MANSFIELD — Griffen Deering, of Clarkston, Michigan, lies prone on a tattooing table, his arm outstretched behind him while his tattoo sleeve-in-progress gets filled in.
“The bones suck and the wrist sucks,” Deering says, wincing slightly.
This is his third day on the tattoo table at Georgia-based Paragon Tattoo’s booth in the Ohio State Reformatory. He’s been there every day while his sleeve slowly takes shape, becoming a mosaic of floral designs and bright colors.
But when it comes to the design of his sleeve, it wasn’t entirely up to Deering. His tattoo artist, Norvan Santiago, who prefers to go only by Taco, picked out the design.
“I looked at him, and I asked, ‘Make me a sleeve.’ And he made me a sleeve,” Deering said.
Taco, his speech short and to-the-point while he focuses on tattooing Deering, said his origins as a tattoo artist started with his childhood.
“I’ve been good at drawing since I was a little kid. I didn’t see any possible outcome where I could be doing that and making money; tattooing was that outcome,” Taco said.
Taco and Deering met at Inkcarceration in 2021, where Deering got a small tattoo from him. Deering was impressed by his work, and decided to go for a sleeve this year. He bought his tickets and booked his appointment back in March.
Before Inkcarceration and Taco, Deering’s first tattoo he ever got was of the Planter’s Peanuts mascot, Mr. Peanut.
“I got it because I’m allergic to peanuts, so I thought it would be funny,” Deering said.
Deering, along with thousands of others fellow festival-goers, had access to Inkcarceration’s “Tattoo X” this weekend, where artists from around the country came to work inside the historic Ohio State Reformatory.
There were 30 tattoo studios on offer this year that were, for the most part, fully-booked on the final day of the festival.
