Celtic Ink Tour Combines Tattoos and Travel

If you’ve ever wanted to drink a Guinness in Dublin, practice whiskey blending with Irish masters, take a tour of Belfast’s street murals, and get tattooed by celebrity tattoo artists—now is your chance to make it happen.

The Celtic Ink Tour, organized by The Jenn Lee Group, is taking place July 18 through July 25 and offering tattoo fans the chance to travel around Ireland with Ink Master stars, Laura Marie, Dani Ryan, and James Vaughn.

The small group tour (there are only 43 seats available) will travel to Dublin and Belfast, with some stops along the way to check out a Game of Thrones reenactment at Winterfell Castle, the Titanic Museum, Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge, and more. 

Jenn Lee, the sole owner of The Jenn Lee Group, says that the idea to combine tattoos and travel and connect artists with fans is something that happened organically as she started to manage and provide public relations to high-profile tattoo artists including Sarah Miller, Clint Cummings, and Steve Tefft. 

“I set out to network my clients with tattoo conventions on a global level and to plan their itinerary for their travel,” says Lee. “But, I saw that the artists never spent much time actually exploring the country they were visiting. They were only seeing the convention walls and then went home.”

In 2018, Lee worked with Uniworld to plan a tattoo-themed German river cruise, which wound up being a success. “It was such a special, bonding, experience,” she says. “After that, AAA Travel approached me with wanting to set up a unique group tour and the idea of having people join our excursions was born.”

Lee explains that this tour is unlike any other tattoo experience, but it really allows fans and artists to connect on a personal level and get to know each other. “When you travel with people, you create memories together which creates a unique bond,” she says. “The guests and Ink Master tattoo artists will all be together throughout the travel experience.”

The schedule for the Celtic Ink Tour—which coincides with the Belfast Tattoo Convention—is relatively flexible and allows guests to venture on group excursions, explore on their own, or hang back and get tattooed by one of the artists and collect a permanent souvenir of the trip. Tattoos need to be booked with the artists directly and are not covered in the cost of the overall tour. 

Lee hopes to use the model of connecting tattoos and tourism to launch more excursions, trips, and opportunities for artists to connect with fans in an experiential way. 

“I strongly believe tattoo artists are the artists of our generation and their creative minds need stimulation,” she says. “I’m hoping to do 4-5 of these [tours] each year. That way many different tattoo artists and tattoo models can enjoy meeting fans and enthusiasts. Plus, they get a chance to explore a country of interest and do what they love.”

Tickets for the Celtic Ink Tour are limited and more information about the itinerary can be found by visiting the Jenn Lee Group travel website.