I guess it was inevitable. As the popularity of tattooing continues its juggernaut, both insiders and outsiders see dollar signs in front of their eyes. That isn't all bad. Creating new products and ways to make money is only good business sense. Don Ed Hardy, for example, has extended his talents to include an exciting new apparel line, and Dottie and R.J. Musolf, as an adjunct to their successful tattoo shop, have carved out a second career marketing tattoo machines, which they sell only to professional tattoo artists.

Some merchandisers have seen sales slip. J.D. Crowe, for example, has experienced shrinking profits from his extensive line of high-quality flash, due to the massive quantities of copycat artwork produced by people whose only claim to fame is owning a box of colored pencils. In some cases, unscrupulous entrepreneurs have copied flash from well-known artists, run it through a color Xerox and posted it for sale on the Internet. An example of long-standing flash-filching has been suffered for years by legendary tribal tattooer Leo Zulueta. Not only have tattoo artists pirated Leo Zulueta's flash to feather their nests, but ad agencies and clothing designers have been ripping of Zulueta designs for years.

But, again, competition is what capitalism is all about. Nothing wrong with coming out with new products or merchandising in innovative ways. Open up a shop a couple of doors down from an established one and see who survives. It's a fact, having a couple other major tattoo magazines on the newsstand has kept me hopping. May the better man win. It's fair trade.

Case in point: The 1st Annual Long Beach Tattoo & Entertainment Expo produced by Electric Ink Promotions, the same duo of Trac Edwards and Riun Van Driessche that brought us an excellent, small-town Central Coast Tattoo Expo in Paso Robles, California. They did a hell of a good job, even though they are, essentially, two of a new breed of non-tattoo-industry promoters using tattooing as a vehicle for commerce. One is a piercer and the other is a rock concert promoter. Sure, I loved their event with its barbeque smoke and hometown vibes, but here's the rub. Messieurs Edwards and Van Driessche scheduled their Long Beach event (at the Queen Mary, home of the tattoo industry's seminal event back in 1982) to honor tattoo legend Rick Walters and all the other old-timers who worked at the historic Pike, but did it on the very same Memorial Day weekend as Artistry in Ink, the long-standing tattoo event put on by Tattoo Magazine's Billy Tinney in nearby Anaheim.

When all was said and done, attendance at Artistry in Ink took a 40% nose dive. It's clear that the tattoo industry should brace itself for new kids on the block. There's some smart merchandisers out there, and they just might be what tattooing needs?some first-class competition to kick butt and drive up everyone's quality a couple of notches?or it may simply be an example of respect falling victim to greed.

Bob Baxter
Editor in Chief