Belize's Tattoo Artists

A delegation of tattoo artists and assistants from Belize travelled to Cancun, Mexico on Friday February 17th to participate in Cancun's Tattoo Expo 2012. The delegation was a collaboration of three tattoo shops; House of Pain in Corozal, Belizean Ink in Cayo and from San Pedro, Tattoo Life. Tattoo artists included; George Alamilla, aka Inkman; Karim Sosa aka Wimpas and Fabian Mansania.

Wilhemina Vasquez of Tattoo Life spoke with The Sun about their experience at the Expo. "We had a blast to start of with. We took down three artists; Ink Man; Wimpas, and Fabian Mansania from House of Pain in Corozal. We got a good crowd when we got there and got a lot of people excited. It was the first time a shop from Belize actually participated in a Cancun convention. Other than that we did some very good work."

The team, unfortunately did not produce any tattoos that qualified for the competition itself; "We did not do any tattoos that qualified for the competition, which were the larger pieces for black and grey. We had color portraits as a competition and we had best in show. For best in show the tattoo that was being done did not finish until midnight so it couldn't compete. Time frame wise, it was a different atmosphere to what we were used to. The booths were close to each other and we had to fit our three artists in one booth including the assistants. We were right next to these guys that were from Villahermosa who had some sick, sick, sick work. So it was kind of intimidating at the same time, to be next to a guy who has over thirty years of experience tattooing people. But other than that it was a very awesome experience. We got some awesome input and now we are being asked to host an Expo here in Belize."

Click here to read the rest of the article and see more photos in the San Pedro Sun