I did want to write about the Paradise Tattoo Gathering in Keystone Colorado that I recently attended...

Keystone is B-E-A-Utiful! The brutal elevation difference aside it was a really amazing place, the hotel was around such a pretty lake full of rainbow trout and a fountain and the lovely tree covered mountain side in the background!  It was my first time in Colorado but I would really enjoy a trip back.

This was to be the last Paradise Tattoo Gathering it was a great location and I am still so honored to have been a part of it. So many amazing and inspirational artists there and not just tattooist but painters as well. It was awesome meeting so many new and diverse tattooists and getting to socialize with some friends I've made along the way. I've always thought such an amazing advantage of being an artist is the great and influential people you get to interact with along the way. I was excited to get tattooed as well! I received an amazing head tattoo from Dillon Forte and a traditional Tebori style tattoo from Horishin the first, both amazing experiences! 

 I took two really awesome seminars that weekend. One for advanced tattoo cover-ups from James Kern, the other was a 3 hour seminar from Tom Strom who has such a unique painting style, it was a really great learning experience as well. There was also an opportunity to sit in on all of the daily discussion panels which was a treat to get so much information from a group of artists that changed each day, as did the topic.

It would be hard to walk away from this convention not feeling motivated, inspired and just so appreciative of this industry.