West Virginia Tattoo Expo
West Virginia's flagship tattoo expo, packing 200+ artists into the Morgantown waterfront across multiple editions a year.
Event details
- Dates: August 21-23, 2026 (Summer edition)
- Venue: Morgantown Event Center at Waterfront Place, Morgantown, WV
- Location: Morgantown, WV
- Organizer: WV Tattoo Expo
- Founded: 2014
- Frequency: Annual
- Attendance: N/A
- Artists / booths: 200+ artists
- Tickets: General admission $20/day; discounts for students and military; kids 12 and under free
- Tattoo competitions: yes, judged categories run across the weekend
- Website: https://wvtattooexpo.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wvtattooexpo/
About
The West Virginia Tattoo Expo runs its Spring edition April 10 to 12, 2026 at the Morgantown Event Center beside the Marriott at Waterfront Place, with a Summer edition following August 21 to 23. Now around its 12th year overall, the show has grown into the state's flagship tattoo event, hosting more than 200 nationally recognized artists alongside live tattooing, daily contests, vendors, and a Miss Tattooed West Virginia pageant.
The value for artists is reach and repetition. Running multiple editions a year means you can book West Virginia twice without waiting a full cycle, and a 200-plus roster confirms the organizers can fill a room and pull a crowd. At $20 a day with kids free, the gate is built for volume family traffic, which favors artists who do strong walk-up flash and small custom pieces and want to convert a busy floor into back-to-back appointments.
What to expect
- State's flagship expo, around its 12th year of operation
- 200+ nationally recognized artists per edition
- Multiple editions each year (Spring in April, Summer in August)
- Live tattooing and piercing all weekend plus daily contests
- Miss Tattooed West Virginia pageant and a full vendor floor
- Low $20 day gate with kids 12 and under free
Best for
Flash and small-custom artists who thrive on high-volume walk-up floor traffic
Notable: Runs multiple editions a year, giving artists two shots at the West Virginia market without a full annual wait.
How we check this listing
We last confirmed these details on 2026-07-06. Dates and prices are taken from the organizer and change between editions, so treat the organizer's own page as final before you book travel or a booth.
Checked against: https://wvtattooexpo.com/, https://wajr.com/2026/04/10/morgantown-waterfront-to-host-2026-west-virginia-tattoo-expo/, https://events.leapevents.com/event/wvtattooexpo12