ALTOONA — Philipsburg-based tattoo shop Rock & Ruthless Tattoo Parlor recently turned a weekend of unexpected pre-show setbacks into a major success at the 5th Annual Keystone State Tattoo Expo in Altoona.
Despite a string of bad luck and difficult challenges threatening to derail the team’s plans, artists Tyler Walstrom and Annalise McMahon took home a combined total of 10 prestigious awards.
The shop’s impressive list of awards included:
- 1st Place: Medium Black and Gray
- 2nd Place: Tattoo of the Day (Black and Gray) – Completed live at the show
- 2nd Place: Best Artists Collab – Completed live at the show
- 2nd Place: Best Style Mash-up
- 2nd Place: Small Color
- 2nd Place: Black and Gray Portrait
- 2nd Place: Best Overall Male
- 3rd Place: Best Neck Tattoo
- 3rd Place: Best Color Portrait
- 3rd Place: Best Color Infusion
“We would have never even survived this weekend, let alone had this incredible outcome, without our loyal friends and colleagues,” said Tyler Walstrom, owner of Rock & Ruthless. “They dedicated their entire weekend to supporting the shop, and this victory belongs to all of them.”
The pair had a string of bad luck prior to the Expo, with projects and plans falling through and needing to figure out a contingency plan.
“Seth Kitko was already planning on coming to tow our equipment because along with that bad luck, I had both of my trucks break down prior to the convention,” Walstrom said.
Kitko had been wanting a certain tattoo created from a drawing his sister had created for quite a long time.
“Since (Kitko) was already going to be there, we decided to try to make this tattoo he has wanted forever finally happen. We took some artistic liberties and added a twist to his sister’s drawing and turned it into something that would make a sick tattoo and utilize the body part to the maximum,” Walstrom explained.
Walstrom and McMahon each took parts based on their strong points. McMahon did all of the woman’s face, hair, eyes and makeup, while Walstrom took on the skull, smoke, bandana, and any stone and chrome textures.
“We worked independently on revising the design, and then merged them back together last minute on the morning of the convention,” Walstrom said. “Neither of us like to work this impulsive and under that amount of time constraint, but we were just trying to make the best out of the series of unfortunate events that had been unfolding.”
Annalise recalled the intensity of the weekend, noting the high stakes of working on deeply personal pieces under massive pressure. “The energy on Saturday during the live collaboration was incredibly intense,” she said. “Winning 1st place in Medium Black and Gray still feels entirely surreal. I cannot thank the people enough who came out just to support us.”
The weekend’s achievements were made possible by numerous dedicated clients like Seth Kitko, who sat through a grueling, full-day session on Saturday to receive the live collaboration leg tattoo from both artists, tattooing simultaneously. The finished piece secured the 2nd place award for overall Tattoo of the Day against elite national competition.
“Watching Tyler and Annalise combine their unique styles right on my leg was unreal,” Kitko recalled. “When the judges called out ‘Rock & Ruthless’ during Tattoo of the Day, I couldn’t even wrap my head around it. The sheer number of compliments I received from everyone at the show made me so proud to work with such a solid and good-hearted team.”
Origins
Rock & Ruthless Tattoo Parlor was born in 2012, and almost completed its 13 year of business.
Walstrom grew up in Philipsburg then moved away to pursue tattooing. He returned to Philipsburg with his new skillset to open a shop in his hometown,
“I started tattooing when I was only 19 years old in 2009, so I’m 17 years in the game,” Walstrom said. “I have always been very interested and driven in art. I haven’t always been great at it, but something just connects for me and makes me keep trying and trying to get it right, even if it takes me twice as long as the next artist.”
Shortly after getting his first tattoo as a young adult, Walstrom said he immediately fell in love with tattooing. He sought professional shops to be a tattoo apprentice and learn the trade.
“(Tattoo apprenticing) is not as accessible as enrolling in college,” Walstrom explained. “I lucked out and had a shop in Lewistown graciously take me under their wing.”
After a few years of working there, he took the leap of faith to start his own business and tattoo shop in downtown Philipsburg.
“It’s been a long and very unorthodox life,” Walstrom said. “The ultimate reward is turning a client’s ideas and visions into something beyond what they expected. It is incredibly fulfilling to see that work out in the wild, whether it is a tattoo people are talking about, people online sharing my art, or people proudly slapping our logo on their cars and wearing the merch.”
McMahon began her tattooing career as an apprentice at Rock & Ruthless in 2021.
Some of my earliest and fondest memories are of learning to create art with my grandmother, who is an amazing watercolor painter,” McMahon said of her interest in tattoo art. Her grandmother taught her about art and when McMahon was a young teen, she developed an interest in doing realism portraits, primarily in colored pencil. She started doing custom commissioned artwork and selling art at local events, as well as over Instagram and Etsy.
McMahon’s father had been steadily getting tattooed by Walstrom and suggested the idea of apprenticing there.
“I started coming to the shop whenever my school schedule would permit,” McMahon said, completing her first tattoo on a client — her father — in 2022.
By 2024, McMahon became a full-time artist.
“Since then, I have been fully immersed in tattooing, working hard to continue building off of the artistic knowledge that both my grandmother and Tyler have shared with me.”
Tattoo Expo Success
Keystone State Tattoo Expo began offering its competitions five year ago, and Walstrom decided to explore the opportunity to showcase his talents.
“We had a few clients enter their tattoos in the Expo and ended up coming home with an award,” Walstrom said. “We did this a few times and then last year decided to pack up the entire show and work live at the show. It is a tremendous amount of work and stress to do so, but we had a pretty rewarding experience last year, so we decided to do it again this year as well.”
There were about 150 booths for artists and vendors at this year’s show, attracting a “very niche group” of artists from all over the world.
“It has become one of the toughest shows to take home an award at, because everyone is coming there to win. The challenging line up of artists only motivates even more amazing artists to travel there to throw their hat in the race,” Walstrom said.
He added that the biggest attraction for that show is the proximity, because there aren’t any other conventions near Philipsburg and most require substantial travel.
Walstrom has won at least one award at the Keystone Expo every year for 5 years since the event was created.
Rock & Ruthless Tattoo Parlor is typically open Tuesday through Saturday by appointment only.
“We have just gotten to a point of tattooing and also our own following that it would never be possible to do this level of projects on a walk-in basis,” Walstrom explained. “We do try our best to support all styles of customers, so we do offer some pop-up walk in events for special occasions. It helps give folks a shot to get something small that day rather than planning and having to wait months to a year just to get their simple idea.”
More about the tattoo shop can be found at www.rockandruthless.com.
