We are more than happy and proud to announce that Gordon will be attending the first Winnipeg Tattoo Convention in Canada held at Red River Exhibition Park between 18 and 20th of August 2017. A great venue created by the magical Rich Handford of Kapala Tattoo in Winnipeg. Looking forward to a jolly good time!
Truely Exiting
see ya all there,
G
Update 07.09.2017′ it was a blast to meet Arron and Kurt! Many good times,
Update 02.12.2017′
Winnipeg city boasting back in its historical times to be the trading post development between the west and the east of Canada. Winnipeg lies at the confluence of the Assiniboine River and the Red River, known as The Forks, a historic focal point on canoe river routes travelled by Aboriginal people for thousands of years.
So how does a city like Winnipeg, Canada, compete in todays times, with a broad selection of tattoo conventions being held around the globe every weekend? The answer is easy: it doesn’t have to. Maybe it seems Winnipeg being far out in a remote part of Canada, far away from all the other cities in this country would be the reason. Actually it is a vibrant city with a great alternative scene. We would remember bands like the Crash Test Dummies, Bachman Turner Overdrive and Comeback Kid to come from here. They also have a massive car tuning scene with classic and new cars, that meets along the main roads on laid back Sunday evenings, showing off the works with often over a 100 cars.
A broad overview of the Hall at the Winnipeg Tattoo Convention
Gordon free handing it through the weekend
Draw on Flower for Jane by Gordon
With all this in mind, it was not surprising that the modern day tattoo community of Canada had been waiting for one, to be held in Winnipeg! Especially, when the organiser is no one less than Rich Handford of Kapala Tattoo. His studio is more than well known to tattoo lovers in Manitoba, Canada, and all around the globe. Not an easy call, when everybody around him has high expectations. Maybe knowing this, his claim to a high standard mixed with a fantastic crew is exactly, what helped making the weekend a true success.
Practically every well known tattooer in Canada had made his way over to the Red River Exhibition Park to come party with Sheri and Rich. The Tex Brothers, Deano Robertson, Rob Hope, Vincent Dion, Jay Marceau, Clint Danroth to just name a few. Rob Noseworthy (best of show) worked on a strong guys rib cage, two days in a row. Steve Moore, Jay Breen and Samantha Smith from Scythe and Spade, Calgary, Eckel from Germany, who now lives and works in Vancouver. Lucas Ford, Dan Allaston from New Moon in Ottawa, Katie Shocrylas and Miles Kanne from Steveston Tattoo Co.. The Tebori Master Doug Fink showed his expertise accompanied by over 240 other talents who came to give the crowds their recognition.
But for an event like this, also international artists like Dalmiro Dalmont from Black Garden Tattoo, London, Anthony Fleming (Flem), Erin Chance, Theresa Sharpe.
Brad Burkhard and James Mcgrory even started and completed an entire back piece at the venue. Mike MacAskill, Arron Riddle, Carlos Hierro from Lübeck in Germany and James Warf. All of those talented artists were over to meet up with Canadian standards. And an amazing fact in those days: All of them were busy all weekend in that well spaced hall.
The Manitoba history museum was the place to meet on Thursday evening before the show. After that we all met at Kapala Tattoo till early in the morning.
Winnipeg is also home to world famous tattooers like Kurt Wiscombe, who inspired us throughout the 90s until today. His studio “Tattoos for the Individual” was open all weekend. Showing art in his private exhibition hosted in the “Skull and Bones Gallery” on the same floor in the studio. On the convention it was crazy to see how efficient and fast he works and still is inviting and friendly to everybody coming over to his booth. A true inspiration.
Kurt Wiscombe and Gordon Claus
Amazingly enough the mayor of Winnipeg had a welcomed the event which made things easy.
The focus for this weekend really was on tattooing and the public. The amount of unusual work I saw being done was tremendous, but also small tattoos were being done which I thought was nice to see for a change. The crowd was decent and very well-behaved. I really like that in this town a lot. That was proven when we went out in the evenings. A couple of bars we played snooker in and of course many restaurants of good choice. A short term secret pool party downstairs in the hotel getting out of hand, while I was alone upstairs in the bar sulking that no one was going to go down for a swim, hahaha.
Even during the shuttle rides from the convention hotel to the venue itself, it seemed that everyone was there on the weekend to have fun. I didn’t sence any ego or rivalry at all. A truly precious thing to see.
We really look forward to going back to @winnipegtattooconvention which will be in August 24-26, 2018. Worth the travel for sure,