This Saturday: Get Tattooed & Rock Out for Charity

This one very nearly slipped past without even making a blip on my personal radar; it would’ve gone unseen/unheard of if not for the kindly tip from Justice of {The Manichean}, who figured — rightly — that it was well worth a mention.

Granted, there is a ton of stuff happening this weekend, but this one on Saturday, January 22nd, seems like a particularly cool cause. The group the Tattooed For Good tattoo shop benefit/festival helps is AssistHers, which provides support to lesbian women who’re dealing with horrific, often terminal illnesses & conditions; these folks provide transportation to the doctor, clean for those who no longer can, run errands, and offer support groups, besides. It’s a niche I’d never really considered before now, honestly, but one that’s absolutely deserving of help.

So the various tattoo shops of Montrose — specifically, Gaslight Gallery Tattoo & Piercing, Monster Tattoo Company, Scorpion Studios, & Bombshell Tattoo — have banded together to raise money for AssistHers, offering two-day tattoos (which I think means tattoos that take two days to finish, but being a needle-phobe like I am, I’m not entirely sure) for $40 and piercings for $20, with the bulk of the proceeds from this weekend’s sales going to the nonprofit.

The artists will be doing their thing from noon to midnight on both Saturday, Jan. 22nd, and Sunday, Jan. 23rd, with a ton of local artists joining in. I don’t know ’em by name, but in case you do: Kat Adlerz, Christina Sparrow, Brandon Madrid, Alex Cetina, Christopher Malice, Patrick Merryman, Miranda Quinn, Mike P., Dennis, Bunz, & Vince Crowley will all reportedly be there, along with several others.

While you wait to get your new ink, you can rock out to the various cool musical-type people who’ll be in the vicinity. The aforementioned Manichean will be doing an acoustic set — which should be intriguing, since I’ve yet to see ’em sans full band and with the “Drama” knob turned up to 11 (and yes, I like ’em quite a bit, so don’t take that as a negative) — and {Skeleton Dick}, {Mantis}, {Another Run}, & {The American Heist} will all be playing, among others. Oh, and there’re bellydancers, too…

So there you go; the bands & whatnot are all free, but get over there and get that new piece of permanent art you’d been thinking about, and you’ll be doing it in the name of helping others. The whole thing takes place on Westheimer, pretty much in the stretch between Stanford & Yupon.