For Adam Medina, tattoos have always been about more than ink on skin. They’re about connection, artistry, and community — and that’s exactly what he hopes to highlight at the second annual Owensboro Tattoo Expo, set for October 10-12 at the Owensboro Convention Center.
The three-day event will run from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day, bringing together about 100 tattoo artists from across the globe. Attendees can expect live tattooing, competitions, music, and even oddities vendors.
“When the public comes in, they can pretty much picture it like a really big tattoo shop,” Medina said. “All the artists will have their own tables and booths, with displays of their work, trophies, and pieces they want to do. You can go through each portfolio, find an artist you like, and either book something for later or sometimes set it up right then and there.”
Medina, a tattoo artist himself and owner of Secret Lotus Tattoo in Radcliff, started the Owensboro Expo after years of traveling to conventions nationwide. He said he was disheartened by how impersonal many events had become.
“I noticed they just became more of a franchise thing — show up, get your tattoo, go home — versus really hanging out and connecting with the person who’s going to leave a tattoo on you for the rest of your life,” Medina said. “I wanted to create a dynamic where you don’t feel like you’re at some big event where you don’t matter. Every tattoo — big, small, or medium — is treated the same.”
The inaugural event in 2024 was met with strong turnout and positive feedback, which Medina said encouraged his team to return. But this year’s expo will look a little different.
“Last year was just a little bit too big,” he said. “So this year we shrunk it down to give the public a more intimate feel. Our goal isn’t to make it too much of a circus event, but more of a family-friendly event. People bring their kids, some of the artists bring their kids. We’re very big on ‘bring the whole family too.’”
Medina said curating the right artists is key to the expo’s identity.
“We’re very big on making sure that the artists we do have at the event are respectful and that they care about the person,” he said. “They’re not just there to tattoo and send you home, but to really give you a new direction on the art form of tattooing.”
Beyond the buzz of the machines, Medina hopes the expo helps reshape cultural perceptions of tattoos.
“Our goal is to change the world as far as how people view tattoos,” he said. “We’re not in the early 2000s or late ’90s where it was just for bikers. Now it’s a true art form. There’s beauty behind it, more than just skulls and flames. It’s for everybody, from 18 to 100. I’ve tattooed people who were 85 getting their first tattoo, and it meant something to them.”
For Medina, that meaning is what makes the Owensboro Tattoo Expo more than an event. It’s a celebration of artistry and the stories inked into people’s lives.
