''Everyone gets tattooed now, not just bikers and crazy people, so we wanted a place that appealed to everyone,'' said Mark Corliss, the owner and an enterprising young businessman with the words ''hell bent'' inked across his knuckles.
After extending a colorful hand, Corliss, 27, showed off his spacious Main Street business, which is buzzing (literally) about 10 hours a day with tattoo needles.
''Last summer I did an 80-year-old woman, she was getting her first one,'' Corliss said.
Corliss couldn't pinpoint average age of his customers, or affix any other demographic label to them.
''I've done everyone from 18, the legal minimum age, to 80,'' said Andrea X. Tasha, co-owner of Mooncusser Tattoo Studio in Provincetown.
No longer is it just the smooth-skinned 20-year-olds applying body art. Most Mooncusser Tattoo customers are in their 30s and 40s, Tasha said. In 2001, a change in Massachusetts state law paved the way for tattooing to become legal.
As tattooing has become more mainstream, people who have been pining for one feel able to do it, said Tasha, 39, a natural blonde whose pale skin offsets more than 10 tattoos.
''A lot of people have been thinking about it for years and then they are on holiday and they are like, 'Whee! I can finally get a tattoo,''' she said.
Tattooing has been a part of every culture in the world and dates back thousands of years, said Tasha. The word may have originally come from the Tahitian word ''tatu'' meaning ''to mark something'' or from the sound made by hand tattooing devices, she said.
Fortunately, the modern body art tool is electric and much faster than the original process.
A machine moves a needle or needles through a tiny ink reservoir and shoots the ink below a few layers of skin, Corliss explains.
It feels like a sunburn during the process, he said. People can sit anywhere from 30 minutes for a tiny butterfly to several hours and multiple visits for the larger designs, such as a ''big sleeve'' - a tattoo that completely covers an arm.
Perhaps the hottest tattoos right now are the Japanese Kanji symbols, Tasha said.
They are small, aesthetically pleasing and say something, like peace, harmony or other such words people would feel comfortable wearing on their bodies for the rest of their lives.
''It is a big commitment,'' Corliss said.
For those not willing to take that plunge, the West End Salon in Provincetown offers henna tattoos, which last no longer than two weeks.
K.C. Myers can be reached at kcmyers@capecodonline.com.
(Published: June 5, 2005)
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Tattoo artist Mark Corliss works a design into the skin of Phil O'Donnell at the Spilt Milk tattoo parlor on Main Street in Hyannis.
