traveled from all over the country — and some out of the country — to come to Alaska’s capital city. From Friday through Sunday, Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall was filled to the brim with booth after booth of artists. Each one with their own chairs, needles and art on display.
Bowen was stationed in the center row. He’s based in New Mexico, but has been traveling with the show for about four years. He said he feels a special connection to Juneau and the people he tattoos here.
“The fact that there’s all of these people come to this one spot, waiting for this one set event for the year — it means more than the world to me for them to trust me for whatever we’re gonna do for them,” he said.
Theresa Bae is the host and manager of the show. She and her husband started the traveling expo nearly two decades ago in the Lower 48. They held shows in Anchorage and Fairbanks before adding Juneau to the list three years ago.
“Each artist, even if they’re doing the same type of medium, their styles are just so different,” she said. “It just gives everybody a huge variety of artists that they have access to in one location.”
Bae says after her first visit, she realized two things: there was a huge demand for more artists in town, and that she loved Juneau.
“I’m telling you, Juneau is special,” she said. “Juneau is a special place.”
So, last year she opened up a local tattoo shop downtown and is in the process of making Juneau her new home.
“We have four resident tattoo artists and then a piercer that comes every two weeks at the shop,” she said. “Even during off-season, we stay pretty consistently busy with our local clients.”
But even still, she said there’s always demand for more artists, and that’s why they plan to continue bringing the show each year.
Autumn Dollison, who works in health care, said she waited all year for the expo to come back around. On Friday, she was getting an arrow tattooed on her arm to honor her Indigenous heritage.
“I think it means everything,” she said. “I was just sitting here thinking and looking around how he’s doing mine, and how glad I am that our Juneauites can come here and get beautiful artwork on their bodies.”
