Tattoo convention brings in summer tourists
It’s an art show for tattoo enthusiasts at the Hard Rock Hotel this weekend. The inaugural tattoo convention is booking rooms at local hotels during what used to be a slow summer season.
Organizers hope will be an weekend about the art of tattooing.
World renowned artists will be showcasing their craft during seminars and at tattooing booths all weekend long.
“There is nothing like it out here, and there has never been anything like it out here,” said event host Bernadette Macias.
About 2,000 people are expected for the first Palms Trees and Tattoos Convention this weekend, a welcome boom for a weekend in July.
“Booking have been through the roof, there is not doubt that people are excited we are getting phone calls non stop day and night about this event,” said Hard Rock Hotel director of marketing Therese Everett.
It’s events like this helping Palm Springs sail through the summer lull.
“We don’t see that anymore we are definitely seeing more of the weekend business coming in from the drive market or internationally. We are seeing a huge jump in international travel,” said Ashlee Ciora, Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.
With hotel rates at their lowest during the summer months, it’s easy for people to come to the desert.
“We have a lot of people coming in from out of town, we have over a hundred artists coming,” said event coordinator Sean Wood. “A lot of them coming from New York, different parts of Southern California, Seattle and Colorado.”
It’s not just the attendees who will be introduced to the desert the event will be broadcast world wide on an industry website.
“We just want to open everyone to the tattoo lifestyle, it’s no longer for hoodlums or things like that, we are putting fine art on skin these days, we want to bring that here to the valley and create some revenue for the valley as well in the middle of the summer time,” said Wood.
“It’s great for us and it’s great for the city we hope to do it each year after this,” said Everett.
For more information about the convention click here.
