Detroit tattoo expo attracts artists and ink lovers from around the world

Shawn McCann watched and waited Sunday as the artist inked a stylized tattoo of a raven on his wife's back. 

When Chinese tattoo artist Gang "Just" Shao was finished applying the tattoo, it would be McCann's turn. He was getting the same custom tattoo as his wife, Christy McGillivray, only on his chest.

The Grosse Pointe couple had spotted Shao on Saturday when they stopped in at 24th annual Motor City Tattoo Expo at the Renaissance Center in Detroit. It was their first ever visit to the expo and Shao's vibrant and intricate designs caught their eyes.

The pair decided to opt for a couple's tattoo from Shao after finding out he had flown to Detroit from his shop, Zhen Cang Tattoo in Shanghai, for his first-ever appearance at the expo and only planned appearance at a U.S. tattoo convention this year.

Shao spent Saturday creating a custom design for the pair, and planned to spend four hours on Sunday tattooing the raven, featuring geometric elements, on McCann, 41, and McGillivray, 37. 

"We both already have tattoos, but we just decided it would be something fun to do. We love his work, and him traveling so far, it just seemed like if we were ever going to have an opportunity for him to do it, it would have to be today," McCann said.

"We just wanted a stylized raven," McCann said. "We kind of gave him freedom... and let him do his thing."

Shao's student, Oliver Wong, who is also a tattoo artist at Thousand Stroke Tattoo in San Francisco, was on site helping out as a translator for Shao. 

Wong said his teacher has been working as a tattoo artist for 18 years, and will tattoo anything, except lettering and tribal designs. 

'We heard Motor City is one of the biggest and best tattoo conventions in the United States," Wong said. 

He added that they were very grateful that Zhen Cang Tattoo was invited to the show, and "just had to be here."

Speaking though Wong as a translator, Shao told the Free Press that he plans to come back to the Motor City Tattoo Expo, adding: "The city is clean. The buildings are very big. It is very cold."

Shao was among several tattoo artists who had traveled from both near and far to be be in Detroit. Booths lined a ballroom area in the RenCen Sunday for the last day of the annual expo, and exposed limbs and buzzing tattoos were on full display. 

Ink lovers came from across Michigan for the event, some to check out the expo for the first time, but many to get ornate pieces done by some of their favorite artists. 

Brad Cardinale, 31, of Lake Orion stood still in the packed space as Halee Hathaway of Bay City's Electric Chair Tattoo shaved his calf in preparation for some new ink. 

Cardinale said he asked for a "pretty little, kinda fairy lady frolicking in butterflies."

"It's kinda symbolic for my family, we just lost my grandma and she was really big into butterflies, and it's kind of like a little guardian angel-type thing for me," he added.

It was his third time at the expo, and Cardinale said he's gotten a new piece completed all three years.

Last year, he also saw Hathaway, and she tattooed a goat on his shin. 

"I just think it's cool being around everybody and the environment, rather than going into a shop. Halee's always here," he said. "I'm going to keep coming back to her."

Cardinale said his love for tattoos came about at the age of 18, when he got a spur of the moment skull and crossbones tattoo while on spring break in Florida. He said he's "been hooked ever since."

Even for folks not getting any work done, Cardinale said, the expo is still a cool opportunity to check out artist's portfolios and meet people in person.

"It's a cool little community," he added. 

Hathaway, 24, said she's been tattooing for about five years, and while this year's event was only her third tattoo expo ever, the Electric Chair Tattoo shop has had a booth at the event for years. 

"I love it, I love being around everyone that's in pain and tattooing also," she said. "Ever since I could hold something to draw with, I've been drawing, so I knew I wanted to do something in art, just wasn't sure what, and the opportunity came along, so I took it."

Hathaway said she's spent the expo generally tattooing one intricate piece on someone each day, and added that Cardinale's new piece was expected to take about 7 hours or less. 

Nearby, Tara Villalvazo, 35, of Mystic Owl Tattoo based in Marietta, Georgia, told the Free Press that coming to the Detroit expo is like a homecoming. 

While she and her husband own their shop and have lived in Georgia for 10 years now, she grew up in White Lake, Michigan. 

"It makes it more of a special convention, because it is our hometown and we started doing this convention when we lived here, and then we moved shortly thereafter," she said. 

Villalvalzo's work stood out among the tattoo artists Sunday, because among the booths boasting intricate body art designs, she specializes in the more subtle art of permanent makeup that's meant to look natural. 

"It's becoming a lot more popular, a lot of people still have this stigma of tattooed eyebrows," she said.

"There's just been such an advancement in the pigment and the tools you and the knowledge of how to do it correctly, but it's still just good old fashioned tattooing."

She told the Free Press that's she's been doing cosmetic tattoos, mostly eyebrows, for the three years.

Villalvazo said she does powder brow tattoos and microblading — each technique takes about two hours a person — and she said she's worked on about 5 people a day at the expo. 

"Microblading is done with a hand tool, and it's done to create small hair-like channels and that is what creates each individual hair stroke," she said. "Powder brows are done with a traditional tattoo machine and tattoo needles and it creates, like in it's name, a very powdery effect very similar to make up, but it still looks very natural."

"Seeing healed work is one of the most important things, because if your work doesn't heal and stand the test of time, it doesn't matter how it looks when it's fresh," she added. 

A number of artists from the Paramount Network tattoo artist competition show "Ink Master" were also at the annual expo. 

James Vaughn, who appeared on Season 7 of the show in 2016, said he's been coming to the Detroit expo for the past 10 years. 

"Detroit's awesome, every time I've been here it's been an amazing show. The tattoo community here is just awesome," he said. 

Vaughn said he sold both of his tattoo shops about 5 years ago, and so he does work at his private studio in his Charleston, South Carolina, home and at tattoo conventions — next weekend he's headed to Pittsburgh.

Vaughn added that he plans to be back in the Motor City for next year's show. 

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Contact Aleanna Siacon: ASiacon@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @AleannaSiacon.