The second day of the eighth annual All American Tattoo festival brought a much larger crowd to the Convention Center Saturday than on its opening night, Friday.

Attendees had various reasons for checking out the tattoos and tattooed.

Justin Maulit came with his wife and 16-month-old daughter to finish part of their wedding vows.

“I’m here to get tattooed. It’s for our wedding. Me and my wife are getting matching ones. It’s a lady and a skull, and it says, ‘Til Death Do Us Part.’” She always wanted to get one, and we had [our daughter] and she couldn’t get one for the past two years, so now she’s getting hers done. [We brought our daughter] just as an experience, I’m pretty sure she’s going to get some later on down the line, and every year we’ve brought her.”

Justin Nixon came with his best friend: his 9-year-old son, Tanner Nixon.

“For six years I’ve been coming out here. It’s a cool environment…There’s a lot of good artists here, and there’s all kinds of different art. Not just body art, there’s paintings…it’s just a neat experience. [I brought my son] because that’s my best friend. We do everything together.”

Tanner said he plans to get a tattoo of Jesus Christ with thorns around his head. "[I want] the same one my dad’s going to get.”

Carl Puchalski (shown in photos 3, 6, and 10) a 55-year-old state worker, came to get more work done on his front-and-back piece, which has been a work in progress for the past nine to 10 years. Puchalski has been getting worked on by Bill from Liberty Art & Ink.

Puchalski won first place at this year's festival for best male large tattoo. He admits to wearing long sleeve shirts to work at his state job and gets an occasional reaction from co-workers. "I do because I started rolling my cuffs up, so they can see that I’ve got this [but] no one knows about the body yet."

Tanya Tallent also made the festival a family affair, bringing along her five 5-year-old son Nathan.

“Some friends of mine and I were considering getting tattoos, and we wanted to explore the different styles of artwork … They ended up not being able to come," Tallent said. "I came with my family instead. I thought [my son] would just get a kick out of the art. He asked me just a little while ago if he could get one, and I said not until he’s 18.”

Alex Briones (shown on left in photo 1) came to the festival with members of his organization, Vietnam Vets Motorcycle Club and the Legacy Vets.

“We promote issues dealing with veterans. We don’t want people to forget our POWs and MIAs," Briones said. "We come here to just check it out, be seen and have fun.” 

*Author's Note: All photos courtesy of Jonathan Mendick