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Amy Cakes has dozens of tattoos, but the one she got on Friday would stand out simply because the ink was applied amid a celebration of all things Robert De Niro.<\/p>\n
As Cakes, 32, an operations coordinator at the Tribeca Festival, rolled up her sleeve, the eerie glow of the actor\u2019s face played on a loop in the background, a sequence of shots of Max Cady, the character with cryptic, ominous tattoos De Niro played in \u201cCape Fear.\u201d Participants could choose from five tattoos he sported in that 1991 drama, including a panther and the phrase \u201cTime the avenger.\u201d Cakes selected a clown with a gun, as De Niro\u2019s mien scowled on the screen above.<\/p>\n
This was the inaugural tattoo of De Niro Con<\/a>, a three-day series of events honoring the 80-year-old actor and coinciding with the final days of the 2024 Tribeca Festival, which he co-founded. The convention, held in Spring Studios in Tribeca, drew more than 1,000 fans to displays of movie memorabilia; a re-creation of the dingy bedroom of Travis Bickle, his unhinged title character in \u201cTaxi Driver\u201d (1976); and that tattoo parlor. For passes that ranged from $150 each to $3,500 for two, participants could make videos of themselves reciting lines from \u201cTaxi Driver,\u201d shadowbox as Jake LaMotta in \u201cRaging Bull\u201d (1980), or sip complementary Starbucks energy drinks before emerging from the Rupert Pupkin Hall of Fan Experiences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Some attendees arrived wearing De Niro shirts or bought them there. Others purchased $25 toddler onesies with \u201cYou talkin\u2019 to me?\u201d (Travis Bickle\u2019s signature line) emblazoned on the front.<\/p>\n At Friday\u2019s opening, Patrick McCartney, a 53-year-old actor hired for the event, administered mock polygraph exams, just as De Niro\u2019s retired C.I.A. officer does to Ben Stiller in \u201cMeet the Parents\u201d (2000). McCartney was surrounded by an assortment of espionage books that event workers thumbed through during less bustling moments. \u201cIt\u2019s like \u2018Sleep No More,\u2019 but De Niro,\u201d he said, referring to an immersive, choose-your-own-adventure theater in Chelsea.<\/p>\n A full-length mirror with \u201cYou talkin\u2019 to me?\u201d in white lettering signaled the entry to the \u201cTaxi Driver\u201d corner. As the original score played, fans could inspect a partial re-creation of the cabby\u2019s bedroom and utter his well-known quote, impressions that would be turned into clips on an iPad that they could text to themselves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Nicholas James Reilly, 34, created the \u201cTaxi Driver\u201d alcove. After finding the scene on YouTube, he zoomed in behind Travis Bickle\u2019s head to focus on the set components. Some were easier to identify and source than others. Reilly realized that the makeshift pantry cabinet was a repurposed milk crate, which he found on Etsy. But other objects, like red-rimmed vintage Budweiser cans, were more difficult to come by. The hardest element was the Army jacket Bickle wears. Two were hung on pegs for participants to try on. \u201cBelieve it or not, there was a lot of competition,\u201d Reilly said, referring to a market of bespoke Travis Bickle jackets that he discovered online. The initial choice sold out on Etsy before he could place his order for one small and one large, to accommodate different De Niro Con attendees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Beyond Travis Bickle\u2019s bedroom was the tattoo station. The festival teamed up with Allied Tattoo of Brooklyn, and two people were inked each day of the festival, for $180 to $300 each. An adjacent station offered free temporary tattoos to all.<\/p>\n On Saturday evening, a conference room was repurposed to host the De Niro Con\u2019s trivia event, where more than a dozen participants vied for the top spot. The questions ranged from the personal (\u201cWhat is Robert De Niro\u2019s middle name?\u201d Anthony) to the professional (\u201cWhat position does De Niro\u2019s character play in the 1973 baseball film \u2018Bang the Drum Slowly\u2019?\u201d Catcher). The winning team had perhaps a competitive advantage: One member, Marisol Acevedo, 28, of Staten Island, runs an Instagram page dedicated to the actor. The account, Robert De Niro Daily<\/a>, has half a million followers. Acevedo was there with her boyfriend, Ralph Santiago, 25, of Jersey City, who was not surprised by their team\u2019s victory. \u201cI never doubted her,\u201d he said, biting into a slice of pizza.<\/p>\n The weekend held other less-interactive attractions, including film screenings, panel discussions and several appearances by De Niro himself. The exhibition of personal and film-related memorabilia from his various roles included correspondence with filmmakers like Elia Kazan, and the actor\u2019s costumes in \u201cThe Last Tycoon\u201d (1976) and \u201cKillers of the Flower Moon\u201d (2023).<\/p>\n There was also a multiscreen compilation of De Niro\u2019s work, sound bites and all, that offered an impressionistic take on a career of nearly six decades. For Acevedo, this 15-minute video was her favorite part: \u201cJust going through every single era \u2014 all that was really cool to see.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On Sunday evening, the soundtracks were silenced. The vintage polygraph machine was packed up to be returned to its Brooklyn home. And the \u201cTaxi Driver\u201d iPad, with more than 200 impressions of \u201cYou talkin\u2019 to me?\u201d saved in its gallery, was put away.<\/p>\n Brandon Wright, a 22-year-old bartender who had traveled from his home in Massachusetts for the convention, emerged from a De Niro-themed stand-up performance with his luggage in tow. A day earlier, he\u2019d gotten a tattoo at the \u201cCape Fear\u201d-themed parlor. He had removed the gauze wrapping, and his shaved forearm exposed a cross doubling as a scale of justice: a Bible on one side and a dagger on the other. Initially, he was interested in the clown tattoo, but after further reflection and a call to his father, Wright reconsidered. \u201cI wanted to have a permanent souvenir,\u201d he said. \u201cI also just like getting tattoos.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n