Whether you have tattoos from your head to your toes, or don’t have one drop of ink under your skin, the Cyprus International Tattoo Convention is an event everyone should experience at least once.
Held at the Carob Mill Restaurants Ltd, Limassol CYPRUS, lots of tattoo artists, tattoo enthusiasts, and the tattoo curious will gather from Friday 31st March till Sunday 2nd of April to celebrate the ancient art of tattooing.
Here’s what you should know before you go.
Getting there
The convention kicks off at around 1 p.m. on Friday and is open until midnight. Saturday we start early 11 a.m. till midnight & Sunday’s 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Entrance tickets are €10 per day or €20 for 3-day pass.
Get them by clicking here: TICKETS
Once you’re there
While the ink is the major attraction, there is much more to experience during this 3-day festival of artwork. Getting a tattoo or watching an artist tattoo a friend is the main objective of attending the weekend-long show. But there is live entertainment and music, as well as cold beers from Sandy Beer, super cool and tasty cocktails by Monkey Shoulder, ‘Wiiings’ by Red Bull, performance shows, body art shows, shopping area and much more…
Getting a tattoo
Lots of talented tattoo artists (100+) will bring their ‘guns’ to this 3-day event, and be on hand for scheduled appointments or customer walk-ups.
Research and contact the artist(s) you wish to get work from in advance. If you miss that opportunity, be at the convention first thing when the doors open on day 1 to try to get an appointment set up! Some of these artists can book the whole show in the first 30 minutes of the opening day. Don’t let the chance slip by, you may never have another opportunity to get tattooed by them again; artists come in and drop out of the convention circuit all the time.
Unless you know which artist you want to get work on by, take your time from before, examine all the portfolios you can until you see someone with the talent to do what it is you want done.
Check all the attending artists & their contact details here: TATTOO ARTISTS 2023
Don’t haggle. In spite of the circus-like atmosphere, conventions are not flea-markets, and the artists in attendance aren’t junk-dealers or used car salesmen/women. They are professional craftspeople, with traveling expenses, who likely dropped a lot of money to come to your town and make their services available to those who want their work. If you don’t think their price is in your range, thank them for their time and move on to another artist. After comparing quality and prices, you may be back!
Be prepared to leave a deposit. This one always seems to surprise some people. If you are making an appointment to get tattooed, and an artist has to take time in advance to draw up what you want, then they NEED a deposit for that preliminary work, and to guarantee your spot on a busy day at the show. They are there to do tattoos and there’s only so many working hours in the day. The very last thing they need is to book a time slot and have a no-show.
Be on TIME for your appointment. And I’d say the same thing to the artists. Some people are notoriously late, some just simply move slow, but I don’t think there’s a valid excuse for not behaving like a professional, on time and ready to go at the time you agreed to start. It’s disrespectful, and it goes both ways.
Take in the sights
The convention kicks off at 1 p.m. Friday. Take your time and walk around, meet the artists and just get familiar with the atmosphere as well as the procedures. Tattoo contests will beging at around 5 p.m and will continue throught the day. Second day we start early. On Saturday doors open at around 11 a.p and around 2 p.m catch Savvas Koureas (AnexitiloN) with a spectacular Live body airbrush show. Tattoo contests kick off at around 4 p.m following up for closing the night with a unique LIVE performance by PRIVATE GARDEN at around 21:00.
Sunday follows and is a day with lots of competitions as well as the best of the show contest. Doors open at 11:00. Royal Venom Calligraphy style art performance at around 12:00 is something that you do not want to miss, following up with lots of tattoo contests reaching at the highlight of the night which is ‘THE BEST OF THE SHOW’
Be sure to be there to see the best of the best!!
FULL SCHEDULE