Getting Literary With Main Line Ink
This weekend, gather all your favorite muggles, squibs, witches, and wizards and head downtown to the second annual Literary INK Tattoo Convention—The Convention of Secrets.
Main Line Ink is sponsoring this one-of -a-kind event that runs this Friday through Sunday at the Chattanooga Convention Center, with a special screening of the documentary A Wizard’s Journey and a Butter Beer Ice Cream Social at the IMAX Theater on Thursday night to kick off the festivities.
Literary INK was designed as a Harry Potter themed tattoo convention that seeks to “create, exhibit, and celebrate the intersection of literary fantasy and artistic magic.” In this case, the artistic magic comes from some of the best tattoo wizards in the world, who are converging on Chattanooga to display their work and tattoo the city’s biggest Harry Potter fans—you!
“This is not your typical tattoo convention,” says founder and Main Line Ink co-owner Jennifer Edge. “It’s almost like a cosplay convention and a tattoo convention mixed together.”
There will be lots of characters from your favorite books walking around the convention and attendees are encouraged to dress in their favorite cosplay to get into the spirit of the event or for a chance at winning Saturday’s cosplay contest.
This magical weekend starts early on Thursday with a limited seat screening of the documentary A Wizard’s Journey. This fascinating film follows four tattoo wizards, exploring their lives, dreams, techniques, and artistic inspiration during the first Literary INK Convention in Chattanooga last year.
“If you love tattoos, you’ll love the documentary,” Edge says with a huge smile. “If you love Harry Potter, you’ll love the documentary. And if you love both, you just can’t miss it.”
The red-carpet, black-tie, or “wizardry best” screening kicks off at the IMAX theater downtown with a Clumpies Butter Beer Ice Cream Social. After the film, fly over to Big River for an awesome after-party. Only 100 tickets are available for this special screening, so grab yours soon!
On Friday, the convention cranks up at the Convention Center with special music by Scarlet Love Conspiracy and Amber Fults, magic shows, panel discussions, and the sound of tattoo machines purring.
This year, the convention has nearly tripled in size from last year, with around 170 artists and vendors from all over the world. Among the impressive roster of tattoo artists scheduled to attend this year’s convention are about 15 who have competed on the reality competition series Ink Master.
Speaking about the artists slated to attend, Edge says, “We are excited to have so many talented artists again this year. Artists such as Kelly Doty, Gian Karle, Erin Chance—there are just too many to name! What’s especially exciting is that we have so many artists coming this year who typically do not do conventions, so it’s a great opportunity for anyone who’s a fan!”
Saturday, along with the tattoo contests and the pageantry of the cosplay contests, there will be lots of things to fascinate and excite the kids. The Chattanooga Zoo will be bringing Fantastic Beasts, such as Rosie the owl, for attendees to meet and greet, and circus performers will be wandering around throughout the day (one unconfirmed rumor claims there will be performers playing Quidditch on unicycles).
There will also be a wand shop and wandmaking station on premise that you can walk through, as well as an escape room experience.
“We want this to be a weekend of magic where you can get away from the madness in the world and have a blast,” says Edge. “Some of the most good-hearted people I know are Harry Potter fans. Whether you’re Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, or even Slytherin, when you get good-hearted people together like that, it’s a vibe you can’t get anywhere else.”
Literary INK: The Convention of Secrets
Chattanooga Convention Center
Friday through Sunday
www.literaryink.co