A Whole Lotta Art Going On At River’s Edge Convention Center
ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The River's Edge Convention Center was the place to be this weekend to see art of all different kinds. The 4th Annual Granite City Ink Fest tattoo show teamed up with the Granite City Bizarre Bizaar arts & crafts show for one huge event showcasing art from tattoos, to woodwork, to crystal carvings.
Tattoo You Midwest Conventions Promotor David Nelson says combining into one big show was a natural fit:
"My guys create art, they create art, so it's a natural for them to come over and get tattooed and for us to go over there buy beautiful works of art and she has a lot of different stuff over there so I knew it would attract us."
Tattoo fans could see over 100 different artists at the show and get tattoos done right on-site. Nelson says they have tattoo artists from all over the country but a lot of local ones too:
"We have every shop in St. Cloud represented here, and it took four years to get everybody on board that works in the St. Cloud area, which I consider like Sauk Rapids and Princeton and Clearwater so it's been great to get the support."
He says they had a wide variety of tattoo artists and styles at the show:
"Because there's many styles of tattooing and we have people here that can do them all very well but they also specialize, some people are better at portraits, some people do brilliant color work, and then there's black and gray line work and people are good at that too, it's their specialty."
In addition to all the art, there was musical entertainment from Jon Theis and his band, Nakita Kat, and even a burlesque show.
Close to 2,000 people are expected to attend the show over its three-day run. The 4th Annual Granite City Ink Fest runs all weekend long and wraps up on Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
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