Katy Perry and Some Really Nice Dads at Hello Kitty Con

Katy Perry got her finger tattooed yesterday at Hello Kitty Con which runs through this weekend at the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles. It was the first convention for Sanrio, the company which founded the too cute cat icon 40 years ago. First things first, Hello Kitty is actually a woman, not a cat.

So what exactly happens at a Hello Kitty convention? There are free tattoos, Hello Kitty petit fours, and scented Hello Kitty toilet paper in the bathrooms. I expected to see a lot of Asian tween girls in pink, but it was a motley crew: there was the Chips actor Erik Estrada who wandered the booths in a happy daze; there as an 80 year-old woman named Pinky who wore a Hello Kitty bow on her head; there was nice older man who’s been collecting Hello Kitty gear for years but doesn’t wear any of it because “that’s a step too far.”

My favorite were the Hello Kitty dads. One dad wore a “I have been hugged by Hello Kitty” sticker while smoking a portable hookah from his backpack. Another dad bought his daughter a full set of Hello Kitty luggage. He told me his favorite thing about the convention was “seeing a bunch of grown women smiling non-stop,” as he sipped from his Hello Kitty bow-shaped water bottle.

And who wouldn’t be happy? There are food trucks, Hello Kitty drawing classes, nail art sessions, and serious-sounding panels on why Hello Kitty is a muse. As the founder of Sanrio, Papa Tsuji (does the cuteness ever stop?) explains: “My wish to bring smiles to everyone, to promote friendship everywhere.”