INDEX
SOCIAL MEDIA
1. News 2. WV History/Crime 3. News 4. News 5. Culture 6. Opinion
Twitter: @DailyAthenaeum Sports Twitter: @TheDASports Instagram: @DailyAthenaeum Sports Instagram: @TheDASports Snapchat: @DailyAthenaeum WVU’s Independent Student Newspaper
MONDAY AUGUST 20, 2018
West Virginia Tattoo Expo: a positive experience and friendly environment
7. Chill 8. Feature 9. Sports 10. Sports 11. Classifieds 12. Ad
danewsroom@mail.wvu.edu
A LOOK INSIDE
BY CODY NESPOR CULTURE EDITOR Amidst the humming of the needles of more than 100 tattoo artists, tattooed and non-tattooed people alike flocked to the Morgantown Events Center to attend the sixth annual West Virginia Tattoo Expo. This first of its kind in West Virginia, the tattoo expo was started in line with the mainstream expansion of tattoos in recent years as a way to promote good tattooing. The expo was held from Friday, Aug. 17 through Sunday, Aug. 19. With an estimated 160 to 180 artists in attendance, it is on the small side of modern-day tattoo conventions, but event promoter Rick Cherry said that is what gives this expo a different feel to it. “With the expansion of tattooing and promoters and all this other stuff, all of a sudden you have people that are putting on tattoo conventions [and are] leasing convention halls. They’re putting in two, three, four hundred booths, bringing in five, six hundred tattoo artists, and it’s a shame because there’s not a good feeling,” Cherry, a tattoo artist since 1969, said of larger conventions. “[The artists are] fighting for everybody who’s coming through the door because there aren’t enough people coming through the door for everyone to make money.” Cherry said that Morgantown’s smaller convention is more like a “family reunion” because all the artists know and like one another and almost all of them have been participating for all six years. Event emcee Cheeze Mcquatters described the relationship all the venders have as more like a circus because they all travel together and have gotten to know one another. Held on the first weekend when students are back in Morgantown,
New GPA, event requirements for Greek life Greek life members face stricter standards page 3
PHOTO BY SAMANTHA KALINOSKI
Artist Matti Brown lost in concentration while working on a piece of art. a number of attendees were college students. Cherry said that the timing of the convention is not an accident each year. “It’s usually on a military payday weekend, the students are just getting back to school so they’re not really tied down yet and there’s no home football game,” Cherry said. Mcquatters said that holding a tattoo convention in a college town like Morgantown is a great way to get more people into tattooing and, as a result, help to end the stigma against tattoos. “For some of these students this might be their first year in college, they might have been super sheltered and they might not have ever seen this side of the world,” Mcquatters said. “Now that we have the West Virginia Tattoo Expo, they’re probably like ‘I’ve never seen art like
New band director mixes tradition and variety Marching band director takes reigns of The Pride
page 5
PHOTO BY SAMANTHA KALINOSKI
Miss Tattoo 2017 after handing over her crown to Miss Tattoo 2018. this’ or ‘man, how are they tattooing that,’ so it’s opening their eyes to things that they’ve never seen.”
The atmosphere attracted enough people that nearly every artist was tattooing seemingly nonstop.
Fall Sports preview: A look into 2018 What to expect during the fall season. page 10