A month-by-month calendar of what moves tattoo demand across four Canadian regions, with a named source on every claim. Built on Statistics Canada employment data, statute and 23 active Canadian conventions.
The American calendar rests on three independent proxies. This one rests on one: Statistics Canada employment, monthly and unadjusted. No Canadian search-interest study exists to sit beside it, and the CRA publishes tax statistics once a year rather than weekly, so the tax drivers here are deadlines rather than amounts.
One reading is solid and one is contested. February is the yearly floor in all four regions and under both industry codes available. The peak month is not: change the industry code by one level and the West Coast moves from August to December.
The year opens below its own average, and the return is not due for four months.
Conventions this month: Vancouver Tattoo & Arts Festival (Vancouver, BC).
The floor of the Canadian year, and the one reading nothing in the data disputes.
Conventions this month: Calgary Tattoo & Arts Festival - Winter Edition (Calgary, AB).
Still below average, and the only month with no convention anywhere in the country.
No Canadian tattoo conventions run this month.
The tax deadline and one of the year's densest runs of shows land in the same four weeks.
Conventions this month: The Edmonton Tattoo & Arts Festival (Edmonton, AB); Inked Circus Tattoo Expo (Ontario tour) (Touring Ontario, ON); Saskatoon Tattoo Expo (Saskatoon, SK); Fredericton Tattoo Expo (Fredericton, NB).
The first above-average month, with a long weekend in the middle of it.
Conventions this month: The Toronto Tattoo Show (NIX) (Toronto, ON); Ink & Wheels Big Show Ottawa (Ottawa, ON); St. John's Tattoo Convention (St. John's, NL); The Winnipeg Tattoo Show (Winnipeg, MB).
Quebec and Atlantic take their yearly top; the rest of the country is climbing.
Conventions this month: Tattoo Rendez-Vous Trois-Rivieres (Trois-Rivieres, QC); Montreal Tattoo Show (Montreal, QC).
High everywhere, with the national day landing midweek.
Conventions this month: Okanagan Tattoo Show (Kelowna, BC); Ink The 6ix Toronto Tattoo Expo (Toronto, ON); Halifax Body Arts Convention (Halifax, NS).
The West Coast peaks, and Quebec holds two shows three weekends apart.
Conventions this month: Art Tattoo Montreal (Montreal, QC); Quebec Tattoo Show (Quebec City, QC); Winnipeg Tattoo Convention (Winnipeg, MB).
The strongest month of the summer plateau, and no convention takes a weekend from it.
No Canadian tattoo conventions run this month.
The summer plateau breaks, and four shows compete across four provinces.
Conventions this month: Vancouver & Fraser Valley Tattoo and Culture Show (Vancouver, BC); The Calgary Tattoo & Arts Festival (Calgary, AB); Hub City Tattoo Expo (Moncton, NB); Ottawa Gatineau Tattoo Expo (Gatineau, QC).
Flat against October, with one show and one statutory day.
Conventions this month: Cap City Tattoo Festival (Fredericton, NB).
The employment top of the year in three regions out of four, and the claim this page is least sure of.
No Canadian tattoo conventions run this month.
A national calendar is wrong for a Canadian artist in the same way it is wrong for an American one. British Columbia peaks in August while the Prairies and Ontario peak in December, so the same month is the best and the worst of the year depending on where the chair is.
West Coast is at peak, month 1 of 12 for that region, while Quebec and Atlantic is at high, month 7 of 12 for its own. A single national plan is right for at most one of them.
BC. The clearest summer year in Canada: August on top, February at the bottom, and the widest swing of the four regions. Computed from British Columbia, the only province here (StatCan SEPH 14-10-0201, NAICS 812, unadjusted, 2022-2024; yearly swing 6.6 index points).
AB, SK, MB. The flattest year of the four: December tops it, February bottoms it, and everything between stays close. Computed from all 3 provinces here, summed (yearly swing 4.6 points, the narrowest). The December top is contested: at NAICS 8121 this region peaks in August instead.
ON. December takes the year, but August and September come within a few points of it, and February is far below everything. Computed from Ontario, the only province here (yearly swing 5.8 points). The December top holds at NAICS 8121 too, the only region where the two codes agree on the peak.
QC, NB, NS, PE, NL. The only region that peaks in June, with a dip in August and a long high autumn. February is the floor here too. Computed from all 5 provinces, summed (yearly swing 5.3 points); Quebec is roughly four fifths of the region by employment. The June top is the most contested claim in the corpus: at NAICS 8121 this region peaks in December and August falls to the floor.
Every claim carries a named source that opens. The employment curve is StatCan table 14-10-0201, the series the federal government publishes for every industry. Statutory holidays are read from the Canada Labour Code, section 166, and the April 30 filing date from the Income Tax Act, section 150. Convention dates come from the organisers' own schedules and are counted live from the same records that run the convention directory.
Nothing on this page rests on an advertising vendor quoting its own aggregate, on a single studio page, or on one reporter quoting one shop owner.
No public monthly booking data exists for Canadian tattoo studios. The curve rests on ONE quantitative series, StatCan SEPH 14-10-0201 (employment, monthly, unadjusted, NAICS 812), plus dates fixed by statute and shows listed by their own organisers. There is no Canadian search-interest series and no weekly CRA refund series, so this page is thinner than the US one on purpose. NAICS 812 also covers hairdressing, laundries, funeral services and pet care; tattoo is a small minority inside it. The curve shows the order of the months, not a measured amplitude.
23 active Canadian conventions are tracked, and the full catalogue lives at https://neds.marketing/conventions.
The US season calendar covers five regions on a wider evidence base: https://neds.marketing/tools/us-tattoo-season-calendar.