10/02/2026
Hey Creative Cousin 👋🏾
A while back, we asked a question:
What does Hoodoo have to do with tattoo?
Truth is ... it's more than we might think.
Hoodoo carries the ingenuity, spiritual technologies, plant knowledge, protection practices and ancestral memory Black people developed and preserved across generations.
Tattoo carries memory too!
Across cultures and generations, people have marked the body for identity, protection, beauty, belonging, remembrance, status, spirituality and rites of passage.
For Black people in America, both histories become particularly interesting because our practices did not begin when an industry decided to recognize us.
Our history is older than the tattoo shop.
Our spiritual traditions are older than the names outsiders gave them.
And our bodies have always carried stories.
That is why we built Black Tattoo Culture Con.
AND THIS OCTOBER, WE'RE GATHERING AGAIN.
Black Tattoo Culture Con returns October 23–25 in Washington, DC, and tickets are officially on sale.
And this year, we're celebrating something especially important:
MAMA VALERIA ANN WATSON IS BACK.
Mama Valeria was tattooing in 1970s New York, moving through the worlds of Hells Angels, hippies, CBGB, Broadway costume houses and the emerging tattoo scene.
In 1975, she was named “Best Tattooed Woman” at the first World Convention of Tattoo Artists and Fans.
Today, at 78 years old, the earliest documented Black female tattoo artist in U.S. tattoo history is tattooing again.
And you can be there!
Not reading about her 30 years from now. Not hearing somebody tell the story secondhand.
There. In the room. Listening. Learning. And getting tattooed.
LIVE TATTOOING
We currently have four tattoo artists available:
Valeria Ann Watson | Asheville, NC
Maijay | Houston, TX
Maize Ink | Mexico Cty, NM
Inked by Imani | Richmond, VA
All tattoo artist info for booking is available on the festival page.
AND BECAUSE IT'S HOODOO HERITAGE MONTH...
Our friends at Ink & Ọ̀ṣun are bringing the garden.
They'll be giving away FREE commemorative altar plants during Black Tattoo Culture Con.
Because Hoodoo reminds us that plants aren't simply decoration.
Plants have fed us, healed us, protected us, accompanied our prayers, dressed our homes and altars, and helped generations of Black folks make something out of seemingly nothing.
And plants are an integral part of tattoo.
Before tattoo became an industry, it was intimately connected to the land.
In its earliest forms, tattoo was deeply plant-based - from the tools, to the pigments, preparing the body, giving the tattoo and for aftercare.
So c'mon by and take one home.
Black Tattoo Culture Con
October 23–25, 2026 | Washington, DC
GET YOUR TICKETS (https://www.blacktattooanthology.com/black-tattoo-culture-con)
Come gather with us. 🖤
More soon,
Imani K. Brown® (Iyá Ọ̀ṣunyọyin) | The Tattoo Priestess
Founder + Lead Researcher, Black Tattoo Anthology® Research Collective
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at Little INKPLAY Shop®
🎨☀️🌈💖💕✨
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