Tattoo Artists Make Permanent Mark at Milwaukee Tattoo Festival

The third-floor hall of the Baird Center is lined with posters and booths full of color and art. A booth for Honey Wraith Parlor is lined with flash tattoos and stencils available for walk-up customers. Books on the table contain years of work these artists have done to showcase their talent.

“That means a lot to me to be able to be a part of it, to be a part of the community,” said Kailah Sullivan, a tattoo artist from Honey Wraith Tattoo. “Tattoo conventions are also huge for the tattoo community itself. I especially love being a part of the Milwaukee tattoo community. It’s very tight knit.”

The Milwaukee Tattoo Fest took place April 11-13, hosting over 200 tattoo artists, 30 vendors and 3,500 patrons, according to Quinn Hurley, director of operations at the festival. The festival allowed artists from across the nation to create and build relationships with new or returning clients through walk up appointments or pre-scheduled sessions. This is the second year for the festival in Milwaukee.

“The most important thing about our Festivals is the building of community,” Hurley said via email. “We bring together so many great shops from Milwaukee under one roof, and artists from all over the world to create in the same space.”

Safety standards are a large deciding factor for patrons and artists alike when choosing what festivals to attend.

“I really enjoy that I can tell that the people running the convention care and have put love into it,” Sullivan said. “They are providing not one, but two garbage cans for shared booths, and providing paper towels.  It’s things that can seem small, but for us it makes a huge difference. There’s good standards and good rules in place here to make everyone, artists and public, comfortable.”

Clients were able to do more than just add to their collection of new tattoos; some artists offered cover-up services. Tiffany Schultz had an old religious tattoo covered with a lighthouse tattoo by Aaron Rodgers of Black Dawn Tattoo.

“My mom loved the lighthouses and when I think of her, I think of a beacon of light,” Schultz said. “So, it seemed very fitting. When she passed away, we did a Wisconsin lighthouse tour, and we drove around to a bunch of lighthouses.”

Schultz said that Rodgers was the fifth artist she had spoken to about the cover-up, as other artists declined to cover a religious tattoo.

“I got the Jesus when I first got sober 10 years ago,” Schultz said. “Now that I’ve been sober for a while, my version of God is very deep. What it represents today isn’t what I represent, so I didn’t feel comfortable just having a massive Jesus on my arm.”

Some come to the festival in hopes of meeting new artists and finding new works that they would like to add to their collection.

“I like to come here and look at everyone’s flash and kind of see what speaks to me and try to add from there,” said Samantha Butzen, a returning patron. This year, she got a tattoo done by Maddii Bee, an artist at True Tattoo in Fox Lake, Illinois.

“I think that this festival brings out a cool crowd of Milwaukee and from other states like Minnesota, Illinois,” Butzen said. “The people are awesome. You get to see a bunch of different art and talk with people that have common interests and make friends.”

Many of the artists said that customers should do their research before getting a tattoo, keeping in mind what they want, who the artist is and how long it will last.

“It is your body, and it is a permanent thing,” Sullivan said. “So, don’t be afraid to speak up to make sure that you’re going to get the result that you want and ask questions to ensure that you’re going to get the result that you want.”

The Milwaukee Tattoo Fest is slated to return to the Baird Center May 29-31, 2026.