Tatted Up.

Elm Street Tattoo To Bring Massive Music, Tattoo, Motorcycle and Skateboard Fest to Deep Ellum.

There’s no doubting that renowned Dallas-based tattoo artist Oliver Peck is a busy dude.

Between his ownership responsibilities at both Deep Ellum’s Elm Street Tattoo and Los Angeles’ True Tattoo, his touring schedule that takes him all across the world, his duties as one of three judges on SpikeTV’s reality tattoo competition show Ink Master (the show just kicked off its third season on Tuesday night) and, to a much lesser extent, his role as a co-host at the Double Wide’s Thursday night Good Luck Karaoke weekly, it’s a wonder how the guy ever finds the time to think, let alone make more moves.

And, yet, here he is again, making more moves as if to spite the rest of us working stiffs: In celebration of both the 20th anniversary of his penning “13” tattoos for $13 for patrons each Friday the 13th and the 13th anniversary of Elm Street Tattoo’s now-storied marathon “13” tattooing sessions, Peck and his Elm Street cohorts will be take over various Elm Street venues and parking lots from Friday, September 13, through Sunday, September 15, to host a massive, three-day tattoo, music, motorcycle and skateboard festival. As a bonus, the kickoff date will also double as a birthday celebration for Peck’s Elm Street Tattoo co-owner Dean Williams, who just so happens to be a September 13 baby.

Soon as the clock strikes midnight on Friday the 13th, Peck and his Elm Street team — along with 50 other Peck-selected tattoo artists from around the world — will start their usual 24-hour tattooing marathon session at both their own shop and in the big room of the Prophet Bar, which Peck assures use is fully permitted and up to code for such an affair. Following the marathon session — for which Elm Street has already earned Guinness book world record distinction — tattooing will continue throughout the weekend in both locations, with patrons able to request tattoos not related to the “13” concept on these added days.

In addition to the tattooing, the festival will also feature what Peck calls “a shitload of bands” performing across various stages at the Prophet Bar, Trees, Wit’s End and Peck’s own Three Links venue. The parking lot outside of Prophet Bar will also feature a weekend-long skateboarding demo helmed by Dallas-based skate icon Mike Crum. Meanwhile, the parking lot outside of the old Club Clearview space will host a weekend-long vintage Harley Davidson expo, and the lot outside of Trees will be similarly fenced off to host various vendors and additional drinking festivities.

“We just started trying to make this year big,” Peck says, laughing. “And it just started getting bigger and bigger. This is what it turned into.”

Though not technically underway until midnight on Friday the 13th, the whole weekend will informally kick off on Wednesday, September 11, at Three Links with a traditional Elm Street Tattoo “wig party,” in which Peck and Williams’ staff dresses in drag and invites their friends’ bands to play a concert and party that runs as late as possible, so as to throw the crew’ sleep schedules back a few hours and better prepare them for the all-Friday-long sessions.

So far, Peck says, some 25-plus bands have signed on to play the festival, including Reverend Horton Heat (who has even signed on as a partner and co-promoter for the event ), Drag The River, the Los Angeles-based band Restaurant and locals such as Maleveller, Missile, The Virgin Wolves, The Matt The Cat Trio, J. Charles & The Trainrobbers, The Hannah Barbarians, plus more bands to be announced in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, noted tattoo artist Tim Hendricks and Peck’s fellow Ink Master judge Chris Nunez are among the confirmed participants in the tattoo portion of the Sailor Jerry-sponsored event, the whole lineup of which can be viewed here. And, as part of the Harley Davidson expo, a 1984 Harley FXR-T will be raffled off, with proceeds from the auction benefiting the True South Relief Fund, which comes to the assistance of people injured in motorcycling accidents.

Tickets to the weekend-long Elm Street Tattoo Convention can be purchased in advance right here with single-day passes going for $20, three-day passes going for $40 and VIP passes going for $100.

Says Peck of the whole deal: “This thing has actually gotten pretty big. But next year we hope to go even bigger, involving more people in Deep Ellum and maybe even closing down Elm Street. That’s the plan, at least.”