Big North Tattoo Show: Home For 20 Minutes, Then Newcastle

I don't think I've ever arrived at a convention less prepared for a weekend than I did at Big North.

The weekend before I'd been at Gods Of Ink in Frankfurt, then straight after that I'd headed over to Spain. On the Friday morning of Big North I landed back from Alicante at around 10am, got home, dumped my suitcase, spent about twenty minutes in my own house and then jumped straight in the van with Jonathon and Faye to head up to Newcastle. Looking back, it probably wasn't my smartest decision.

By the time we arrived at the Utilita Arena I was absolutely knackered. Luckily setup wasn't too stressful. We got most of the stand sorted on Friday evening before I admitted defeat and went to bed. I'd been on the go for what felt like weeks at that point and Saturday morning felt like a much better time to finish everything off before the doors opened.

I've been attending Big North for around five years now and it's always one I look forward to. The atmosphere is always good, it's well organised and it attracts a great mix of artists from all over the UK. This year definitely felt busier than last year as well. Compared to Manchester a few weeks earlier, it was probably a better convention for us as a brand. Tattoo Tea Party felt like the weekend people started recognising Cool Soothe, whereas Newcastle felt like the weekend people actively came looking for it.

That was probably the biggest thing I noticed throughout the weekend. We had people stocking up on products before the show had properly got going, customers returning because they'd bought from us in Manchester, and artists bringing friends over to smell products they'd been talking about. A few months ago we'd spend most of a convention introducing people to the brand. At Big North it felt like people already knew who we were.

The biggest surprise of the weekend was Iron Brew. By an absolute mile. I don't know whether it was because of how close we were to Scotland or the number of Scottish artists attending, but it completely took over the stand. Normally Pina Colada is right up there, but Newcastle definitely belonged to Iron Brew.

Jonathon and Faye were brilliant as always and pretty much held the fort all weekend. Convention stands are funny because people only really see the customer-facing side of things, but by the end of a weekend you've answered the same questions hundreds of times, talked constantly for three days and probably let thousands of people smell the same products. They're both fantastic with people though and make the whole thing run far smoother than it probably should.

One of my favourite moments of the weekend came from Kieran Boyes. His work stood out all weekend and we ended up bringing him onto the Cool Soothe Pro Team. The funny part was that he didn't actually realise I owned the company. I asked him how he was getting on with the products and he spent a few minutes telling me how much he liked them, how well they worked and why he was recommending them. Then he asked me if I'd tried them myself. That's probably one of the most genuine product endorsements we've ever had.

It was also interesting seeing how many people were already familiar with the products. There were even a few artists using Cool Soothe who are publicly associated with other brands. No names needed, but it was one of those moments where actions speak louder than words.

Away from the convention itself, the Airbnb deserves a mention. I'd booked it while we were travelling up and when we arrived it looked like a student house that had somehow survived multiple generations of students. One shower didn't have a working light, the other barely had enough water pressure to qualify as a shower, and at one point Jonathon ended up washing in complete darkness using the torch on his watch while the shower head gently spat water at him. The mattresses weren't much better. It wasn't exactly luxury accommodation, but we made it work and even filmed a Cribs-style tour for the vlog that's probably still floating around on Instagram somewhere.

Sam arrived on Saturday afternoon and got stuck straight into filming content. As usual, half the time I completely forgot he was filming anything, so I'm sure there'll be footage from the weekend that I don't even remember happening. It was also great catching up with Perry from Total Tattoo over the weekend, which is always one of the nice parts of doing conventions. You spend so much time travelling around the country that conventions become one of the few places you get to catch up with people properly.

As for the tattooing itself, there was loads of great work getting produced throughout the weekend. The large black and grey category was probably the standout for me. There were some incredible pieces being entered and the overall standard was ridiculously high.

By the time Sunday evening rolled around I was completely exhausted. Between Frankfurt, Spain and Newcastle, it felt like I'd spent more time in airports, vans and hotels than I had at home. Driving back though, I remember thinking how different the weekend had felt. Not because of one massive deal or one big breakthrough, but because for the first time it felt like Cool Soothe had become part of the furniture. People knew who we were, people knew the products and, most importantly, people were coming back for more.