The weekend of the 17th and 18th May saw the return of the Liverpool Tattoo Convention, which has established itself as a firm favourite in the convention calendar. The convention returned to the glorious setting of the Adelphi Hotel. There were over 300 artists working the show and the caliber of work was incredible. The Liverpool convention is our home town show and we are proud that year on year the team at Design 4 Life put on such a great show that is somehow managing to improve each year.

Our close friends (well pretty much family!) Richie Bulldog and Seth Levitt flew over from America for the show to promote their often imitated, but never duplicated Hustle Butter Deluxe, simply the best Tattoo lubricant and aftercare around. Seth and Richie will both also be flying over from the States for the Aarhus Convention, Denmark 11-15 June. Where Richie will be the compère. The weekend before Aarhus we will be in Lisbon, Portugal with the Stigma-Rotary® crew, where we will be presenting the new AMEN machine.

The Liverpool convention was also the first chance for artists to see some of Team EGOs latest products. We presented the amazing Hawkflow and Biohawk disposable cartridge grips in action. For more information on these terrific innovations, click here: https://www.killerinktattoo.co.uk/tubes-grips-tips/disposable/ego-disposable-cartridge-tubes/

There were also half a dozen or so of the soon-to-be-released Apex Overkill machines being used by Team EGO artists.

Each year the convention organizes a charity auction of skateboards that artists working the show have painted, sculpted on and generally created awesome pieces of art with. Each year with a different theme, this year’s theme was ‘horror boards’, with all proceeds going to the National Autistic Society.

On Friday Night the Industry Awards were held, our congratulations to the winners.

UK TATTOO INDUSTRY AWARDS RESULTS:
Best UK Male Tattoo Artist - PHATT GERMAN
Best UK Female Tattoo Artist - LEAH MOULE
Best International Male Tattoo Artist - NIKKO HURTADO
Best International Female Tattoo Artist - LIZ COOK
Best Newcomer - CHRIS HALLAM

As with any show there were competitions held too and our congratulations to the winners below.

Saturday Competition Results

BEST SMALL COLOUR - WINNNER - CRAIG MEASURES
BEST REALISM - WINNER - SONNY MITCHELL
BEST BLACKWORK- WINNER - DAZ CRANE
BEST LARGE BLACK & GREY - EZE NUNEZ
BEST OF DAY SATURDAY – CHANTALE COADY

Sunday's Competition Results:

BEST SMALL BLACK & GREY - WINNER - SONNY MITCHELL BLACK LOTUS
BEST HORROR - WINNER - OLLIE TYE - COSMIC MONSTERS INCORPORATED
BEST LARGE COLOUR - WINNER - PHATT GERMAN - NO REGRETS
BEST OF DAY SUNDAY - WINNER - LEAH MOULE

Tattoo Duels Results (Sat)

CHRIS JONES V ALEX RATTRAY - WINNER - ALEX RATTRAY
ODDBOY V FILIP PASIEKA - WINNER - FILIP PASIEKA

Tattoo Duels Results (Sun)

MARK BESTER V GRAY SILVA – WINNER – MARK BESTER
CHANTALE COADY V CLAIRE HAMIL – WINNER – CLAIRE HAMIL
SIMON GUNN V SIMON COOKE – WINNER – SIMON COOKE
MARK BAILEY V CRAIG MEASURES - WINNER – CRAIG MEASURES

We’re proud that over half of the awards went to artists to exclusively work with and / or are sponsored by Killer Ink. Big well done guys and thanks for the continued support.

Over the course of the weekend Sarah Welsh was also crowned Miss Tattoo UK 2014.

Click here to view our pictures from the convention.