It's always a pleasure to visit Explorer Tattoo Conference. The one in 2018 in Los Angeles wasn't an exception. Three days full of seminars by tattoo & art professionals, discussions, raffles with cool prizes, presents for each attendee, mingling & portfolio review. There was so much stuff in the present bag, that I thought it certainly wouldn't fit into my luggage 😆 Like full-size products for tattooing as a big jar of tattoo glide, a bottle of a transfer medium, cartridges and needles, etc.

Speakers for the Explorer IV included

Liz Cook, Jake Farris, DJ Tambe, Gunnar, Dan Pemble, Squire Strahan, Russ Abbott, Kari Barba, Jes Farris, Tony Moore, Kelly Doty and Jeff Gogue.

All are superb professionals, have been tattooing around the world and had great stories & experience to share.

For example, Liz, DJ, and Kelly took part in different tattoo TV shows. Tony is the creator of the Walking Dead. Kari has been tattooing since 1979 and owns the oldest tattoo shop in America.

Attendees come from all over the country

and even from overseas. So it's a great opportunity to make friends with a ton of great artists, get some guest spots, and level up as a tattooer. I love meeting the same people I got acquainted with.

This tattoo conference definitely helped to move forward, to adjust, to deal with an artist block for a lot of attending people. You get out of your routine and gaze on your craft from a different angle.

Seminar topics ranged from color theory, history of tattooing, how to plan big tattoo projects to how to deal with social networks.

I try to go to Explorer at least once a year.

This was my second time. The previous one I went to was in Washington. They try to organize them in different cities several times a year, so it's available & affordable for more people.