The 13th Annual South Florida Tattoo Expo, held Aug 16-18 at the Deerfield Beach Hilton Aug 16-18 2008, featured over 80 tattoo artists, vendors, bands, suspension shows, and a car show. We attended the 11^th Annual expo and had a blast, so we were looking forward to the 13^th. However, unlike the show two years ago, our experience at this one was rather less than thrilling. When we arrived on Saturday night, parking was virtually non-existent. No one was directing traffic at all, and cars were lining the shoulders of the road as far as the eye could see. We found a space about a quarter of a mile away, and considered ourselves lucky.

There was a beautiful tiger on display outside the entrance, and we hoped he was just sleeping and not sedated. (Cats do sleep most of the day.) At the front door, no signs were in evidence pointing to the ticket booth. We later found that there was a sign taped to a pillar, but it was obscured by the mob congregating in the entrance. A large sign suspended from the ceiling, or at least high enough to be seen above the crowd, would have made things much easier. Nevertheless, the ticket staff and corridor monitors were very nice.

We wandered around, going from room to room to see the vendors.

There was a delightful monkey in the hallway, who was very sociable and a lot of fun to watch. We were greatly looking forward to seeing Slip and the Spinouts, South Florida’s best Rockabilly band. Looking for the band stage, we discovered it was outside by the pool area. The stage area was dark, cramped, and filled with chairs which had been jammed into a huge mass by the passing crowds. After all, this is South Florida in August, so it was humid and hot outside, more so by the stage since it was under cover and not conducive to catching the rare breeze. I do not think it was a good deal for the bands, either, who took a back seat to whatever exhibitions were going on by the pool. We finally found a couple of seats and sat down to wait for Slip and gang to perform.

There was a suspension act going on, and to the crowd’s horror the artist suddenly plummeted 12 feet, breaking a leg. Immediately the stage crew, roadies, or whatever they were shouted for people to move began pushing chairs away from the wall, apparently to allow EMS access to the accident scene. We immediately complied and moved away. A few minutes later, they yelled that the entire stage area had to be cleared. We tried to go out by the door by the stage, but it was blocked by staff, who waved us towards the pool. One of the staff yelled “We need everyone to move to the other side of the pool!” We dutifully tried to comply. First, we headed for an entrance door to the inside corridor, only to find it blocked from the inside by a mob of people. Staff were making no attempt to clear the blockage, so we moved to the left by the pool, knowing another door was there. Suddenly, one staff member, festooned with tattoos and bandanas, accosted us and yelled in our faces. “WE DIDN’T SAY MOVE TO THE SIDE! WE SAID GET BACK INTO THE CONVENTION CENTER! NOW! ”, he shouted. No, jerkwad, that’s not what you said. You said “move to the other side of the pool”. That’s what we were doing. If they had cleared the nearest entrance, we would have already been inside! Finally we got inside the inside corridor, and then staff began shouting for the corridor to be cleared of people. Since this was the central passageway linking ends of the show, mobs of people began surging towards opposite ends of the expo. Having enough, and being unwilling to wait for who-knew-how-long until the bands were playing again, we left. Upon leaving, the EMS vehicles were just pulling up.

However, they did not stop at the entrance to the hotel. They parked directly behind the pool and disembarked, so obviously there was an entranceway nearby. Why the interior corridors were cleared was beyond me.

We were very relieved to later learn that the suspension artist had been successfully hospitalized and is expected to recover. Our thoughts are with him. But we can only shudder at the thought of a dire emergency occurring such as a fire or catastrophic incident. Obviously, the staff were ill prepared. There appeared to be no central plan, and every person was shouting contradictory instructions. For the future, I recommend that all staff be trained in emergency procedures. Employees should be uniformed or clearly identifiable as security/event staff. Someone should be in charge of specific areas, and everyone should have a clear role in crowd control. Before screaming at people to leave, make sure the avenues are open so they can do so. Less shouting and more doing.

The Tattoo Expo was certainly raising money for a great cause, the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and we wish them well in the future. If it’s better organized next year, maybe we’ll check it out.  Otherwise, we’ll just send our check in the mail.