Three Days in the Wasteland: A Fallout Tattoo at Golden State Tattoo Expo

You can go to a tattoo convention to check out the artwork, catch up with people, and walk the floor. Or you can take on a big back piece and realize three days later that you barely saw anything beyond your own booth.

I went with option two.

Golden State Tattoo Expo 2026 took place September 18–20 at the Pasadena Convention Center. To me, it's one of the strongest tattoo conventions in California. A lot of well-known artists show up, and the work is seriously good. My client Carlos and I decided to join in and bring a little piece of the Wasteland with us. Although “little” might be pushing it. We were working on a Fallout back piece featuring a character in power armor and a Deathclaw.

Three days. One artist. Let's call it an optimistic plan.

The drive to Pasadena took about 40 minutes, maybe an hour. We grabbed some coffee and hit the road.

When you live in Los Angeles, the scenery eventually becomes background noise. Wide stretches of freeway, concrete interchanges, low buildings, and palm trees sticking up above everything like someone planted them as landmarks. A huge sky overhead, with mountains in the distance. If it's your first time here, it probably feels like a movie. For you, it's the commute. Your workplace just happens to be in a different city today.

There's something funny about that contrast: California going about its day outside the window, while our plans involve armor, a monster, and the apocalypse.

Once we got there, we unloaded. It took me about an hour to set up the booth, lay everything out, and get ready. Carlos was already there waiting. Time to get to work.

Our design centers on two images: a person in power armor and a Deathclaw. Even if you've never played Fallout, you get the tension. Heavy armor, and a creature that makes wearing it look like a very smart decision.

Fallout is a world after nuclear war, where the remains of civilization exist alongside the technology and dangers of the Wasteland. That's a lot to work with in a tattoo: metal, machinery, rough surfaces, unusual anatomy. There's something there for fans of the games and for anyone who just appreciates a strong sci-fi image.

Power armor is interesting before you even get into the details. The bulky torso, the helmet, those massive shoulders. The person inside becomes a walking fortress. You want to capture that weight. The metal needs to feel heavy, the separate parts need to make sense together, and the character can't get lost in all the detail.

Then there's the Deathclaw. One mean bastard, to put it simply.

To get a little more specific, it's one of Fallout's most recognizable predators: horns, a powerful body, a tail, and enormous claws. One interesting bit of lore is that Deathclaws were engineered as biological weapons before the nuclear war, using genetic material from several animals, including Jackson's chameleon. They're a leftover military experiment that made itself very much at home after the world fell apart.

Visually, what makes this pairing interesting is the contrast between two different kinds of strength. The armor has rigid planes, joints, and mechanical parts. The Deathclaw has muscle, scales, curves, and a sense of movement. Even the textures tell a story: metal next to hide, an engineered suit next to a predator.

That's why a video game tattoo can be more than a recognizable character. A fan sees a world they know. Someone else sees tension, scale, and personality. I like it when an image works on both levels.

The first day flew by. I think I got up about four times. Water, bathroom, back to work. The next two days followed pretty much the same pattern.

So you're not getting a detailed tour of every booth from me. My convention happened within a few feet of my chair. If someone stopped by, we'd say hello and catch up. Then it was back to the tattoo.

A large piece has its own rhythm. Someone looking at a photo sees the characters right away. As the artist, you're working through individual sections, transitions, edges, and shadows. You have to keep the whole composition in your head while you're focused on one small part. Getting absorbed in a detail is easy. Making it work within the larger image and keeping things moving is a different challenge.

A back gives you plenty of room, but you still have to tattoo every inch of it. The size doesn't do any of the work for you.

And Carlos deserves some credit here. Sitting for a project like this three days in a row is a serious commitment. Most of the attention goes to the artist and the artwork, but the person getting tattooed is doing the entire marathon with you. Carlos, thank you for the trust and for putting in those three days with me.

After three days of tattooing, Carlos took our piece up for Best of Show. No award this time. That happens, especially at a convention with this much talent.

There were also large pieces being worked on by teams of two or three artists. Meanwhile, I'd decided to tackle a back on my own. A little reckless ambition? Yeah, you could say that.

But I really did want to find out how much I could get done at one convention. In the studio, you can spread a large project across multiple sessions. Here, you've got three days, and that deadline shapes every decision, from the scale of the idea to the time you spend on individual details.

By the end, I was pretty wiped out. When you're working almost nonstop, the fatigue builds quietly and then catches up with you all at once. But an experience like that gives you a much clearer idea of how you want to approach the next convention piece.

For future conventions, I want to work on a smaller area and go deeper into the details. Really dial in the transitions and textures. Get the piece to the point where you want to step closer and study every part of it.

A big back piece is an interesting challenge. But a convention has its own pace and time limits, and next time I want to work with those differently. Give myself more time for each section instead of trying to cover as much skin as possible.

We came to Pasadena with an ambitious idea and spent three days working on it. This time, the trophy went home with someone else. We came away with a big Fallout project, photos of the process, and experience I'll carry into the next piece.

And next time, I should probably try to see a little of the convention itself. Apparently, there was some pretty good stuff happening outside my booth.