Artists from around the world have made it to the annual Inked Hearts Tattoo Expo

Every year, tattoo artists from around the world come to Humboldt to be a part of the Inked Heart Tattoo Expo.

“Bringing together really cool, good artist and we put this on for Humboldt,” said Ted Marks, the Norcal Tattoo owner and Inked Hearts Tattoo Expo organizer. “It’s a big treat for Humboldt [and] it’s our 14th year.”

This is the 14th year of the Inked Hearts Tattoo Expo collaboration between Blue Lake Casino and NorCal Tattoo. This collaboration began in 2009 after they both had an interest in creating an event like this. 

The three-day tattoo expo is filled with tattoo artists and fans of tattoos, tattoo competitions, fire dancers, local bands and DJs. The way artists are brought to this tattoo event is because the organizers have a referral system to pick a variety of artists with different styles of tattooing to have a bit of everything at the event.

“It’s usually, at this point it’s referrals,” Marks said. “Like the people that have been here, they’ll refer somebody you know. They know what standards we have. You got to be cool.”

People traveled from all over the world to Blue Lake to be a part of this event. People came from Russia, the Bay Area, Georgia and all across the states. 

“I’m here to join the Inked Hearts show to help bring the community together with tattoos and art and help make the world a little more beautiful,” said Jeremy Laflamme, a tattoo artist from Fortuna. 

The organizers hope to make next year’s tattoo expo bigger with a new location to be able to bring more artists to the area. If you are looking into attending, admission to the Inked Hearts Tattoo Expo at the Blue Lake Casino is $10 for one one-day pass.