Titanic Tattoo Convention Belfast – Great Artists, Great Conversations, and a Slightly Stressful Pack Down

We spent the weekend of 20–22 February at the Titanic Tattoo Convention, held inside the Titanic Museum in Belfast. It’s a pretty unique venue for a tattoo convention and it definitely gives the whole event a different feel compared to the usual big exhibition halls.

This trip was also the first convention with Sam, a long-time friend who’s recently started working with us doing photography, video and content. Unfortunately he wasn’t actually there in a Cool Soothe capacity because he’d already been booked to work for the convention itself. Still, he did the whole van and ferry trip with us, helped out where he could, and even managed to slice his finger open putting up the display stand — so apologies for that one, Sam.

This time we weren’t just wandering around handing out samples like we did at the last convention. We were there as a sponsor with a proper trade stand, with big displays set up and all the scents out so people could smell and try everything properly.

For the event we also made a custom “Titanic” scent balm, which we gave to all 100 artists tattooing at the convention. It’s always good getting products directly into artists’ hands while they’re actually working rather than just trying to explain them.

The convention itself had a really different atmosphere compared to most events. It wasn’t packed with crowds wandering around and it never felt chaotic. If anything it was quite quiet, but in a good way. It felt more like an artist gathering than a big public exhibition. Most of the people there seemed to be either tattooing or getting a serious piece done, and the quality of tattoos being produced over the weekend was seriously impressive.

The products went down really well with artists across the weekend. We also released our new 'Second Skin', which got a lot of attention. It’s ultra thin and quite a few artists commented that it was the best they’d seen so far, which is always good feedback when it’s coming from people who use this kind of thing every day.

As usual the scent was one of the biggest talking points. Almost everyone who picked up a balm said the same thing about how good everything smelled. We also still had some of the Valentine’s edition balms left, which people absolutely loved. It’s tempting to keep it around all year, but once they’re gone we’ll probably keep that one in the vault until next year.

Conventions are always good for catching up with people as well. I got to properly chat with Colin Whitfield, who I hadn’t really seen since a mate’s wedding, and we ended up talking quite a bit about his supply brand, cool soothe and the industry in general.

I managed to catch up with James from Raw Pigments US, who I’ve known for a while. He’d brought over Aidan and Benny, two artists he introduced me to who were tattooing in Europe for the first time, which was good to see.

Another regular convention moment was chatting with Kaz Bham. We actually live fairly close to each other but hardly ever see each other outside conventions, yet every time we end up at the same event we talk constantly between his breaks. He loved the products as well, which was good to hear — especially considering years ago I was the one who introduced him to some of the products he still uses.

Another highlight of the weekend was judging the convention alongside my good friend Luan Roots and the incredibly talented Katarzyna Dumka, who has won just about every major convention award going worldwide. The three of us judged every category across the entire convention, which meant getting a really close look at some incredible tattoos being produced over the weekend.

Somewhere right near the end of the weekend, Mongrel Dave ended up getting a completely unnecessary birthday striptease from me - conventions do have a habit of getting slightly ridiculous once everyone’s been there long enough.

The only stressful part came right at the end. I had to jump straight from judging, pack down the entire stand, load the van, and get to the ferry within about two hours. Anyone who’s ever packed down a convention stand will know that’s slightly optimistic timing — but somehow we managed it.

All in all it was a really interesting weekend. Belfast was definitely quieter than a lot of conventions, and between travel, ferries and stands it’s not exactly a cheap trip. But the atmosphere was great, the artists were brilliant, and it was the first convention where we brought the full-size stand, which got a lot of attention.

Would we go back? Probably. The organiser is a great friend and also the partner in Cool Soothe, so that helps — but more importantly it was good to be part of it.

And next time we’ll try to pack down the stand without anyone bleeding on it.