Video: Tattoo Convention In Quito, Sept. 25, 26 & 27, 2015

Sep 26, 2015 | 0 comments

Mr. Checkers meets the press at Tattoo convention Friday in Quito. Photo credit: El Comercio

The Mitad del Mundo Tattoo Convention in Quito featured 440 Ecuadorian and international artists Friday, Saturday and Sunday, September 25, 26 & 27. The convention was held at the Best Western Grand Plaza Hotel, Shyris at Nacionales Unidades, opposite Quicentro.

The convention attracted 3,000 on Friday, September 25.

The video was produced by journalists Aliya Alwi and Austin G. Mackell, founders of the non-profit organization and website, ImportantCool.com. ImportantCool.com monitors news media coverage of international events as well as cultural trends.

For more about the tattoo convention, click here. For more about Alwi and Mackell, see below.

Aliya Alwi began her career as a translator for Egyptian state media radio but left the role during the January 2011 revolution after witnessing the violent suppression firsthand and being asked to broadcast plainly untrue information. Alwi then began working on a freelance basis for English-language outlets like Al-Jazeera English, The Guardian, and many others. She covered violent unrest during military crackdowns in Cairo, chaotic elections in Alexandria, and the aftermath of the Port Said football massacre. She produced the first English-language interviews with army defectors and Islamist leaders like Aboud al-Zumour, convicted mastermind of the the 1981 assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. She was arrested during her coverage of the general strike in Mahalla in 2012, and along with her husband and fellow ImportantCool.com associate, Austin Mackell, spent six months fighting charges of “incitement” brought against the pair and their colleagues by the military government.

Austin G. Mackell is an Australian cross-platform journalist who began his career in Beirut during the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. He worked in the region for a total of four years, for outlets like The Diplomat, CBC, CBS, ABC (America), ABC (Australia), as well as independent and community outlets. He covered events such as the turbulent 2009 Iranian presidential elections and the unrest in Egypt during 2011 and 2012. Mackell broke news of the arrest of Egyptian Alber Saber, an atheist arrested on blasphemy charges. His work in Egypt also included investigations into army deserters and worker-led dissent leading to his arrest and charges of incitement filed against him in 2012. Austin was also one of the earliest and most vociferous of the voices warning against a military coup of 2013, by which stage he had moved to Ecuador and begun work on founding ImportantCool.com