Las Vegas Weekly

October 6, 2009 · 3:02 PM

Photo Gallery: Tattoo titan Mario Barth talks shop, Mirage venture

By Robin Leach

Tommy Lee and Mario Barth.

Photo: TVT

Action movie superstar Sylvester Stallone and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee were just two of the thousands of tattoo fans who packed Mandalay Bay Convention Center last week for Mario Barth’s Biggest Tattoo Show on Earth.

With more than 1,000 tattoo artists at the convention, Sly strolled through the exhibit booths and stopped to check out the various designs -- and even showed off his own ink. The crowd erupted in cheers when he revealed his shoulder tattoos.

I joined Tommy and Mario when they discussed the new ultra tattoo salon and club that Mario will open on New Year’s Eve opposite Jet in The Mirage. “It will be the most lavish and luxurious tattoo parlor anywhere in the world,” Mario said. “It will also be a total first for the Strip and Vegas in that we’ll have tattoo artists and an after-hours ultra lounge and a boutique nightclub. Construction and remodeling of the existing space is underway this week for our big party and Dec. 31 opening.”

“It will be a very high-end studio that turns into a club and then turns into an after-hours lounge. It’s a totally new concept. Mario Barth at The Mirage will be a totally lifestyle-oriented place. During the day, it’s retail, it has music, deejays in it. The later the night goes, it turns into a lounge, then it turns into a small club, and then it turns into an after hour. We will have four stations for artists, and it will be open almost around the clock, so you can get tattooed and then party on.”

This is Mario’s second Strip venture. The first is at the House of Blues in Mandalay Bay and is still doing tremendous business. Mario showed us the drawings, and I was reminded of a comfortable English gentlemen’s smoking club with oversized furniture. It certainly won’t look like any other tattoo parlor that’s been created for Las Vegas -- or, for that matter, anywhere else on the globe.

Here’s my interview with Mario:

Robin Leach: I have to ask you, it’s not meant negatively, and I hope you can answer this positively. Are there too many tattoo studios? You have got yours here at the Mandalay Bay at the House of Blues, right? Vince Neil has two; one at The Rio and one at O’Sheas on the Strip. Huntington has his at the Palms and Carey has his at the Hard Rock. Are we being overrun? Is this the new rage? What is happening with the tattoo industry? Has it just exploded all of a sudden?

Mario Barth: It’s an ongoing process. It is the sixth-fastest growing business in America. And currently there are about 20 million people getting tattooed annually. We only have 18,000 registered tattoo studios in America. But there’s only 25 of us at the very top level and really pushing to make the industry even better. What happens now with events like this exhibition, the people come and even the smaller shops try to update their stuff, too. They know it is a necessity to be better and cleaner. So they are improving as they go along.

RL: Is it more the caliber of the artist than the studio?

MB: It’s definitely the artist, but it is also how it is set up. It’s a cycle. If you have a very clean store and you have a very good, professional store, then you are going to have professional artists. If you have a little dirty store, you are going to get rotten artists. It’s no longer about a crown or an anchor or a rose with a heart and two initials. Now it all becomes intricate works of art. You could still get a really great anchor, but what I think happens is the foundation of the tattoo industry started to reorganize and it’s started to become higher elevated. It’s not a store on the side street anymore. I mean they are still out there, but instead of having 50 out there, there’s 40, and then 30 and then 20.

RL: Is Vegas leading the way in that? Has Vegas embraced the art of tattooing more than any other city in making it visible?

MB: I chose Vegas because it is in the limelight, and it’s the best vehicle to gain recognition for the people who really want to do it right. There are a ton of new people out there -- a lot of new talent who really want to make it right. They are constantly training. They’ve even hooked up with doctors to ensure everything is right. They build stores like no one else before. Nobody thought we could have built a store like we have here at the House of Blues. Tattoo people are starting to elevate the whole store look, and more and more customers are into that. I think the last 18 months especially, customers are getting very well educated. It is really because there’s a lot of information now on the Internet. It’s easy to see a lot of great work, and I think the educated client is pushing the tattoo artist. The artist is using new technology for better work in cleaner stores.

RL: When you think of tattoos, it went from the sailor that gets just an anchor on his arm to 98 percent body art? Are there more people than ever wanting to do that?

MB: The big image from the ’40s and the ’50s when all the sailors and military guys got tattoos like that is still embedded in our minds because a lot of people got tattoos at that time. Then in the ’70s, it took a dip. Then in the ’80s and ’90s, it came back up. Now the kids and last generation kids that got tattoos 10 years ago are all in the limelight. Even today people who have grown up and gotten in business positions as CEOs come in for new tattoos.

You know the natural progression. I think the people in the older days that got tattoos, you know the anchors and sailor ships, are on the out, and the new things are coming in. There are so many business people and corporate leaders with heavy tattoos spending money, and they want the right stuff. They know what they want. They are not just getting it to go off to sea! They want this decoration for their bodies. That’s the difference, the big difference.

RL: Has the cost of the art become a lot more expensive than it used to be?

MB: Absolutely. We have one artist here that did tattoos for a $1.50, but now he’s $3,000 to 5,000 depending on the size! It’s crazy for me to see that increase in demand and money in my lifetime. But tattooing is recognition of a natural instinct with people of both sexes. If you do a history research on tattooing, it has been on every continent in every race, in every culture somewhere. People have been getting tattooed throughout the years as a branding, a real label on your body. We all look the same naked, so to be individual, people started to decorate themselves to be different. One was a warrior, one was the king, one was the prisoner, but they all had a decorative mark.

It’s a natural instinct human beings have. In the last 15 years or 20 years, there were even more changes as people wanted to become more unique. People wanted to become more individual. There was a huge trend in the ’50s and ’60s where everyone had to wear the same suit to make you become somebody. Now with the option of the Internet of being more unique, you don’t have to dress up in a Burberry to work on Wall Street. Wherever they are, people have become more individual, and that is why tattooing has become so strong. Tattooing currently is on a huge up-rise in a down economy. People are spending more money on themselves than they would for additional stuff like a car. More money because tattooing is permanent. You can’t have it taken away. You can’t lose it. Oh, I will buy this, and maybe three months it’s gone. You get a tattoo, you pay as little as $300 to $400, and it’s with you for the rest of your life.

RL: Has this first exhibition in Las Vegas been a huge hit?

MB: This has been an enormous success! The biggest tattoo show in the world before this was 215 booths in Europe with about 400 artists. Our show has 760 booths with over 1,000 artists. It’s the ninth annual world show, but the first in Vegas. It has never happened like that before. It’s like getting rock stars to a rehearsal. There are still a lot of tattoo artists that don’t want to come on time. It’s a huge success for the industry. Las Vegas is an incredible place with incredible people for this show. And I would love to do it here again every year now on. I think this is the home we are going to have. I think 50,000 people are expected. For me coming from Austria 30 years ago and working in a 200-square-foot store, and now I have180,000 people come and see my picture, and now I have the biggest tattoo show in Las Vegas, it’s amazing.

RL: What do you think of the designs people are wearing?

MB: They are getting incredible. There is a lot of tribal influence. … They want to identify the bit of warrior in them. Some people get decorated with portraits of people, parents or lost ones. It’s just amazing.

RL: Have you met the person who is tattooed on 99.9 percent of his body?

MB: Yes, his name is Lucky Rich from Australia. He had everything tattooed on his body, including his gums. Now he started to re-tattoo himself white. He did black first, and now he is turning himself into white. He even tattooed his very private personal body parts. Must have been painful there. There are a lot of artists who do that because a lot of customers actually want that. It’s just skin when you think about it.”

Mario took our contributing photographer Tom Donoghue around the convention to see the artists from around the world at work with their design specialties. Even I was offered a complimentary tattoo, but I politely declined, preferring to write about it than wear it! I’m certain you understand!

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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