Tattoo Tour

Dennis Dwyer and J.D. Crowe formed Tattoo Tour in 1993 with the first show in San Diego and for a decade these two had set the water mark for the tattoo convention scene. They brought people from all over the world, placing the top artist of that time together in one place. Dwyer and Crowe were the "memory makers" and it would take a book just to tell all the stories of the things which took place during those times. JD had a tattoo flash business and up until this point in time the only flash that was available was Huck Spaulding flash, which wasn't colored, you would have to do that yourself or you buy limited additions from the top artists. Crowe came on the scene with the "candy", already colored flash, to stick on the wall. Now anyone could have a tattoo shop ready to go.

At this point in his career Dennis was making tattoo machines, mixing ink and became a tattoo supplier. Funny, back in those days one could sell flash, ink and even sell a machine. And if you sold it all then you were a supplier and suppliers were not liked by everyone. Mike Malone said "There are no more secrets, for the milk has been spilt and it's all been lapped up."

In Dennis's opinion, Tattoo Tour changed the face of tattoo convention scenes, which many now have copied. There were few tattooists in comparison to today and relationships were built on respect. There was a magic to bringing everyone together in harmony and sparking friendships with those who wanted nothing more than to improve tattooing. And no one had done it better than Dennis and JD. Tattooing was no longer a mystery. Dennis and JD were the first to offer seminars beginning with the first show held in San Diego, with the intent to help educate how to tattoo correctly by offering classes to teach people, taught by Jack Rudy, Brian Everett, Kari Barba and the first Blood Bourne Pathogen class. A stepping stone for the APT. It was held at the Bahia by the Beach. They offered booths to sell supplies, having Huck and Philadelphia Eddie on the same floor. The convention floor was on the fourth floor with a view of the bay. People were coming from all over Southern California to this tattoo circus. By Saturday afternoon the line was down the stairs, out into the parking lot, and there was no room at the Inn. The fire marshal arrived and was yelling, "Shut it down." Dennis offered by saying, "if I can remove half the people in five minutes, could we continue?" He proceeded to then grab the microphone and made the announcement that there was a cash prize for the best tattoo being held at the swimming pool right now! The Fire Marshall looked at Dennis and said, "No more sales." JD and Dennis looked at each other, sat down and smiled as we now had set the stage. It also came with a price, mixing what was just a "good old boy" gathering, to anyone is welcome. It all changed from that point on. Dennis and JD had learned a lot from that show.

In 1997 Tattoo Tour came to its finest hour. They held a show in heart of San Francisco at the Holiday Inn on Van Ness. It was the "Who's Who" of tattooing, with the likes of Ron Akers, George Bone form England, Horitoshi from Japan, Hanky Panky from Holland and many more in attendance. The event took place the same weekend as "US Fleet Week." The hotel was full, the city was rocking and rolling and the tattoo machines were buzzing. The Blue Angles flew around the bay with their aerial display and continued right down Van Ness over the top of the hotel. Dennis can recall the first day they arrived. JD and Dennis were standing on the top floor in the Presidential Suite watching the display of American's Armed Forces when all of a sudden two jets flew over the top of the building, the only thing visible being the fire from the jet engines, the windows violently shaking and both men stepping back in amazement with one word to sum it all up, "Wow!" At this point JD and Dennis realized that the time was changing again. The next step was the mega show and we felt that the spirit of tattooing would be lost. We had done our best to keep our conventions strictly tattooing. By now there were tattoo conventions almost every weekend. It became hard to get people to agree to meet again.

The setting was incredible, the hotel was jammed, someone had even jumped off the roof with a chutte, of course, and a few calmly sat with some who were wanting to just jump. Dennis still hears stories of things that took place that weekend. The reason this show was the best, according to the magazine's, "Tattoo Tour set a water mark," much credit was due to local artists like Lyle Tuttle, Ed Hardy, Henry Goldfield, Bill and Junii Samon and their desire to showcase tattooing. JD and Dennis did two shows after San Francisco before noticing the writing on the wall; we had enjoyed a decade of creating great memories and hopefully moving tattooing in a positive direction.