June 10-12 the Drawin’ the Wildcard Tattoo Extravaganza took place in Atlantic City for the second year. And, I was happy to see that the show grew in size this year!

Having gone to quite a few tattoo conventions over the past year, I can say that each show has a vibe to it. Some shows are close-knit circles of friends, all hanging out the same as they do every week, some shows are random gatherings of strangers that have just come out to the convention, and some shows are interesting mixes of both of these. But this show is different; there is a large gathering of people that are here with two things in common - to display their tattoos, and to have a great partyweekend in Atlantic City! And with that type of vibe at a show, you can’t go wrong!

The convention center in Atlantic City is a great venue to hold any type of show to begin with, other than the hideous florescent lighting and swirl carpeting that give everything a slight purple twinge, but hey, what can you do! There is plenty of room for the vendors, walkways wide enough for multiple people to walk at the same time (amazing!), and there’s always room to sneak a peak of what is going on in the booths.

The attendees that participated in the contests throughout Saturday night had some of the better work that I’ve seen at a convention, and I made the friends that kept coming up to me throughout the night to show me additional tatts that I hadn’t seen the first, second, or third time that I talked to them.

This convention also had two gentleman that had priceless tatts. Both had artwork surrounding and incorporated into their belly buttons. The one guy had a female, laid out on her back, with legs spread wide open that were covered in fishnet thigh-highs - the belly button being the obvious center point for this spread. The other had a pirate-style skull with the darkness of the private’s mouth encompassing the gateway to his stomach.

Another attendee had one of the most realistic spiders on her lower calf that I could have imagined. And, for someone who is petrified of spiders, it was just a tad too scary to get too close to!

Also doing their thing all throughout the weekend was the Rev. Frankie Luv’s Traveling Tattoo Sideshow. And with heavy objects hanging off of body piercings, acupuncture for the insane, and a few other surprises to make the audience cringe along the way, who wouldn’t want to take a seat?

The 2006 Extravaganza is sure to be even bigger and better as it continues to grow. Check out www.drawinthewildcard.com for complete details to be able to make your weekend party-vacation out of it!