Blues not just in the tattoos at Santa Rosa festival

Piercing sounds of needles puncturing skin and blues music filed the air of Santa Rosa’s Flamingo Hotel on Saturday, during Izzy’s 24th Annual Tattoos & Blues Festival. This year’s show drew 80 artists from across the country and as far away as Italy, and the event was accompanied by music from three blues bands that took the stage throughout the weekend.

The festival concludes Sunday with a performance from Stevie G & the Blue Collar Blues Band and final contest awards for the tattoo competition, set for 9 p.m.

As tattoo artists readied their booths Saturday for a rush of people seeking to ink their bodies, Santa Rosa resident Jenn Beach reclined in a chair while Monet Patrick of Santa Rosa’s Monkey Wrench Tattoo prepared to tattoo a heart surrounded by flowers on Beach’s ankle.

“This is my first tattoo,” said Beach, 32, smiling widely.

Patrick said she tattoos at the festival because it supports local shops. She said she specializes in traditional and Japanese-style body work, but as a female tattoo artist, she has to be versatile, she said.

“I do lots of whimsical stuff,” Patrick said. “But I also like to rock the skull and crossbones.”

Izzy LaPlante took over running Tattoos & Blues 11 years ago, from his mentor Bert Rodrizuez, who started Santa Rosa’s first tattoo shop. LaPlante, who now owns South Tacoma Tattoo in Washington, said the event draws a crowd from across the Bay Area who can choose to get tattooed by artists specializing in American traditional-style tattooing, as well as black and white and new school art forms.

“There’s nothing that can’t be done here,” LaPlante said.

For some, the tattoos are a form of self expression; for others, a lasting way to remember a loved one. Tim Mahaney, of Vallejo, said he came to the festival to finish his back piece, a canvas tattooed with a skull in the center of his back, surrounded by depictions of women as queens.

“It’s a play on cards. The skull is the ace of spades, and the women represent the queen of hearts,” Mahaney said.

Mahaney, who was getting his tattoo from an artist who works at American Dream Tattoo in Petaluma, said he would likely sit for 10 hours to finish the piece. Angel Gallardo, the owner of the shop, said he and the other five artists from American Dream Tattoo stay busy from the beginning of the festival through to the end. He said increasingly, people are veering away from flash art, and are asking for more personalized tattoos.

“People really want custom work,” Gallardo said. “It’s a new generation.”

Gallardo and other artists said the festival is special because it highlights local talent, while drawing artists from outside the area who specialize in an array of styles. Jered Yarber and Leo Wilson, who work at a shop called Bad Donkey Tattoo Co., traveled from Missouri.

“This is one of my favorite conventions,” Yarber said. “It brings such great people, and with the music, it can draw a different crowd. It’s a really good time.”

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ahartreports.