IT FEATURED some of the best tattoo artists in the country who were inking bodies in an explosion of shapes and colours.

Thousands of people headed to Hampshire’s Ageas Bowl where the sound of ink guns buzzed throughout the venue as people got tattoos from artists across the country.

Ben McKay spent eight hours at the festival gettinng a Ferrari inked on to his thigh - just one of the scores of incredible artworks made at the festival.

More than 70 artists from as far afield as Scotland were at the Eastleigh venue decorating people’s bodies at the county’s first tattoo festival in years.

Families were entertained with magicians, hypnotists and dance acts, including hoop spinning specialist Amy Hooplovin while live bands kept the party going.

Renowned tattoo models Cervena Fox and Mz Bones were there with Cervena impressing the crowds with her fire spinning displays while burlesque acts also took to the stage.

Bikers also had the chance to gawp at chopper bikes and Harley Davidsons and petrol heads could admire other vintage cars.

Organisers Yellow Vintage had hoped to see five thousand people make their way through the doors and they were thrilled to see that this target had been reached.

Nathan Alexander, who runs the events company with his partner Zoe Clock, said they would be back next year.

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He said: “We’ve had tattoo artists from Scotland, a stall holder came from the Netherlands, 190 rooms have been booked a both hotels. I’m not sure how many people have been here but we’ve easily reached our target.

“We’ve been keeping an eye on the feedback as well as the number and what we’ve been getting is that the atmosphere has been lovely.

“A lot of people think that a tattoo festival is going to feature people with piercings and tattoos all over your face and it really isn’t like that. These people are just expressing their individuality.”

Many people came to get parts of their body done by artists based in tattoo parlours in Southampton and the rest of the country.

The artists went head-to-head in competition categories including best black and grey tattoo, best colour, best oriental, best traditional, best realism and best portrait.

Among the artists was Georgiana Liliane, based at Intense Colours in Bitterne Park Triangle, who was putting a tattoo of an image from a Japanese anime movie onto Ashley Funderburg’s leg.

Ashley, from Newbury, had seen Georgiana’s work on photo website Instagram and had to endure seven-hours getting inked yesterday.

Georgiana said: “It’s been really good fun. It’s my first tattoo convention I really didn’t know what to expect. It’s been really good, really busy and really friendly.

“It’s nice to meet other tattooists and see how they work. I’ve been working the whole weekend.

“I’ve met another tattooist and she’s agreed that I would tattoo her and she would put a tattoo of a cat on my leg.”