Piercings in the presidential suite? Tattoos in the Tiffany Ballroom? Legions of illustrated men and women fill the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa as hotel officials squirm.

[Times photos: Jim Damaske]
Casey McLaughlin's arm displays a colorful tattoo as Jordan Rubin of Dunedin, background, applies a tattoo to Rosalio Aguayo's neck at the hotel.

By ALICIA CALDWELL, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 13, 2002

BELLEAIR -- There would be no Jell-O wrestling.

Of that, John K. Daniels was quite sure.

The general manager of the venerable Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa, sat in his office, took a long drag from his cigarette and exhaled forcefully. He wants you to know that he is not responsible for the "unorthodox situation" unfolding downstairs.

That would be the third annual Tampa Bay Tattoo & Body Piercing Expo, which is expected to draw to the Biltmore more than 5,000 artists and aficionados this weekend.

Sid Stankovits, owner of Sid's Tattoo Parlor in Santa Ana, Calif., lifts his 4 1/2-month-old son, Johnny, up and down as he plays with him Friday at his display booth at the tattoo expo.

The event began Friday as hundreds of pierced, dyed and tattooed artists began to set up their booths at a place that takes seriously its historical pedigree, and more typically hosts golf tournaments, ladies' luncheons and fancy weddings.

"I think the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers would be rolling over in their private rail cars," said Belleair Mayor George Mariani, in a reference to the wealthy families' tradition of traveling to the Biltmore in their own trains.

By midafternoon, the hotel's Tiffany Ballroom was filled with hundreds of artists who showed their portfolios, listened to heavy metal, blues and funk and gave each other tattoos. There were mohawks and hair dyed like a leopard's skin, and there were pierced noses, ears, bellies and eyebrows.

"They might make fun of us," said organizer Bruce Ripley, a body piercer from Sarasota. "But they won't be laughing when they see what they take in at the bar. I think the bar at last year's expo did $62,000 for the weekend. These people spend money."

In front of the hotel, a man in a golf shirt with a bag of clubs on his shoulder watched in open-mouthed disbelief as two guys, one with rainbow hair and military boots, and both with lots of tattoos, unloaded gear from a van and walked into the hotel.

The 104-year-old hotel, which claims among its guests the Duke of Windsor and Babe Ruth, is known for its tranquil setting near the water in the upscale city of Belleair. Its ambiance was not lost on convention-goers.

"I think it's tight," said Aaron Hathaway, 26, of Largo, a tattoo artist. "I love the building. It's got kind of a spooky thing going on. It's like The Shining. We fit right in."

Back in his office, the hotel manager vowed to protect the resort's reputation.

"If the group is under the impression that they're going to get away with anything other than what I accept the rest of the year, they're wrong," Daniels said tightly.

The event, which he called a mistake, was arranged before he took over managing a year ago. When he realized what he was facing, he called the handful of non-tattoo people who had planned to stay at the Biltmore this weekend and offered to find them other accommodations. A dozen took him up on it.

And he was drawing the line at Jell-O wrestling, planned for Saturday night and advertised on Tampa Bay area hard rock radio stations.

"That isn't going to happen," he said.

Upon hearing about the expo, Timothy Johnson Jr., a Clearwater lawyer and the great-grandson of Charles Wharton Johnson, the man who originally homesteaded the hotel property, laughed uproariously.

"Ha! What a hoot! How could I have missed that? What are they going to do, give demonstrations?"

Well, yes.

"Oh my goodness," said Johnson. "The times, they have changed."

The hotel, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, charges $185 a night for a standard room at this time of year, on up to $800 a night for the hotel's presidential suite.

So how did the expo get booked there?

First of all, they're paying full freight. Daniels said he could have filled the 245-room hotel twice with the demand from those who planned to attend the expo. Ripley, the organizer, was not surprised. He said it is not unusual for tattoo artists to make between $100 and $300 an hour for their work.

The other reason the event slipped under the hotel's radar, Daniels said, is because the expo's organizers downplayed several aspects of the event and didn't mention others. They were not expecting so many visitors, and well, they weren't attuned to exactly what was going to be involved.

It costs $15 to get into the tattoo expo for the day, $35 for the weekend. It continues today and Sunday.

Big Joe Phillips, for one, is glad the event is being held at a place like the Biltmore. It's good for the industry's image, he said, and the kinds of people who get tattoos might surprise hotel executives.

"Most of us are tattooing doctors and lawyers," said Phillips, 34, a tattoo shop owner from Fort Myers Beach. "A lot of people have a jaded view of our industry. We got to show them what we do is real art. It's not like an old sailor tattoo. We're artists."

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