We had the NZ Tattoo Festival this weekend and what an amazing experience it was It was my first time to an event like this and there was a definite shiver up the spine when you hear that tattoo gun, let alone the buzz of hundreds of them. We had the pleasure of seeing 250 artists from all over the world, It was good to see recognised names like Dan Smith and Nikole Lowe from the Ink series and some amazing artists and styles I've only seen in magazines. Some of the standouts for me were Minoru Tattoo from Japan with the Tebori style of tattooing, and possibly my favourite was Ania Jalosinska from Poland, her tattoos were just stunning.

Apart from the tattoos we had Burlesque Dancers Venus Starr from Australia and Bonita Danger Doll from Christchurch and Live music from Kitsch, The Bleeders, Cobra Kahn and Beastwars. A really enjoyable day.

Possibly the one observation I had was that tattoos and body modification is about individuality however when you get so many people together all tattooed, they all start to look similar. I know that if you analyse each person then they become unique again but I was really expecting to be amazed by all the individuality, I guess you only stand out from the crowd when you’re different.