If you're new around here, or just haven't been paying attention – every December we do this thing called Draw All Month. It’s our way of saying “thank you” to all the artists who’ve supported us throughout the year.

Draw All Month officially launched during the 2020 lockdowns, when conventions were canceled, shops were closed, and tattoo artists were stuck at home. Like you, we felt a bit lost… We needed to find a creative outlet, and a way to interact with people again. So with no real plan in mind, we started reaching out to our friends who we knew felt the exact same way. In that first year we partnered with 5 legendary tattoo brands to offer $10,000 in prizes and just started giving them away.

Seven years later, some would say we still have no plans come December, but what started as a creative outlet has morphed into over $300,000 in prizes shipped, a bunch of fugly Christmas jackets and some battered and bruised Eikon crew. Each year, as more and more artists tune in, it fuels our passion to make it even bigger, better and yeah, even weirder…

Who's Behind This Madness?

Although no one really remembers who came up with the original idea (or is just afraid to own up to it) Draw All Month couldn't happen without a core group of people who literally put their blood, sweat, tears and curse words into it every year, starting every September all the way through until the last prize is shipped in early January.

Whether you love or hate Draw All Month... Here’s the crew to blame…

Rob has been with Eikon for 18 years. He takes care of the store, travels with our Convention crew and keeps a tight finger on the pulse of what working artists like you actually want and need, and (a little reluctantly) serves as the face of DAM— Who are we kidding? He loves taking advantage of sanctioned HR-approved cruelty.

Mark, our creative design craftsman of 9 years, is the mastermind behind the DAM sets and games. He turns our wild ideas into reality using pure ingenuity, grit, and whatever tools he can get his hands on around the house, the Wolfe Island dump, and local second-hand stores. All we have to do is step way back and watch (and feed him coffee)...

Nik is the young wizard behind the lens who, when he originally signed on, had no idea he would be directing and shooting a reality show. As our in-house, and on-the-road videographer and content producer for the past 5 years, Nik is no stranger to shooting weird shit, even if he has to show his ID to prove he’s old enough to watch it.

Then there's Brad, the unsung hero. While Mark builds the pretty stuff, Brad does a lot of the hard labour that can't always be seen on camera. Another Eikon lifer, Brad spends his “downtime” bringing your machines, power supplies and thermal copiers back to life as part of our production and repairs team (the only member, actually).

Next up is Vanessa, who’s been with Eikon for 23 years. Her primary DAM duty is herding this feral flock of creatives while knowing precisely where all the “bodies” are buried. Without her, videos would be shot, but no one would see them, and we’d probably lose all the prizes…

We can't forget Max who wrangles hundreds of high-value prizes across borders and across the miles –which can be a logistical nightmare, but let’s be honest—getting tattoo gear directly into your hands is kind of his speciality, after all, he’s been doing it for 18 years.

And finally Ricardo, who for the past 7 years has been the structural glue holding this entire operation together in an attempt to keep the gears running smoothly when everything threatens to catch fire (literally).

Giving back is the point—With a little help from our friends…

Our first couple of years were "low key" compared to what came next – Every year we were more and more blown away by the support from our fellow suppliers and artists alike. The sheer volume of donations coming in took more time to organize than we’d ever imagined. By the end of 2025 we had cumulatively given away $300,000 in prizes to Eikon customers! So to everyone that participates since the beginning, a big THANK YOU!

The “Elf” Assembly Line

We carefully break down all that loot to craft daily prizes, hundreds of secret stocking stuffers, and one borderline-irresponsible Grand Prize. It’s a delicate, painstaking science: balancing every pack so it makes you drool on your phone screen, while giving the legendary brands who backed us the glory they deserve.

We commandeer the largest room in Eikon HQ for weeks, turning into into a tattoo themed version of the North Pole, filling it with toys tattooists dream of, and surrounding it with boxes, stray bubble wrap, wrapping paper and bows, and the spent sharpies our Customer Service team use to hand write hundreds of notes.

The Luck of the Draw: Artist Selection

Seriously, how hard can it be to pick a winner?....

From day one, it’s been really important to us that every artist who placed an order in that year's Draw All Month had a chance to win. Shops big and small, from Vancouver to St. John's, and even Iqaluit in Nunavut are all in the running for prizes.

In the beginning we kept it simple (for you maybe), making a spread sheet of every order placed that year and using a random number generator to select the winners. After that we got a little more forensic with it, slicing up the list to ensure we could thank artists that visit our booth at a convention, or those who use Eikon Cartridges for their daily grind. We found ways to shout out and thank artists who’d been with us the longest, and showed some love to those who’d just placed their first order this year. So whether your name was pulled from a hat, a duck pond or spun on a wheel, just know that it all started with one giant-ass spreadsheet and an iPhone number generator.

The Evolution of The Spectacle: Theme, Games & Prize Wall

2020–2022 (The "Keep It Simple" Era):

Pure survival mode. One table of prizes, a handful of brands, zero budget for pyrotechnics, and a simple dream of getting creative and interacting with the artists we missed from the road. Back in 2020, we literally pulled names out of a hat. We'd wander around Eikon asking staff to draw a name. It was... functional… But as the prize pool expanded, so did the chaos of picking winners—and we knew we could level up. We wanted to get everyone involved—our crew and you, the artists—and build something truly epic for everyone to be part of.

2023 | That DAM Game Show

This is where it really kicked off. Inspired by the campy game shows of our youth, Rob went into full Bob Barker mode. We dressed him up in a festive (aka tacky) suit. Then we custom-built a massive "punch wall" shaped like a Christmas tree, and recruited the Eikon crew to play a game, and then "punch out" a prize for the artist. The production was insane, and we had a blast. Ricardo reports he can still hear the gameshow intro song carved in his brain to this day.

2024 | That DAM Board game

In 2024 we heard a lot of: "How will you top last year?" and naturally, we figured: Challenge Accepted! So, we cooked up an absolute monster idea—a life-sized DAMOPOLY board. Once again, we roped the Eikon team into playing more games, this time inspired by "crazy viral challenges" (like Tattoo Shop Air Hockey and the Rinse Cup Overflow race) —all to help decide which insanely cool prize (like a Cheyenne Sol Nova or the FK Irons Flux Max) would go up on the prize board for you to win. This is the year that the "legendary Customer Service vs. Warehouse rivalry" was born, with counseling on-going to this day.

2025 | That DAM Sideshow

In 2025 the circus came to town… and, while it started out as an innocent carnival concept—popcorn, red-and-white stripes, maybe a nice carousel… Mark quickly turned it into a mad funhouse that would fuel most children’s (and some adults) nightmares. Highlights included an elf shooting gallery, Ink Master Plinko and a toilet bowl game that still has us washing our hands (multiple times a day…).

We drew names from a murky duck pond, and each winner received their own personalized duck along with their prize. That year we also decided to use the opportunity to support a charity in our community, and we not only donated 40 teddy bears to a local toy drive but our teams also raised money for a Kingston Women's Shelter and Animal Rescue organization.

…It’s Not JUST a Game

We honestly thought we were just making goofy videos to entertain ourselves (and artists) and avoid actual work. But the true scale of the impact didn't hit us until Rob was holding down our booth at a convention in Moncton and artist Jay Bradley literally drove for hours just to hunt him down in the wild. He didn't even come to bargain for free cartridges. He just wanted to look Rob in the eye and tell him how much watching our annual DAM event meant to him every December.

That’s when the lightbulb finally flickered on. This whole operation isn't just about flinging thousands of dollars of premium tattoo gear into the void; it’s about community, it's about tuning out the news and the influencers, getting creative, having fun, and saying thank you.

From a simple "antidote" to the 2020-blues, to a full-blown, slightly unhinged carnival, Draw All Month is our favourite tradition. We get to be "nerdy","crafty" and even a bit silly, all in the name of celebrating the artists who support us all year.