By Christian Jones
For the Collegian
April 20, 2009

Though an air of heavy metal filled the concourse of the Bryce Jordan Center, a different scene hid below in the mezzanine: tattoo artists from all over the country working on tattoos for concertgoers.

On Friday, metal band Disturbed played at the BJC to headline the Music as a Weapon IV tour with Killswitch Engage, Lacuna Coil and Chimaira.

This is the first time the Music as a Weapon tour has prominently featured tattoo artists made available to the public. An outdoor side stage was also added, featuring performances of other bands throughout the afternoon.

Heather Vantress, operating manager for the festival part of the tour, said the inclusion of tattoo artists is a natural addition to the show.

"They have tattooers backstage at tons of shows, but now it's available to the public," Vantress said. "We're not reinventing anything."

She said the tattoo artists may have attracted more people to the show because the artists are "world class tattooers."

Vic Back, a tattoo artist, used to tour with The Used, an alternative rock band. Back said he was excited tattooing has been made available to the public at a concert.

"It's the first time this kind of thing has been available to the public in a conventional sense," Back said. "It's been a busier day, but it's definitely a lot of fun."

Tattoo artist Oliver Peck, who operated a booth at the BJC event, currently holds the world record for most tattoos in 24 hours.

"I did 415, but there's some discrepancy on that," Peck said.

Everything worked out pretty well with the addition of artists, which was put together pretty fast, he added. Still, plenty of people wanted nothing to do with the tattoo scene and came purely for the music.

"I'm not troubled enough to get tattooed," Paul Cerula (senior-security and risk analysis) said.
Cerula found Lacuna Coil to be the highlight of the show and said it had "a good balance of female vocals and good rock."

Cerula said he didn't enjoy the other acts.

"A little less self-loathing and anger for the sake of anger would be nice," he said.
Clearfield resident Travis Herman had a different perspective on the concert.

"I came to see the baddest thing on the planet," he said.