Cranberry DoubleTree holds weekend tattoo convention
CRANBERRY TWP — The DoubleTree in Cranberry Township became the area’s biggest tattoo parlor over the weekend of Nov. 22-24, as the hotel ballroom hosted the first Cranberry Tattoo Classic.
More than 100 tattoo artists from Western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and elsewhere packed the hotel, bringing their ink, needles, and plenty of interested customers.
The convention is operated by Tony Urbanek, a tattoo artist and owner of Inkadinkadoo in Lawrenceville, along with his wife, Elizabeth.
“It's really just a celebration of the tattoo industry and just how mainstream it's become,” Elizabeth said. “If you look to the person on your right, and the person on your left, one of you has a tattoo. One in three people in America have tattoos. So it's just a chance for everyone to come together and have fun and really appreciate the art.”
“I think it’s been great,” Tony said. “People are very receptive. Everybody's having a good time. Saturday, through the course of the day, it was just a solid uphill ramp of people by evening. We were super busy.”
Although this was the first Cranberry tattoo convention, it was not the duo’s first rodeo in organizing a convention. They had gotten their start by putting together the Rubber City Tattoo Invitational in Akron, Oh., starting in 2022.
“We've done that for three years now, and our next one will be in July. It’s always the last weekend in July,” Elizabeth said.
Following the success of their first endeavor, the couple wanted to start a similar convention in the Pittsburgh area.
“Tony and I live in Wexford. We love this area and we know that, living in Wexford, you don't always want to have to drive to the city to do something cool. So we're excited to have it out here,” Elizabeth said. “This is our first time doing something in Cranberry Township, and we really hope to make it an annual event as well.”
According to Elizabeth, more than100 artists set up shop at the DoubleTree for the Tattoo Classic — some of whom have an international following on social media and had interested customers queuing up all weekend.
Most of the vendors reported receiving steady business throughout the weekend.
“This is the first annual, and they're usually kind of questionable if they're going to be busy or not.” said Justin Hofmeister, of West Virginia. “This one's been fairly busy. Everybody's in good spirit, and I think the holiday theme has a lot to do with that.”
“It's pretty awesome, and it's a great chance to get tattooed by people that are from out of the area that you might normally not have a chance to ever get a tattoo from and whose art you really like,” Elizabeth said.
Some of the tattoo artists who took part traveled a long way to be there. One of those is Justin Shamrock, who hails from Orange County, Calif., and is in the middle of a move to Las Vegas.
“I travel all over the U.S., and this happened to be one of the destinations that I picked,” Shamrock said. “I really like the Pittsburgh area. It’s got its own unique culture and pretty good food.”
In addition to the numerous opportunities for tattoos, stickers, and other merchandise, the show handed out a host of awards on each of the three days — both to tattoo artists and to the people bearing the tattoos.
Awards given out on Sunday included Best Back/Chest, Best Holiday/Themed, Best Overall, and Best of Show, along with a kids’ tattoo contest.
