Starting this Friday, Rio de Janeiro will host the 10th Tattoo Week Rio, an event whose hallmark is solidarity, mixing an arts meeting with social actions that use tattooing. The director-president of the event, Esther Gawendo, told Agência Brasil that safety tattoos will be donated to patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension or allergy to some medication. Interested people can register until Friday at the email address https://taplink.cc/tattooweek. The event will run until Sunday (22).
“We tattooed voluntarily at the event,” said the CEO. Esther highlighted that many lives can be saved in this way. “If you are in a crisis and you have your tattoo indicating that you are allergic or diabetic, this can save you a lot when it comes to help.”
The 10th Tattoo Week Rio will also promote eyebrow micropigmentation and paramedical micropigmentation for nipple areola reconstruction for women who have undergone mastectomy, cancer victims and who have lost their nipples. In this edition, for the first time, trans men who have had a breast implant and do not have a nipple due to gender transition will also be assisted.
The organizers say that the paramedical micropigmentation procedure can only be performed upon presentation of a medical certificate. Last year, 250 people were assisted. This year, the expectation is to double that number.
At the event, safety tattoos will be donated to patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension – Ana Savoy / Art with Passion Project/Disclosure
Partnership
The event is held through a partnership between Tattoo do Bem, Tattoo Week and Projeto Arte com Paixão, conceived by paramedic micropigmentator Ana Savoy. “My social project Arte com Paixāo, which I created in 2012, always moves me when I see the joy and recovery of self-esteem of trans women and men. And this time, with Tattoo Week’s partnership, we’re going to make a lot of people happy,” she said.
For the creator and founder of Tattoo Week, Enio Conte, the event intends to give visibility to art on the skin, valuing its artists and showing that the sector is an important market in the economy. “Our objective is to bring a new experience to the participants and visitors and move them, proving that tattooing, in addition to art, is solidarity and generates jobs and income”.
Municipal Law 7748, sanctioned on December 26 last year by Mayor Eduardo Paes, included Tattoo Week in the official calendar of events in the city of Rio de Janeiro. “This year we officially entered the city’s events”, celebrated Esther. “It is extremely important for the event, which is in its tenth edition here in Rio, this support that the City Hall and Riotur are giving us”.
Opening
Tattoo Week Rio will also have paramedical micropigmentation for nipple areola reconstruction – Ana Savoy / Art with Passion Project/Disclosure
On Friday, from 12:00 pm to 10:00 pm, visitors will be able to enter the event free of charge, by donating two kilos of non-perishable food (except salt and sugar). Part of the collected food will be donated to Estação Primeira de Mangueira, one of the most traditional samba schools in Rio de Janeiro. Another part will be donated to the city’s social fund, which has institutions registered to receive food.
Children from the Mangueira do Amanhã project will participate in the official opening of Tattoo Week Rio. The project will also have a store for the sale of souvenirs to visitors, with the aim of generating income.
The meeting takes place at Centro Sul América, now Espaço Mag, in Cidade Nova, in the central region of Rio. On the 21st and 22nd, at the same time, tickets can be purchased through the link https://lets.events/e/tattoo-week-edicao-rio-de-janeiro-2023 or directly at the event’s box office for prices that vary from R$ 30 (social ticket with donation of a kilo of non-perishable food) to R$ 120 (combos). The combos include a T-shirt and cup alluding to the meeting, as well as a free tattoo that the person can choose from a pre-established notebook. “They are tattoos of up to five centimeters and have a very large option”, informed Esther.
Tattoo Week Rio will have 250 booths from tattoo studios and companies and piercingwith a total of 2,500 exhibitors, in addition to a gastronomic area, a playful space for children with educators, a fitness and parking. “It’s a family event,” said the CEO. More than a thousand tattoo artists and piercers from various parts of Brazil and the world will present their work to the public, as well as recent trends in skin art. The companies, in turn, will bring their newest products and equipment launches.
Convention
There will also be a Miss and Mister Tattoo contest, which will elect the most tattooed woman and man and a contest will be held with 22 categories of tattoos. The winner will represent Brazil at the Tattoo Artists Convention, in New York (USA). Esther revealed that the goal, for 2024, is to increase the total number of winners, to take a greater number of professionals to represent Brazil at the North American convention.
Another novelty in this edition is the participation of the Municipal Urban Cleaning Company (Comlurb), which will collect recycled materials that are generated during the event, such as glass and cans, to be donated to collectors’ cooperatives. “It is the first year that we are going to do this action, which is super important”. More information can be obtained from the event website and on Instagram @tattooweek.
