Thessalonink, the first and long awaited tattoo festival in the city of Thessaloniki, starts tomorrow. HeartbeatInk Tattoo Magazine spoke with the organizers, George Mavridis and Fotis Lazos. Thessalonink will be taking place at Warehouse C in Thessaloniki Port and will last until Sunday, September 21st.
Interview with George Mavridis by Ino Mei.
The first Thessalonink is just a breath away. How do you feel? Is everything ready?
At this very moment, I am here in Warehouse C at the port of Thessaloniki. We are ready and we are arranging the final details for Friday morning. I have experienced by far the most pressured period of my life. I would describe Thessalonink as the most “ambitious” project I have worked so far.
How did the idea of organizing a tattoo convention in Thessaloniki come up?
The idea came from Fotis Lazos and Costas Xanthopoulos, about two years ago. This year, four months before the actual event and in conjunction with the prohibition of me entering the Athens tattoo convention, I was asked to help in this endeavor, in order to do something different.
You have traveled a lot for your work as a tattooist and for your TV show also. Until today you have visited many tattoo conventions around the world. Did you have a tattoo convention “model” in your mind for the creation of Thessalonink?
The Ink-N-Iron festival in Long Beach, California. We are aiming to do something like that in Greece. Specifically, in Ink-N-Iron the tattoo artists are housed within the ship Queen Mary, where the exhibition is held and outside all the space that surrounds it is full of concerts, vintage cars, motorcycles, burlesque shows, and many more. In Thessalonink the tattooists will be housed in the Warehouse C which have been formed according to the needs of the festival and the outside space – over the see and with views across the city - will hold all the concerts.
As one of the organizers, what are your expectations?
There are no "expectations". We are producing the first tattoo convention in Thessaloniki and what we want for the people who will visit Thessalonink is to have a great time and leave with a smile. Everything we do from our side is crystal clear and we have managed to “click” incredible events within Thessalonink. This festival will be somewhat unique.
Interview with Fotis Lazos by Eirini Katsara.
What further events are included in the organization of Thessalonink?
The event is something more than an exhibition for tattoo artists. It’s a point of reference for those who love adrenaline! That’s the reason we are going to have numerous parallel actions and entertaining activities for everybody; competitions, graffiti shows but also a great number of parallel subjects and spectacles about tattoos. It’s nonetheless important to mention the openair stage where concerts are going to be held featuring great artists, both Greek and foreign.
What was the ‘hardest’ part in setting up Thessalonink?
The decision to launch the event itself because it was something that had never happened before in the city, and to a level that Greece as a country has never experienced so far.
Which groups from abroad are going to be hosted in the convention?
At the Open air live stage of Thessalonink you will meet; Jaya The Cat (Netherlands/USA), Black Raven (Germany), Barb Wire Dolls (USA), Roadkillsoda (Romania) and Grandpa Candys (Serbia). From Greece the participants are the Fundracar, Bullets, KozaMostra και Baildsa!
How hard or easy is it to get a sponsorship from government bodies for such a festival?
We stand on our own feet and we haven’t received any money from a government body.
How hard is it to put together a tattoo festival compared with a concert?
The logic behind it is completely different and it was surely a challenge. Even though there are common elements, whoever is going to deal with it has to focus on extra matters that possibly wouldn’t exist when organizing a concert.
I assume that thanks to your experience with concerts and George Mavridis’ experience with tattoo, the division of duties was easy…
Each one of us focused on doing their thing as it should be done, we did discuss a lot though, as we did with the whole team of Thessalonink.
What kind of feedback are you getting so far from the public?
We are extremely satisfied from the impact. Within a few months the Facebook page of Thessalonink has reached more than 10.000 likes, we have messages flowing in, everybody shows a great deal of interest. We couldn’t have imagined anything better, especially on our first attempt.
Tattoo Artists in alphabetical order:
GREEK
1 ATAHUALPA TATTOO KOSTAS KATSIAVOS
2 BERLIN TATTOO DIONYSIS XENOS
JAMAN
3 BLACKLINE TATTOO CHRISTOS GALIROPOULOS
4 DERMAGRAFICS DIMITRIS ARONIS
MISS LITSA
5 DILDO TATTOO TZENIO PIRIGENTS
DIONISIS ASIMAKIS (RAIDEN)
6 DIRTYROSES TATTOO PADELIS DIRTY ROSES
RASEL DIRTY ROSES
7 DR.PEPPER TATTOO GIANNIS PIPPERAKIS
8 DR. SKIN TATTOO BILLY DR.SKIN
MATINA ATR DR.SKIN
9 EL PASO TATTOO ELIOT (Ilias Kalioras)
10 EREVOSCREATIONS EREVOS
11 EXTREME INKTATTOO PAUL SENKALAS
12 FREDDY TATTOO TASSOS FREDDY
13 LIONTI TATTOO LIONTAS VICTOR
14 MAGARET TATTOOSTORY MAGARET
15 MEDUSATATTOO VASSILIS EXARCHOS
16 MORAL STUDIO VASSILIS MORAL
17 NICO TATTOO NIKOS KATSOULIS
THOMAS GRAMM
OZONE OFK
DIMITRIS CHATZIS
PETER MARIO KALAPHILIDES
18 ONELOVE DEATHPOP
GEORGE CIDO
19 OPEN MIND TATTOO RAUL OPENMIND TATTOO
20 POLIS DECAY TATTO GALERY POLIS DECAY
21 PRIVE TATTOO KOSTAS PLIAKAS
22 PROKI TATTOO KOSTAS BARONIS
SILBO
DYNOZ
GEORGE DRONE
23 RITUAL TATTOO LAZAROS BRONE
24 SAKE TATTOO CREW GEORGE BAKER
25 7th SENSE TZIMAS 7th SENSE
26 SKINKTATTOO SAKIS SKINK
MINAS TRIMERIS
27 SKINWORKS TATTOO PETROS SKINWORKS
28 TATTOOLIGANS GEORGE MAVRIDIS
DOVAS
YIANNIS AGIOS
NAST
29 TATTOO SKINETIC TEO SKINETIC
30 TRUE LOVE TATTOO TAKI TSAN
DANE
31 UNCL PAUL ON THE ROAD UNCL PAUL
32 VIDAPIRATA JENNY
33 WALK THE LINE TATTOO DIMITRIS WTL
INTERNATIONAL
34 BART VAN WAGENINGEN HOLLAND
35 JULIEN THIBERS FRANCE
37 JOHN MAXX ROMANIA
38 FABIAN DANGER AUSTRALIA
39 PENCIL DOMENICO ACAMPORA ITALY
40 SIFOU TATOUAGE SWEDEN
41 OskaTattoo Dinev BULGARIA
Thessalonink Info:
Doors open at 12:00.
Tattoo booths available from 12:00 to 22:30.
Concerts start at 21:30 with the same ticket.
Tickets: 7 euros / daily ticket, 15 eurso 3 day ticket.
www.thessalonink.gr
*Tattoo Movies Project will be running during the festival, with the screening of David Fincher's "The girl with the dragon tattoo" on Saturday the 20th and Sunday the 21st of September at Village Cinemas at the port. Tickets: 4 euros.
Line Up
