Inside the Capitol City Classic: The buzz behind Sacramento’s new tattoo convention
The ink was flowing at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center.
Patrons flooded the enormous open hall of the downtown center Saturday for the inaugural Capitol City Classic tattoo convention. The buzz of electric tattoo machines echoed off the polished concrete floor as artists punctured skin and injected designs into hundreds of attendees through the weekend.
The three-day convention began Friday afternoon and continues Sunday from noon to 7 p.m.
Tamie Stephens, the convention’s coordinator, said that about 22,000 people were attending, although not everyone would get a tattoo from one of the more than 200 artists who took part in the event.
Cheyenne Badgerow had traveled from Antioch to attend with Emily Rowe of Sacramento. Badgerow, 31, said she has “well over 20” tattoos, many of them Disney-related. She had walked in with Rowe, 26, not long after the convention opened at noon Saturday and immediately spotted a design she liked by Mina Aoki. Within a few hours, a new tattoo of roses and an eye adorned her right arm.
Speaking as she received a large tattoo of a woman’s face and butterfly wings on her left thigh, Rowe said she had come wearing shorts in anticipation of getting a lady on her leg. The artist she chose, Nate Daskalos of Forever Tattoo on K Street, said he’d done multiple conventions and was perfectly happy to talk as he finalized the artwork on Rowe’s leg.
“I zone in,” he said.
The cousins initially bought tickets for Sunday, but had to exchange them for Saturday tickets because both had plans for Mother’s Day. Badgerow said her mother isn’t thrilled about the tattoos, but “I’ve gotten enough of them now, she’s over it,” she said.
For this new one, she said, laughing, “She’ll definitely give me some flack.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2022 at 6:33 PM.
