By Heather Matthews
Staff Writer

Dug Mendoza, an artist at Manchester’s Goodtimes Tattoos, carefully shades in the scales of a bright orange koi fish on the arm of Mike Austin of Manchester. Mendoza said while tattoos may be getting more popular, they aren’t necessarily more accepted. (Heather Matthews Photos)

In past generations, tattoos were considered something reserved for the less savory members of society. At one time, it seemed only sailors, prisoners, bikers and carnival workers would ever dare to set foot into a tattoo parlor to have beautiful, colorful works of art permanently inked into their skin.

Tattoos have come a long way since then, and the tradition of the tattoo is only growing more popular, said area tattoo artist David Leonard.

“They’re becoming more and more accepted,” said Leonard, 27, of Spider-Bite Tattoos in Manchester. “Last week I gave a 75-year-old woman her first tattoo. She’s always wanted one, but it wasn’t acceptable when she was younger.”

Although he has only worked in the body modification industry for four years, Leonard said he has witnessed tremendous growth in the business of tattooing. Today, tattoos are popping up on the least likely of candidates and in the least likely of places.

Businessmen and women, priests, young professionals, college students and grandparents are visiting tattoo shops across the nation in search of a piece of unique, expressive art to decorate their bodies with. Classic tattoo art is being used to advertise cigarettes. Reality television shows based around the lives of tattoo artists in big cities such as Miami and Las Vegas are growing in popularity. And it was only within the last few years that Manchester legalized tattoo shops.

Earlier this year, the American Academy of Dermatology set out to understand and quantify the culture of tattoos. By using random digit dialing technology, the group gathered a representative sample of the nation that included 247 men and 253 women between the ages of 18 and 50.

On June 19, the academy’s journal published their findings, stating that 36 percent of the nation’s young adults (ages 18 to 29) are decorated with at least one tattoo. The results also showed 24 percent of the population between the ages of 18 and 50 have been tattooed, with the amount of tattooing divided equally between the sexes.

Leonard attributes the growth in tattoo popularity and acceptance to the coming of age of a more open-minded, more accepting and more modified generation.

“As our generation gets older and we become the bosses, tattoos are becoming more appreciated and accepted,” he said. “That traditional business guy might have a full body suit of tattoos under that necktie.”

But tattoos still have a long way to go before they are completely accepted, said Dug Mendoza, an artist for Goodtimes Tattoos in Manchester. It’s still not easy being a tattooed person in a formal business setting or even the military. (Once one of the only tattooed sects of society, the military now places strict limitations on the designs, locations and number of tattoos on its members.)

“It’s hard to believe that they are being more accepted,” he said. “A lot of people I know are heavily tattooed, and they are told tattoos aren’t acceptable. People can’t (have a lot of body modifications) or they won’t be able to have a job in a business setting.”

Tattoos, Mendoza said, must be covered up and hidden from the public eye by clothing in many settings. Having to hide the art is not accepting it, he said.

While Mendoza said the survey brought up some interesting numbers, it also associated tattooing with risk-taking behavior and activities, such as drinking and recreational drug use, as well as a lack of religious affiliations ­ generalizations that lead to more set-backs for those with body modifications.

“It paints a picture that tattoo culture is for atheists, drunks and druggies, while the majority of those with tattoos are just great art lovers,” he said. “It doesn’t take a criminal to get a tattoo. A lot of the people who get tattoos are searching for something that gives them healing or a sense of power over a certain part of their life. It gives them a way to separate themselves from the rest of the crowd and a way to express themselves as an individual, even among those who are tattooed.”

Some argue it is those without tattoos who are becoming the more unique, but Leonard said custom tattoos with artwork designed by the artist specifically for the customer is becoming more popular, keeping tattoo art fresh and unique.

Leonard also said there are a number of trends in the tattoo industry he has seen over the years that the survey didn’t report on. He said more people are tattooed in the summer than the winter, religious symbols are popular design components and there are different preferred locations and styles for tattoos between the sexes.

Females tend to want their lower back or shoulder blades tattooed, while males still prefer to be inked on their arms. In general, color and black-and-white preference is divided equally among those who are tattooed: Females tend to prefer more color than males.

Mendoza, who has been tattooing for seven years, also noted with the growing popularity of tattoos has come the mindset that tattoo parlors are like a one-hour photo business and can provide instant results. He said more people see getting a tattoo as an errand and spend less time contemplating and planning the piece of artwork that will be permanently installed on their body.

“These people pretty much want to stick their arm out a window while going through a drive-thru,” he said.

Ironically, Leonard said about 50 percent of his work in that last few years has been designing cover-up pieces to hide hastily chosen, trendy tattoos with more elaborate, intricate and unique custom work.

For information on the American Academy of Dermatology, visit their Web site at www.aad.org. For information on Spider-Bite Tattoos, visit www.spider-bite.com/tattoo.htm or call 645-1449. For details on Goodtimes Tattoos, call 669-6969, or visit www.goodtimestattoos.com.