Gods Of Ink Frankfurt - BIG, BIG, BIG

Gods Of Ink was probably the convention I’d been looking forward to most this year, but getting there nearly didn’t happen at all.

We originally had flights booked with Lufthansa, but they got cancelled because of cabin crew strikes. We rebooked for the next day, and somehow that flight got cancelled as well.

At that point we basically gave up trying to fly.

So me and Sam ended up taking the train from Preston down to London Euston, walking across to St Pancras with all our stock and display gear stuffed into suitcases, then getting the Eurostar to Brussels before finally getting another train into Frankfurt.

It was one of those journeys where you’re constantly checking the time, running through stations carrying far too much stuff, and hoping nothing else gets delayed.

Eventually though, we made it there and met up with Michael, who’d travelled over separately.

And honestly, once we arrived, the whole trip immediately felt worth it.

Gods Of Ink is on a completely different level to most conventions. The size of the place is insane, but what stood out most was the amount of effort the biggest brands in the world put into their exhibition stands.

Everything feels huge.
Huge stands.
Huge artists.
Huge production.

It doesn’t really feel like a normal tattoo convention at times. It feels more like the part of the industry where serious business gets done and where a lot of the direction of tattooing gets decided.

We didn’t have our own designated stand this time and instead shared space with RAW Premium Pigments, whose stand was absolutely massive at 10m x 10m.

The atmosphere around the RAW stand all weekend was brilliant. They had eight world-class artists tattooing across the weekend and ended up taking home multiple awards between them as well.

Seeing Cool Soothe products sat on a stand that size was both humbling and something I was massively proud of at the same time.

A lot of people at the convention hadn’t heard of Cool Soothe before, especially outside the UK, but there were definitely some British companies and artists there who already knew the brand and seemed genuinely happy to see us there.

One thing that got a lot of attention was simply the fact we offer different scent options. Weirdly, that still doesn’t really exist much outside the British aftercare market, so people from different countries seemed really interested in the idea straight away.

You could tell artists from different parts of Europe reacted differently as well. Some people were instantly interested in the branding and scents, while others were more focused on the actual healing side and ingredients.

Probably the biggest moment of the entire weekend though was realising the brand was starting to move outside the UK properly.

By the third day we’d already had several European distributors approach us wanting to discuss bringing Cool Soothe into different markets across Europe, including one particularly big opportunity that could become a huge step for the brand moving forward.

That was probably the first moment where it properly hit me that this thing is becoming bigger than just a UK brand.

Despite how huge the convention was, it never really felt intimidating. More inspiring if anything.

When you see the level some brands and artists are operating at, it just makes you want to push harder and build something properly.

I didn’t get loads of chance to properly walk around because the weekend stayed busy, but the standard of tattooing was honestly ridiculous. There were so many incredible tattoos being done that it’s impossible to even start picking favourites.

Outside the convention itself, we did manage to get out around Frankfurt a little bit. Saturday morning we went for coffee and I ended up buying shorts from a local sports shop because the convention hall on Friday was absolutely roasting.

Sam was flat-out busy the entire weekend as well. Originally he was there filming content for Cool Soothe, but because the videographer for GHOST cartridges also had her flight cancelled, he ended up helping them too.

So he basically spent the entire convention sprinting around filming tattoos, products, artists and crowds without really stopping.

The journey home was thankfully less chaotic than getting there, although there was one final disaster right at the end.

Me and Michael were flying to Spain the next morning and realised far too late that the airport we’d booked — Frankfurt Hahn — was actually nearly two hours away from Frankfurt itself.

So after going out for food with the RAW team and a bunch of artists, getting back to the hotel around 11pm, we then had to leave again at 2am to make the flight.

Which definitely wasn’t ideal after a full convention weekend.

One thing I did really like at the end though was that instead of dragging loads of leftover stock back home, we gave everything remaining away to artists to try back at their studios.

Overall though, Gods Of Ink felt like a massive moment for Cool Soothe.

Not because of sales or numbers, but because it felt like the first time the brand properly stepped onto an international stage.

And for a self-funded family-run company that only launched a few months ago, that honestly feels pretty surreal.