Five local tattoo artists are planning to work an entire day next month without getting paid in order to raise food to feed the hungry.
Beauty from Ashes Tattoo Parlor in Crothersville is sponsoring the second Food 4 Tattoos event Feb. 22.
From noon until midnight, Kyle McIntosh and his crew will be accepting canned goods and nonperishable food items at the business, 218 N. Armstrong St., to stock the shelves at I Care Ministry Food Pantry at Seymour Harvest Church.
Those who donate a minimum of 50 items that day will be able to choose a tattoo from a wide selection of predrawn or flash designs.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“We’re doing the minimalism tattoos, so line designs with very minimal shading, but you’re still going to get a quality tattoo,” he said.
There will be no appointments scheduled, so it is first-come, first-served. Customers will not be able to choose their artist. McIntosh recommends people get there early and be patient because lines will be long.
“Last time, we got here around 7 a.m. and it started at 9 a.m. and people were already waiting,” he said.
Only 20 people will be let in at a time. Last call will be at 11:30 p.m, he said, meaning anyone not inside the building at that time will not be served. There will be no rain checks distributed.
“We have to have a cutoff,” he said. “Otherwise, we would be there for days.”
People don’t have to get a tattoo to support the cause, he added. Anyone can drop off food donations at the shop from now through Feb. 22.
McIntosh said being able to use his talents to help others is what God calls upon him to do.
“You have to be the change you want to see,” he said.
Farron Dyer, who runs the I Care Food Pantry, said the need for food is great.
Right now, the pantry’s shelves are bare, making it difficult for Dyer to help people. Besides some canned goods, frozen chicken donated by Tyson and bottled water from Walmart Distribution, there just isn’t much else to give out, he said.
When people come to the pantry, they are able to pick out the items they want.
“There’s no sense in giving them something they won’t eat,” Dyer said. “So I tell them if they don’t want it to leave it and someone else will want it.”
Some of the most popular items are macaroni and cheese, Ramen noodles, canned soup, cereal, crackers, canned pasta, canned fruit and vegetables, peanut butter and jelly, spaghetti and sauce and canned tuna.
“We have a lot of families with kids,” he said.
The pantry is open every Saturday from 11 a.m to 3 p.m., and Dyer said he helps between 20 and 40 families each week. Once a month, he receives food from the Southern Indiana Baptist Association, but he has to pay for it.
“That comes out of our pocket,” he said.
Otherwise, the pantry operates on food and monetary donations.
Besides food, Dyer also tries to stock items like toilet paper, diapers, baby wipes, baby food, and personal care items such as soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant and feminine care products.
“Those are important, too,” he said.
He’s thankful for the opportunity to partner with McIntosh again.
The first Tattoos 4 Food was in 2018 and resulted in more than 17,000 nonperishable food items being collected.
“I never dreamed it would be that big,” McIntosh said. “I figured 10 to 12 people would show up.”
Dyer had approached McIntosh and asked if he could set up a box in the tattoo shop just for people to drop off food donations, but McIntosh didn’t think that was enough and decided to do a whole day of tattooing for food.
At that time, there were just three tattoo artists that ended up doing more than $9,000 worth of free tattoos, McIntosh said. This year, Dyer and McIntosh hope to bring in at least 20,000 items with five artists. They’ve already collected more than 2,800 cans.
The event takes a lot of planning and is at a great cost to the shop as all of the ink, needles and other supplies have to be purchased ahead of time.
From the first event, McIntosh said they learned a lot.
“We learned how to handle big crowds, how to do it in an organized way, but we learned it the hard way,” he said.
McIntosh said they were still doing free tattoos a month or two after the event because they couldn’t get them all done that day.
That’s part of the reason why McIntosh didn’t do the event in 2019.
“We wanted to, we really did,” he said. “But it takes a lot of money to do this, and it comes out of our pocket.”
He also was working with a new crew of artists and didn’t want to throw it at them so soon.
“They all wanted to do it, and they are excited to be able to help the community,” he said.
Dyer said he was amazed at how far people drove to participate in the event two years ago.
“I know we had some come up from Tennessee last year,” he said. Others came from Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.
McIntosh said he already has been contacted by people from Tennessee and Pennsylvania who plan on coming this time around.
They are working hard to get the word out about the event through newspapers, radio stations and social media. Dyer even did a phone interview with The Ellen DeGeneres Show, he said.
“It’s going to be a really big event,” Dyer said.
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Food 4 Tattoos 2020
Where: Beauty from Ashes Tattoo Parlor, 218 N. Armstrong St., Crothersville.
When: Noon to midnight Feb. 22
Benefits the I Care Food Pantry at Seymour Harvest Church
For a minimum of 50 canned goods or nonperishable food items, customers will be able to choose a tattoo from a wide selection of flash designs.
The event is first-come, first-served walk-ins only.
For those who don’t want to get a tattoo but still want to help out the cause, the tattoo shop is accepting donations of food from now through Feb. 22.
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