MANSFIELD — Several pastors say the annual Inkcarceration Festival at the Ohio State Reformatory in July should be “disbanded,” citing concerns for violence, according to FrontlinesOhio, an online publication for faith-focused news.
The Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival, a three-day annual event at the Ohio State Reformatory in Richland County since 2018, features rock and metal bands, tattoo artists and haunted attractions.
Faith leaders from nine local congregations on Oct. 31, Reformation Day, sent a correspondence to 140 churches throughout Richland County expressing their concern.
“When I was a rebellious youth, I was in a gang, we listened to the same heavy metal music, and participated in delinquent behavior,” said Pastor Jack Williams of Walker Lake Baptist Church, one of the co-signers of the clergy letter.
“I did not leave that harmful lifestyle until somebody spoke up,” Williams said in the Frontlines Ohio story. “If the church does not speak out, Mansfield will have its own ‘Burning Man Festival.’ Inkcarceration clearly promotes gratuitous violence. We have to remember, the battle was won because of the faith of one small shepherd boy who dared to defy a giant.”
Beyond several phone calls about the loud noise or traffic congestion, not much has been said publicly over the last seven years against the raucous festival that attracted 90,000 attendees last July.
FrontlinesOhio argued that, with the decriminalization of vice and the celebration of the heavy-metal festival’s irreligious values by city leaders, Inkcarceration speaks louder than churches.
The clergy question whether the economic benefits are worth long-term problems. Williams warned that the community is losing its innocence and risking the danger of going morally bankrupt.
“It is painstakingly clear we are in a culture war: One side following the rule of law, and one side following lawlessness. Jesus said it is not permissible to serve two masters, serving both God and money. As the Buckeye Bible Belt, we are compelled to defend our kids from these evil influences no matter what the cost. Our children are not going to the highest bidder,” Williams, a Mansfield pastor, said in the article.
Local leaders did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kristine Ashton-Magnuson, a spokeswoman for Inkcarceration, said that festival producers have no comment.
“As the Inkcarceration Festival is now in full stride, hostility towards Biblical values is growing. This heavy-metal ceremony celebrates death, violence and anarchy,” the letter warned. “If the church is going to survive as a relevant and influential source, there needs to be a profound cultural shift in our community through Biblical repentance. Furthermore, it is our strong conviction the local Inkcarceration Festival should be disbanded.”
Pastor Hank Webb of Belmont Community Church, a co-signer of the letter, referred all questions to community activist Ben Mutti, an organizer of the local Prayer Network, when asked to comment.
Mutti could not immediately be reached for comment.
Clergy co-signers of the letter include: Webb, Williams, Pastor Doyle Peyton, Rabbi William Hallbrook, Pastors Joe & Amanda Nichols, Pastor Ken Ginter, Pastor Les Vnasdale, Pastor LaMont Lindsey and Pastor Clyde Kerby.
“Inkcarceration shuns accountability and defies the rule of law which was established to promote health, safety, and morality,” the nine clergy wrote.
Their letter provided a summary of prominent crime incidents during the Inkcarceration Festival between 2018 and 2025 involving: drug overdoses, rape, child endangerment, assaults, thefts including with a gun, and a person of interest making terroristic threats.
“Since Inkcarceration’s own security team has not released any records to the public, and since the festival is a purveyor of transgression, these may only be a fraction of the incidents that occurred,” the faith leaders warned.
The Mansfield fire chief reported 86 emergency room transports by ambulance during Inkcarceration. According to the Richland County Coroner’s office, two deaths occurred in 2019 involving Inkcarceration staff who fell 40 feet to their deaths while on an ATV; the driver was found to have high levels of THC and alcohol, FrontlinesOhio noted.
The letter also accused Inkcarceration of predominantly hosting performers who express religious animus.
“Marilyn Manson, an Inkcarceration performer, has burned Bibles on stage, dressed his band in Nazi helmets and moved around a stage set composed of mannequin bodies impaled on spikes. Several hours after a 2017 mass shooting at a Texas church which left 26 people dead, Manson took the stage for a concert, attached his microphone to a fake gun, and pretended to spray the crowd with bullets,” the letter noted. “Insensitive acts like these are what helped Manson qualify for the 2025 Inkcarceration band lineup.”
Local clergy say they do not want another tragedy like in 1979, when a stampede occurred at a Cincinnati rock concert causing the deaths of 11.
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Inkcarceration Festival accused of promoting violence as pastors call for ending event
Reporting by Lou Whitmire, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
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