The Golden State Tattoo Expo brought tattoo artists, collectors and first-time visitors from around the world to the Pasadena Convention Center this weekend for a three-day program running Friday through Sunday. The event at 300 E. Green St. featured technical seminars, a vendor market, live burlesque performances and 17 judged competition categories, culminating in a Best of Show contest. The downtown venue, better known for civic conferences and other large events, became a temporary workplace and exhibition floor for tattoo professionals.
According to Pasadena Now, the expo is co-hosted annually by artists Nikko Hurtado and Carlos Torres in partnership with Inked Magazine. Artists paid $20 per competition category to enter their work, while the convention floor combined working tattoo stations with vendors selling equipment and merchandise. The event's schedule built toward a live Best of Show battle at the close of the three-day convention.
A Long Beach Pipeline Into the Modern Scene
Pasadena Now reported that Hoon Kim's path into tattooing began after a childhood friend secured an apprenticeship at Bert Grimm's, the storied shop on the Pike in Long Beach that the publication describes as reputedly the oldest continuously operating tattoo parlor in the United States. The shop's history connects the Pasadena expo to an older Southern California tattoo tradition.
The original Bert Grimm's storefront at 22 S. Chestnut Place also has a preservation legacy. Scene360 reports that tattoo pioneer Kari Barba purchased the site, renovated the historic building and now operates it as Outer Limits Tattoo & Museum, preserving original architectural elements alongside an on-site tattoo history museum.
Two Realists Behind the Convention
Nikko Hurtado, one of the expo's founding co-hosts, is a color realism specialist who joined Paramount's Ink Master as a judge in 2022. Per Wikipedia, Hurtado took drawing classes at the Art Center of Pasadena before launching his tattoo career in 2002, opening his original Black Anchor Collective studio in Hesperia in 2010 and later opening Black Anchor Los Angeles on Melrose Avenue in 2017.
Hurtado and Torres partnered with Inked Magazine to launch the Golden State Tattoo Expo in Southern California. According to L.A. Taco, the convention was established in Pasadena in January 2016 and developed into a recurring multi-day event featuring artists from around the world.
Pasadena Convention Center
The Pasadena Convention Center hosts major regional conventions and cultural events throughout the year in downtown Pasadena.
Tattooing's broad reach is reflected in a Pew Research Center survey of nearly 8,500 U.S. adults. The 2023 survey found that 32% had at least one tattoo, including 22% who had more than one. Women ages 18 to 29 reported the highest adoption rate in the data, at 56%, compared with 27% among men overall. Those figures describe the 2023 survey, not a current 2026 measurement.
A local venue for a wider trend
The expo is taking place in a convention center with an established capacity for large public gatherings. According to Visit Pasadena, the 130,000-square-foot Pasadena Convention Center has averaged more than 300 events and attracted more than 350,000 attendees in recent years, placing the tattoo convention within a busy downtown events calendar. The appeal also extends beyond the United States. The BBC reported that a 2024 YouGov poll found 40% of British adults ages 25 to 49 have at least one tattoo, offering international context for the audience and artists gathered in Pasadena. The available figures document tattoo prevalence and event demand, but do not establish how the Southern California convention circuit has changed since the 1990s or provide workplace-specific data.
Getting In and What It Cost
Single-day and weekend admission passes for this year's expo ranged from $35 to $65 plus fees, with free admission for children 12 and under, Pasadena Now reported. Tickets were sold online through TicketWeb, and organizers list ongoing details for the convention at goldenstatetattooexpo.com. The Friday opening ran from 4 p.m. to midnight, Saturday stretched from noon to midnight, and Sunday's closing hours ran from noon to 7 p.m. before the Best of Show battle brought the three-day run to a close.
