When all 600 tickets to Dunedin's first tattoo and art show sold out a month before the event, organiser Macaela Manuel knew she was on to a winner.
And so it proved. The proudly decorated and the curious thronged to Forbury Raceway on Saturday to watch artists at work, to inspect portfolios of the latest body art trends, and to cheer on 160 competitors aged from their 20s to their 60s from all over the lower South Island strutting their stuff for prizes.
Mrs Manuel, who runs Dunedin's Visual Intelligence tattoo studio with husband Aaron, said she had attended many shows in other centres and wanted to bring the best elements of those shows to Dunedin.
She was keen to show tattooing as an art form alongside other artistic styles. Inside the show, one popular demonstration involved artists, mostly tattoo artists, working together to create collaborative artworks on eight canvases. The artworks were then auctioned.
An airbrush artist created a large portrait during the day, while outside, four graffiti artists created a 10m-long artwork on a wall.
Asked why she thought the show was so popular, Mrs Manuel said it was the combination of it being Dunedin's first show, tattoos being much more accepted and popular, and the show's different aspects.
Forbury staff had initially been cautious about hosting the event because of the people it might attract, she said.
"Afterwards, they came up and said how amazed they were at the show and the behaviour of the crowd. They said we could come back any time ...
The crowd was amazing and everything went off without a hitch."
There would definitely be another show next year, she said. Forbury had offered more space and Mrs Manuel said she would like to be able to enlarge the event to accommodate 800 or 900 spectators. Another option was to stage the event over two days.
