Tattoo Conventions Around the World

Tattooing was illegal in New York City until 1997. The New York City Tattoo Convention runs there every May, in the same city that spent decades with the practice banned outright.

Tattoo conventions are multi-day gatherings where artists rent a booth, work in the open in front of the public, enter finished pieces in judged competitions, and meet the people who travel to be tattooed by them. Several hundred run each year worldwide. Some fill a single hall for a weekend. The floor at Plaza Mayor in Medellín carries around 800 tattooers. In Toronto, the convention has run since 1998.

This guide covers twelve tattoo conventions across five continents, grouped by what each one is for rather than by region. You will find what happens inside the room, which conventions are built around judged competition, which run as full weekend floors, and how booking actually works. Explore Outhere to see what else is on in Barcelona, Dublin and the other cities here around the dates you're there.

After more than 20 years, the Mondial du Tatouage in Paris held its final edition in 2026.

A tattoo convention is a multi-day event where artists rent booths and work in the open while the public walks the floor. Nothing happens behind a curtain. You can stand a metre away and watch a piece being made, which is why people who are not getting tattooed buy a ticket.

The competitions surprise first-timers. Entries are judged with the tattoo on the person wearing it, so you walk on stage and turn under the lights while a panel assesses line quality, saturation and healing.

Most artists arrive with the weekend already booked. Walk-ups exist, but realistically mean small pieces, flash, or single-session work.

Some conventions are organised around the judging. The artist list is built for it, and a win travels further than the weekend.

The Boston Tattoo Convention runs in September at the Shriners Auditorium in Wilmington, Massachusetts, about 25 kilometres north of Boston. It has passed 24 editions and carries 550 or more artists. Its competitions are judged by Filip Leu, who works in large-scale Japanese-influenced bodysuits, and Mark Mahoney, a black and grey fine-line tattooer. Between them they cover the two poles most competition categories are built around, and their names on the panel are why many entrants make the trip.

Note that the show is not in Boston itself, so plan the journey out to Wilmington.

Held in October with 650 or more artists. Live tattooing runs across the whole floor alongside contests and a seminar programme aimed at working tattooers, which gives the festival an audience of practitioners as well as collectors. Artists take bookings directly once the list is announced.

Twenty-nine editions at Superstudio Maxi in Milan, across late January and early February. A competition-weighted show, with Italian studios on the floor alongside artists travelling in from across Europe. It opens the European convention calendar, so books for it fill early.

These work as a full weekend out. Wide artist lists, several styles at once, and a programme for people who are not being tattooed.

May, at Plaza Mayor Medellín across the White, Yellow and Red pavilions, with around 800 tattooers and more than 450 stands. Sixteen editions, plus a dedicated anime hall. The pavilion layout means working out which halls hold the styles you want before you start, rather than walking it in one loop.

September, at ExCeL London. In its fifth year it moved from two days to three, carrying 450 to 500 artists. The programme runs well past tattooing: sideshows, fire performance, vaudeville acts, fairground rides and an alternative market share the hall with the booths, so it holds up as a full day out for anyone accompanying someone getting tattooed.

October, at Fira de Barcelona. The show is associated with black and grey work and large-scale illustrative pieces, and the artist list reflects that. Large-scale work needs long sittings, so those artists fill their weekend months ahead.

September, with 350 or more Dutch and international artists. The Netherlands also runs smaller conventions through the year in Rotterdam, Eindhoven and The Hague. September holds the London and Boston shows too, and artists who work multiple conventions choose between them, so it is worth asking early which one a travelling tattooer is on.

Lineage matters on this circuit. A convention that has run for two decades has an artist list built on returning names.

Founded in 1998 in Collingwood, Ontario, NIX now runs in May at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre with 500 or more artists, across 26 editions. It is Canada's oldest tattoo convention.

November, in the Main Hall of the RDS in Ballsbridge, Dublin. Twenty-four editions, 250 or more artists. Under-14s go in free and the floor is run as a family-friendly show, which makes it the entry here that works if you are bringing children.

May, in a city where tattooing carried a health department ban for decades. The ban pushed the practice into private apartments and back rooms, and it was lifted only in 1997. Legal tattooing in New York is younger than many of the artists working the convention floor. New York studios working their home show are the more realistic route to a walk-up.

Three days in April at Tokyo Kinema Club and Dancehall Shin Seiki in Uguisudani. Both are converted buildings, a former cinema and a live house, not exhibition halls. That is the concrete reason the show stays small: the floors cap how many booths fit, so the artist list is weighted to who is invited rather than how many stands can be sold. Sixteen editions, open to artists based in Japan and overseas on the same terms.

King of Tattoo was founded in the wake of the Irezumi Trial, the court case over whether tattooing in Japan requires a medical licence. Horihide, credited as the first Japanese tattooist to bring traditional Japanese work to the United States after the Second World War, has attended.

Founded in 2011, Rites of Passage runs in two Australian cities at different points in the year: Melbourne at the Royal Exhibition Building and Sydney at Carriageworks, in April and October. Around 350 artists work it, from Australia, New Zealand and further afield. One venue is a 19th-century exhibition hall and the other a converted railway workshop, so the two editions do not feel like the same room.

Books open weeks to months ahead, and the artists travelling internationally fill first, so a request for a specific person goes in as soon as the artist list is published. A booked slot needs a deposit, normally deducted from the final price and non-refundable if you do not show. Bring photo ID, cash for the smaller stands, and clothing that gives access to the area being tattooed. Eat first, since sessions run long.

The artist list is what decides whether a convention is worth the journey. One artist you genuinely want work from is a better reason to go than a headline artist count.

Outhere is a platform for finding art, culture and entertainment events around the world. Use it to see what else is on in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, Toronto and Calgary on the convention weekends, so a weekend built around one show picks up the rest of the city's calendar too.

If this circuit is your kind of thing, keep going with 8 Fringe Festivals Around the World Worth Building a Trip Around, 6 Night Markets in Europe and Beyond Worth Staying Out Late For, and Jam Sessions and Open Mic Nights in Amsterdam.