Tattoo shop owners bask in newfound respect

      Tattoos are much more respectable these days.
      Tattoo artists are just about everywhere and people from all walks of life -- not just the stereotypical bikers, punks and sailors -- proudly show their ink.
      Celebrities like Roseanne, Cher and Johnny Depp have tattoos. Depp, who had "Winona Forever" drawn on his arm when he was dating Winona Ryder, has altered it to "Wino Forever" since their breakup.
      Beyond the rich and famous, there is no concrete information on how many people are tattooed. Despite its heightened visibility and popularity, tattooing is still, at heart, an underground art. Artists lose track of how many customers they have inked and the community of artists is growing fast.
      Sixteen years ago, there was one tattoo shop in Las Vegas -- Doc's Las Vegas Tattoo Co. Today, there are 14 shops throughout the valley.
      One of those, the Mighty Tattoo shop, opened two months ago and has proven tattoos have gone mainstream.
      No longer in back alleys, Mighty Tattoo is located on Nellis Boulevard and advertises to tourists, telling them to drive over and get inked.
      The new shop looks cleaner than some restaurants and customers are invited to peruse the hundreds of "flash," or tattoo designs, displayed.
      "Everybody gets tattooed now: doctors, lawyers, teachers," said Bob Villard, who has been tattooing for the last 15 years and co-owns the Mighty with his partner, Jim Tubbs. "We're part of the Las Vegas experience. People aren't intimidated by this place. It's cleaner than a hospital."
      Tattoo seekers in the '90s can also check out the shop's designs on its World Wide Web site (http://soft.net/tattoo), which has received about 400 "hits" in the last month.
      Pinpointing tattoo business earnings can be difficult because it's conducted primarily in cash. Villard charges $150 an hour and posts each tattoo's cost in his shop.
      More intriguing than the growth of the industry is the question of why people get tattooed.
      Tattooing has been around for thousands of years. For many tribes it served as a sign of initiation into adulthood, or for decorative purposes.
      Individuals get tattooed to remember a special event or a loved one, to be anti-social, or just for the heck of it.
      "I remember the temporary tattoos you used to get in Cracker Jacks," said Gina Whoolin, 22, who has a colorful dolphin tattooed on her left shoulder. "They can make it look so realistic now, and I always wanted to get one, so I did.
      "It was like a bunch of cactus needles on the end of an electric toothbrush. There's this constant buzzing as the needles pierce your skin for hours."
      Then she shrugged and said, "No big."
      In addition to the industry's growth, there have been changes in technique, equipment and the safety precautions taken by artists. Artists used to think deeper ink helped a tattoo last longer. But that meant getting into larger capillaries, which moved the ink around.
      Today, the process is probably half as painful as it used to be -- and, because of AIDS awareness, quite a bit safer.
      "There's very little bleeding," Villard said. "We wear gloves. I'm not really worried about it."
      HIV can be transmitted through shared needles. Tattooing involves needles, but disposable needles are the industry standard.
      According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, there are no documented cases of HIV transmission through tattooing.
      Not that there aren't other health risks associated with skin art.
      "There's a risk of hepatitis development if the places aren't very clean," said Dr. Johnnie Woodson of Woodson Dermatology, 2685 S. Rainbow Blvd., where he performs tattoo removal. "It's very rare, but someone might have a vasovagal reaction, where people get very nervous, excited and blood rushes from their head to their feet.
      "Also, some have had allergies to the ink."
      Tattoo removal is one option for various problems, but the procedure can be expensive. The going rate is between $200 and $500 per treatment.
      "People come to me to remove tattoos so they can put another one on," Woodson said. "There's a couple of new lasers out that do a good job. In 95 percent of the cases, the color change (lightening of the skin) comes back to normal.
      "For the average tattoo, it takes four to six treatments to remove. And we like the patient to wait four to six weeks between treatments so there's less chance of scarring."
      Mighty's Villard said he likes the newfound respectability of tattoos, and that recent improvements have taken away a lot of the fear in getting a tattoo.
      But there are still two areas of the body he won't tattoo: faces and male genitalia.
      Even though Villard's shop shows a modern sensibility, there's still a bit of the old tattoo rebel showing.
      There's a sign on the shop's front door that reads: "Shirts and shoes required, bras and panties optional."