Organized by our own Shane Turgeon through his
www.tattoosandtoys.com website, the Celebration III Star Wars Tattoo Track was essentially a two-tiered event. The first stage of the track was the Star Wars Tattoo Art Exhibit. Held in the large Fan Force Hall, this exhibit featured Star Wars paintings and artwork from a variety of tattoo artists from Canada and the United States including Guy Aitchison, Rob Meyer, Kirk Douglass, Chris Iwaniuk and Marc Draven.
Also on display was a custom Star Wars tattoo machine built by John Moniz and on Friday and Saturday Eric Negron from Lucky Cat Tattoo in New York City came by the booth and spent his time demonstrating the fine art of tattooing using incredible fake skin developed by his shop.
In addition to being a display of beautiful tattoo art, the exhibit in the Fan Force Hall also had another purpose. It was here that people with Star Wars tattoos could come and register for the second tier of the track the Star Wars Tattoo competition! Tattooed fans were eligible to enter their Star Wars tattoos in one of four categories:
Small/Medium Black and Grey
Large Black and Grey
Small/Medium Colour
Large Colour
The competition was held on Sunday at 11:30 am in the 500 Ballroom and there were over 50 people registered, some with more than one entry! Each of the contestants presented their tattoo(s) to a panel of 5 special guest judges: Shane Turgeon, Hannah Aitchison from Deluxe Tattoo in Chicago, Alan Ruscoe aka Plo Koon, and Robert Barnes and Mike Mernain from Lucasfilm.
Judging was especially difficult for those involved as there were some absolutely incredible tattoos on display but the judges persevered and made their decisions. The winners were as follows:
Small/Medium Black and Grey
-1st Place Kirk Douglass
-Runner-Up Jeff Kindall
Large Black and Grey
-1st Place Jay Diebolt
-Runner-Up Kirk Douglass
Small/Medium Colour
-1st Place D. Martin Myatt
-Runner-Up Chris Gorman
Large Colour
-1st Place Hilary Gillespie
-Runner-Up Michael Cruz
Each of the winners and runners-up received exclusive Celebration III glass trophies and the crowd was thrilled when MC Tom Berg announced that they would be presented to the winners by the man who played the most heavily tattooed character in the Saga, Ray Park!
This was the first time that Star Wars tattoos have ever been the focus of an event and the positive response from people, both tattooed and otherwise, was overwhelming for the organizers. Despite a couple of hiccups the overall event was incredibly successful. It was great to see so many tattooed Star Wars fans interacting with each other and being able to see their work displayed in an appropriate forum. With luck, this will be the first of many such events!
For more pictures check out the gallery at www.tattoosandtoys.com
