Artists show off at Ink Masters Tattoo Expo

For some, tattooing is just a way to earn a living, but for “Grimlin” Venegas tattooing is a way of life.

With a mastery over his art, Venegas patiently talked of his vocation Saturday while never losing his attention to detail, as he gingerly put the finishing touches to a colorful image of a Japanese flower called a peony on a client’s right arm.

“I travel too much to have my own studio,” Venegas said.

Venegas, a 28-year-old native of Slymar, Ca., has been a tattoo artist for the past seven years and spoke of how there really wasn’t anything else he considered doing since tattooing allowed him to use his drawing skills for something really artistic, a talent he’s been honing since he was 5.

“It was this or something else,” said Venegas, who declined to give his first name. “To tell you the truth I don’t know where my life would be without tattooing.”

About 174 other like-minded artists proudly showcased their talent Saturday during the second annual Ink Masters Tattoo Expo at the Ector County Coliseum, an event that started Friday and is expected to end today, said coordinator Theresa Bae.

The event, Bae explained, is a tour that began last month and is expected to make a stop in San Juan, Puerto Rico by July. Bae expressed how glad she was over the reception the tattoo expo has received from the locals.

“Yep, we’ll be back, definitely,” Bae said. “We really like the vibe we got from the Permian Basin. Everybody is so excited about it.”

So was five-year tattooing veteran Benny Perez of “Goodfellas Ink,” a tattoo and piercing studio in San Antonio that opened in October 2015.

Perez was working on the left arm of Ricky Owens of Midland, adding details to an unfinished image of the word sinner shaped to look like a dying tree. The image was adorned with the silhouette of a bird in flight hovering above the shriveled tree, which is intended to symbolize the passing of Owens’ sister Destiny, he said.

“Back then you got them for the wrong reasons,” said Perez, who went on to explain that tattoos and tattooing have gained respectability in the modern era. “Now, you get tattoos for meaning.”

Owens was not the only one among Perez’s customers as Tex Janczak would attest. Janczak, an Army veteran, proudly showed off an elaborate tattoo on the left side of his back that revealed the American flag underneath a patch of what looked like shredded skin.

“He’s one of my repeats,” Perez proudly said of Janczak.

Mark Vecellito, a tattoo artist from Pueblo, Colo. who won first place Friday in the chest and back category in the Ink Masters convention, explained that tattooing in the past involved having a customer come in to a studio and select from an array of drawn images which tattoos they’d like to have. What sets Vecellito apart from the rest is how he “customizes” an image based on what a customer envisions.

The craziest tattoo Vecellito has ever done was for a client in Grand Junction, Colo., that combined the character Christian Bale played in the movie “American Psycho” and the hapless lab assistant Beaker, one of the funny-looking characters from the Muppets.

There on Vecellito’s iPhone was the image showing a dapper Beaker brandishing an axe in a menacing way. The same customer next wanted to have a tattoo combining cannibalism and the Cookie Monster, Vecellito said.

“I make their dreams a reality, you know what I mean,” he said.

Artists show off at Ink Masters Tattoo Expo