Lots of color and buzz at tattoo convention

Talk about diversity. At the Salt Palace on Friday, Utah dentists were meeting in one room, while down the hall you had the first-ever Salt Lake City International Tattoo Convention.

The buzz you could hear, the one that sounded a lot like a dentists' drill, was the sound of dozens of tattoo needs punching pigment into skin. The Tattoo Convention — which continues through today — is interactive, so in addition to seeing the latest in tattoo design from around the world, you can also get a new tattoo while a room full of strangers look on.

Annie Adamson, who grew up in Salt Lake City but now lives in Huntington Beach, Calif., is planning to get a new tattoo before the weekend is over, to add to her current body of work.

"It's a form of self-expression," Adamson, 24, says. "Some people paint. Some people write. I'm not talented in those ways." Instead she has what she says is her life story inked onto her arms, legs, back and stomach. "This arm is dedicated to my mom," she explains, pointing to the "Mommie's Little Monster" scene on her upper right arm. Her left arm has been adapted from a comic book called "Monsters in My Tummy" and features symbolic representations of emotions such as loneliness and betrayal. "It's all the stuff of getting your heart broken," she explains.

Adamson has already been featured in "Outlaw Biker Tattoo Review" magazine, as well as on a couple of tattoo documentaries and two other tattoo magazines. "My ultimate goal is to get a cover."

She also hopes to have a career in criminal psychology. "I'm a really good kid," she says. "I've never even had a parking ticket." Still, she knows what people think when they see a woman covered with tattoos: "I get followed around at the grocery store and the mall," and tourists in California point at her, she says.

There are limits to what she will do for art. "No hands, no throat, no neck," says Adamson. "I want to be able to wear a suit, for my mom. I can still put on a sweater set."

Murray Kolentus, on the other hand, is fine with neck tattoos. But Kolentus, who is a tattoo artist at Big Deluxe Tattoo in Salt Lake City, admits that he has some tattoos burned on when he was younger that he wishes he didn't have now. His wife Melissa is in the same boat. "I wish I had waited," says Melissa, who got her first tattoo at 16.

On the other hand she likes the "Dad" tattoo on her upper right arm, and the "June bug" tattoo below it, in honor of her little girl. The Kolentuses agree, though, that June will have to wait until she's 18 to get her own tattoos, and then only if she gets good grades.

Across the aisle, at the Good Times Tattoo booth, Amber Hinton was holding her son on her hip and pointing proudly to her husband Alex. Her husband does oil painting and water colors, but ever since he was in junior high, says Amber, he has wanted to be a tattoo artist. "His counselor said 'Maybe you should think of a more realistic goal,' " but at 27 he's made a good enough living at tattooing to buy them a house.

The Salt Lake International Tattoo Convention — which has attracted artists from Tokyo to Sugarhouse — concluded Saturday. There were contests each day, including best sleeve, best back and tribal.

But there was no glimpse of cosmetic tattoos — eyeliner or lipliner and such — because "those are totally different worlds," says Annie Adamson. Besides, she says, why would anyone want to tattoo on eyeliner when they might wake up some morning and want a different color?

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E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com