Tattoo festival in return to Telford

A Shropshire exhibition centre will be buzzing this weekend when an international tattoo festival returns bigger, better and longer than before.

Organisers of the Tattoo Freeze 2011 have expanded it to a two-day festival and added 3,500 square metres of extra exhibits at Telford International Centre, following the huge success of the inaugural one-day event last year.

Manager Shelley Bond said: "We were overwhelmed with the success of Tattoo Freeze 2010 and have taken the decision to expand and grow much earlier due to this.

"We are filling all three halls of the International Centre so this means there is even more value for money.

"We had an incredible 6,500 visitors to our very first outing, running out of wristbands in two hours. So, our projection for 2011 is double that.

"Word has travelled fast and there is a massive buzz about it. We are so excited about the event and about returning to Telford."

One of the top names who will be appearing is tattoo guru and television star Louis Molloy, who did David Beckham's famous "guardian angel" design and has also worked on Spice Girls Mel C, Mel B and Victoria Beckham.

Ice sculpture activities, an unplugged music stage and free body-painting are new for this year.

Tattoo Freeze is open from 11am to 11pm on Saturday and 10am to 7pm on Sunday.

Tickets cost £20 per day, or £35 for the weekend, and are available on the door.

The family-orientated entertainment includes street dance and beat box performances and a traditional henna tattoo stand. Visitors will also be invited to photograph their own skin art and pin their pictures on a giant "tattoo wall".

Tattoo Freeze 2011 has been organised by a group of tattoo magazines, including Skin Deep, Skin Shots International, Tattoo Master and Tattoo Jam.

t on the menu this week. (Menu. Breakfast. Geddit? Oh, please yourselves...)