Elvis tattoos? Inside the Memphis Tattoo Festival at Graceland

In the 1950s, Elvis Presley was accused by some critics of being “a definite danger to the security of the United States” (to quote a letter in the FBI’s Elvis file).

The singer promoted delinquency and immorality with his “lascivious contortions” (so said the Louisville chief of police), his “tribal rhythms” (the archbishop of Chicago), and his “greasy” sideburns (a Des Moines newspaper columnist). He rode motorcycles and wore black leather jackets. In the movie “King Creole,” he flashed a switchblade.

Yet Elvis did not entirely match the stereotypical image of the 1950s rockabilly rebel. Notably, Elvis never had a tattoo. Skin-wise, he was a blank slate.

“I’d probably give him a peanut butter-and-banana sandwich,” mused artist Madelynne Caldwell, 23, of Midtown’s Hands of Mercy Tattoo Parlor, when asked what image she would have suggested if she’d had a chance to ink the King. “I’ve done some questionable meal tattoos, but never a peanut butter-and-banana sandwich.”

Tattoo artist Katie Rhoden, 33, of the Black Pelican Tattoo Studio in Harahan, Louisiana, was less whimsical. “I think I would give him a portrait of Lisa Marie,” she said. “He’d like that.”

Discussions of Elvis and tattoos are inevitable this weekend, as the Memphis Tattoo Festival — an annual convention that typically attracts some 2,000 body-art enthusiasts to the Bluff City — convened for the first time at the Graceland Exhibition Center, across the street from the Elvis Presley mansion.

Tattoos and Elvis are both pop-culture phenomena with obsessive fan bases, so Graceland seemed a natural fit for the third annual festival, which began at 1 p.m. Friday, April 10, and concludes at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 12. (Previous festivals were held Downtown, at the Renasant Convention Center.)

“Elvis is still rock ‘n’ roll, Elvis is still iconic America, and that definitely has a symbiosis with tattooing,” said Quinn Hurley, director of operations for Tattoo Fest/Explorer Tattoo, a company that organizes tattoo conventions in cities across the country.

Also, like Elvis, tattooing in 2026 is a mainstream interest with appeal for almost all ages, even if many of the 200-plus professional artists at the Graceland convention have taken the at of body mosaic to an extreme. “Our events are family-friendly,” Hurley said.

They’re safe, too. Shelby County Health Department inspectors were at the Graceland Exhibition Center on Friday morning, a few hours before the convention opened to the public, to make sure all the participating artists were properly certified.

As early as an hour into the festival, shirtless clients were lying on tables in the exhibition hall, as artists applied stencils to their backs, to guide the artistic endeavors of their tattoo needles. The air hummed with the electrical buzzing of old-school tattoo machines, while other artists used newer-model battery-operated tattoo pens that were almost silent.

“The room is vibrating, it’s electric, because there’s so many artists here and we’re all here because we love tattooing,” said a 26-year-old tattoo artist who calls herself Ivy B., works at Old Town Tatu in Chicago and specializes in “freehand floral” (drawing floral designs without a stencil).

Ivy B. said she’d suggest a music note for Elvis, for his first tattoo. “It’s small and low-commitment,” she said. “Plus, it would look great on his neck, right behind his ear. Or maybe on his thumb, so when he’s holding his microphone, he’d see it.”

Rhoden — who was a competitor on the 10th season of the tattoo-themed Spike network reality series, “Ink Master” — could fit a few musical treble clefs and quarter notes on her own body, perhaps near the black widow spider resting in an inky web on her throat or the snake-haired Slytherin student gazing from her thigh, but “I’m running out of space,” she admitted.

She’s very aware that a tattoo is art that will be with the buyer forever, which is why she took the imaginary concept of Elvis’ first tattoo so seriously.

“I would give him something he’d never forget, like Lisa Marie,” she said. “The point is, it’s something they’ll have forever. This is on you for the rest of your life and then even after your life is over, until your skin melts off.”

‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’