Tattoo Week Rio’s 8th Edition Scheduled for Second Weekend of January

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – With an expected audience of 25,000 people, the “Tattoo Week Rio 2020” will include 220 stands and 1,100 artists.

In addition to the traditional Miss Tattoo Week Rio competition, this edition will include, for the first time in the city, the Mister Tattoo competition, which selects the most striking tattooed male featuring the most expressive tattoos.

The Miss and Mister will be elected, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, plus the award for Miss Congeniality. The competition has 120 candidates enrolled, with final date for registration on December 10th on the Tattoo Week Rio’s website. The winners – 1st place for Miss and Mister – will be entitled to take part in the Tattoo Convention, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The event also features the tattoo competition, in 27 styles, which selects the best work among the Lettering, Realism, Pointillism, Color, Watercolor categories, among others. There will be three permanent jurors and a specific one for each category.

According to Esther Gawendo, Tattoo Week Rio’s CEO, the event intends to introduce novelties and releases of the skin art sector, including tattooing, piercing and micropigmentation, joining the best artists from Brazil and the world.

“It is the first event in 2020, opening the calendar of events in Brazil and the world. And our focus is to promote cultural exchange among artists and show the public the best tattoo in terms of trend, technique and health information,” she says. To this end, Tattoo Week has also invited tattoo artists from Germany, the United States and Spain.

On Sunday, the public will be invited to enjoy the reggae band Mato Seco’s concert, as well as exhibitions, dance and sports.

Change in the tattoo competition

This year, the tattooist winning in the “Best of Event” category is entitled to attend the Pisa Convention in Italy in September 2020, and the best of Friday, Saturday and Sunday will also win a pass to international events, which are still to be scheduled (possibly the Convention in Buenos Aires in March and France in November).

The “Best of the Event” category will be a separate discipline and will no longer be selected among the best on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The purpose of the change, according to the organizers, is to provide the artist with more time, who will have three days to perform his work. “For instance, an artist may win as best of Friday presenting a tattoo and compete with another work for the ‘Best of the Event’.

“This allows for a better chance of winning and for creating a better work, with more time, without the pressure of time, because there are also artists who have already planned to start on Friday and finish on Sunday.

Besides, it won’t hurt the model’s skin so much, prioritizing greater respect for the person that is being tattooed. The plan is to work at a quieter pace in order to provide a better quality of work,” explains Esther Gawendo.

8th Tattoo Week Rio

Dates: January 10th, 11th and 12th (Friday, Saturday and Sunday)
Schedule: 12 noon to 10 PM (to be confirmed)
Venue: South American Convention Center
Address Avenida Paulo de Frontin, 1 – Cidade Nova – Rio de Janeiro/RJ
Prices: R$60 (whole) | R$30 (half entry, upon presentation of student card or donation of 1kg of non-perishable food)