There’s a first-of-its-kind tattoo art show in Toronto and it’s for a good cause

Dozens of Toronto’s best tattoo artists are joining forces to put on a first-of-its-kind event this week, and it’s all for a good cause.

There will be over 40 Toronto tattoo artists in a room for the upcoming Intermission Art Show, which kicks off this Friday.

Created by the teams at Queen West’s Okey Doke Tattoo Shop and Delete After Death Tattoo in The Junction, the Intermission Art Show is set to take over the Welcome Market Space (which Okey Doke is located on the second floor of) for a week, displaying original works from an impressive selection of local tattoo artists.

From paintings to prints and, yes, tattoos, you’ll be able to discover a host of works at the market, with 30 per cent of proceeds from each sale set to be donated to the Sick Kids Foundation.

For Andrei, a resident artist at Delete after Death, participating in the show is an opportunity not only to collaborate with fellow artists on non-tattoo art pieces.

“I wanted to participate in this art show with my friend Sewp, [because] we’ve been talking about collaborating on an art piece — not just tattooing — and create something that tickled our minds in ways tattooing couldn’t,” he tells me.

The result of that collaboration is a large-scale original work they’ve titled ‘Hot for Teacher by Van Halen’ (“because that song rules,” Sewp explains in an Instagram caption), which, along with dozens of other works from their contemporaries, will be on display during the show.

Beyond opportunities for creative expansion, though, Andrei also says that the market is a chance for him to support a cause that’s close to his heart.

“I come from a poor country, and when I was a child I lived and saw how children are, more often than we want to admit, forgotten,” he says. “It’s a small helping hand, but it’s something.”

The whole thing kicks off with an epic opening night event, supported by Pabst Canada and the Shameful Tiki, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 17, but if you can’t make it then, you’ll still have plenty of chances to check it all out.

The exhibition is set to run between 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. every day between Jan. 18 and 25, so you can check out some seriously awesome works you won’t find anywhere else and support the Sick Kids Foundation while you’re at it.

The Welcome Market and Okey Doke Tattoo Shop are located at 938 Queen West.