"Hi guys, I totally accept the fact that this might go against the rules as it isn’t positive but I need to get something off of my chest regarding this weekends “Leeds Convention”
It was announced some time ago that the Leeds met University building would host LS iNK, a tattoo convention with nothing but Leeds based studios. It was billed as a “totally different con experience”.
What actually happened is that a lot of the new Leeds studios who mainly work in walk ins and cheaper flash confirmed to appear, and the good, established ones turned it down because it was being run by people who had nothing to do with the industry and was populated by artists who don’t have a good reputation, not to mention it was £15 for not many artists at all.
I’m really disappointed in what these guys are offering the leeds ‘tattoo scene’. Its a shame because our city deserves a much better convention and it’s embarrassing that this is going to be the first representation of what leeds has to offer. The whole point of a convention is to offer the locals an opportunity to see work and get tattooed by artists you wouldn’t normally see, i.e. artists from europe and america. The organisers even announced on their official site that Black Crown and Ultimate Skin would be appearing (despite the fact that neither studio ever agreed to work the event)
I spoke about my concerns on the official facebook page for the event and got this response from one of the organisers:
“whats you fucking problem no one asked for you useless opinion, who do u think you are? what shop are you from?”
As the day of the event drew closer, the concept changed from “Leeds Based Artists” to whoever they could pull in. 8 Studios attended in total (the furthest one travelled from Doncaster).
Once the con was under way, negative comments started to appear on the FB page:
“Well today it started bad, looked badly organised and did not feel it was fully aimed at our industry. Sorry but it was not worth the ticket price :(”
“well that was a waste of 15 pound >.
<"
"well not worth the money, and I didn't even pay for my own!"
"standing outside for half an hour with no one letting us know why doors weren't open yet, there wasn't enough space for the stalls and to move around, overpriced, badly organised and generally a bit of a bad job."
"Today sucked, bad event, badly organised. Waste of money."
"Terrible event, overpriced, badly organised, piss poor layout, total waste of money."
"This was the worst event I have ever been to. It was like two mates had had a drunken revelation to organise a tattoo convention, yet neither had ever been to one before in their life and had no prior knowledge of them, but went ahead with the idea regardless. I'd say there would have been more room in a shoe box than that venue and the lack of stalls/artists was genuinely appalling for the price."
"we arrived at 1ish to be left stood outside for an hour with no explanation to why we were waiting or how long we would be waiting. When we did eventually get inside it took us a whole five minutes to get round the entire venue, where there wasnt enough room to swing a cat. If this expo was supposed to represent tattooing in ... See more leeds then surly leeds extends further than headingley"
That’s just a handful of the bad feedback and then today I got an email (with a photo) from someone who actually got (bad) work at the event and is looking to get it removed (unfortunately it’s green so a cover up might be the only decent solution).
Apologies if this sounds like a huge rant, again, I just wanted to get it off my chest as it bothers me that people who didn’t know much about the Leeds scene, now have a tarnished view and it reflects badly on the studio’s that take pride in their industry.
