LEWISTON — It promises to be wild, colorful and very hairy.

The third annual Fuel the Arts Expo at the Ramada Inn this weekend will include art battles, community painting and more than 25 friendly competitions, among them: Best head tattoo, worst tattoo, gnarliest beard and best mustache. 

“You see everything,” said Kris Howes, event organizer and owner of Gaskyl Productions in Rumford. “You get to see some really old, classic stuff, World War II (era), but then you get to see some really New Age tattoos that are really super bright and colorful or really funny.”

And, ahead of the Maine Facial Hair Club’s two Friday night events: “You always see a couple people running to the bathroom and prepping themselves up a little bit.”

The expo, which runs from March 19-22, drew 300 people a day last year. 

Howes said he’s worked to make it more of an art event than simply a tattoo expo, but there is still plenty of that. He’s lined up 40 artists from Maine to Florida, licensed to pierce or tattoo here for the weekend.

“A lot of people come just to get small tattoos,” he said. “They have something in mind and they walk around looking for an artist that’s really good with that style.”

Admission is $12 and includes participation, if you choose, in Art Fusion and Chaos battles. Art Fusion involves six artists and six easels; they move one easel over and start working anew anytime the music stops.

Chaos battles involve back-to-back canvases.

“They’ll say three subjects, like a duck, a skull and an umbrella and then the people have to take the images and put them together as one image,” Howes said.

The crowd judges who did it better.

Attendees can also add paints to one of four oversized canvases that will be out all weekend in a community collaboration, visit a sculpting area with 60 pounds of clay or hit a new drawing area.

Artwork will be auctioned off throughout the weekend to benefit a project Howes runs with Craft Mania to donate art supplies to after-school programs.

Contests run from each day into the evenings for best tattoos — head, foot, wildlife, portrait, tattoo of the day and many others. Those are limited to 25 people per contest and have a $5 entry fee.

kskelton@sunjournal.com