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Every body tells story at Tattoo Fest

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published March 25, 2006

[Times photos: Melissa Lyttle]

A smile creeps across the face of Ana Gutierrez, 31, as she has a swallow tattooed on her neck by Jeremy Hulett, 33, of Karmic Tattoo in McDonough, Ga. Gutierrez just moved to Daytona Beach from her native Spain for six months to study Harley-Davidson mechanics.

	Tattoo artist Larry Brogan, 36, works on a tattoo of Zatoichi the Blind Samurai for Armando Fuster, 44. When he was growing up in Cuba, Fuster's father took him to see kung fu movies featuring the Blind Samurai.

TAMPA - The Tampa Bay Tattoo Fest is held each year at the Doubletree Hotel, near the airport. Amid the cicada drone of the needle, tattoo artists from across the country illustrate novices and veterans alike.

A steady stream of potential customers wander through two rooms packed with booths and sample art, looking for the perfect image.

Some tattoos are purely decorative.

Others have a story.

His father used to take him to see kung fu movies when he was a boy in Cuba. Zatoichi the Blind Samurai fought for justice on the big screen.

Armando Fuster left Cuba and came to New York. Kids beat him up. Fuster remembered Zatoichi. He studied boxing, judo, jujitsu.

His fists learned to talk. He became a threat in a bar fight.

No longer, he says. Too old for that now. He's 44, a Miami travel agent who works in a suit and tie.

But he remembers the darkened movie house, his father's big hand on his.

"I felt protected," he says as tattooist Larry Brogan of Illinois touches the needle to his skin.

Fuster will carry the Blind Samurai on his back.

Jayson and Jason - both 32, from Rockledge - have been friends since high school.

They took turns goading each other, egging each other on. Jason Stephan got the first tattoo. Jayson Jamgochian was the first to jump off a bridge.

Okay, so he was the only one to jump off a bridge. Jason Stephan isn't crazy.

But Jamgochian was the one who talked his friend into becoming a tattoo artist.

Now his body is covered with his friend's ink.

"I don't have to make chitchat, I can just get down to work," says Stephan. "We already know everything about each other."

When she got her first tattoo, her mother was angry. Not because she got the tattoo. Because she got it alone.

"She wanted to be there," says Alejandra Galletti, 22, of Tampa.

She and her mother, who wouldn't give her name, are sitting with their backs to each other. Two different artists are at work on them.

The phoenix will be Galletti's fourth tattoo. The fairy is her mother's first.

This will be just one more thing they've gone through together, one more memory they share.

Tattoo Fest runs from noon to midnight today and from noon to 8 p.m. Sunday at the Doubletree Hotel, 4500 W Cypress St., Tampa. Admission is $15 for one day or $25 for both.

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 813 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 25, 2006, 01:50:17]