Sunshine brings out the tattoos

It's summer, and that means it's tattoo season, the best time of the year to show off — or take in — all that sexy ink.

But forget the same old now-standard Asian characters or tribal bands. These days, the tatted set is bringing a little more forethought and artistic value to the otherwise youthful and impetuous world of inking.

"In the past three years, everyone's been going crazy for custom work," said Freddie Wadsworth, a 24-year-old tattoo artist at Ric's Tattoo Studio in Lock Haven, Pa.

"The days of walking into a street shop and picking the hearts or the star designs off the wall are numbered. It's all about the intricate, custom work that clients help design."

Other growing favorites: Asian-inspired art, new-school renderings of old-school favorites like anchors, ships and swallows, white-ink tattoos like Lindsay Lohan's "breathe" script on her wrist, and "texttoos," tattoos of phrases etched across body parts in simple fonts.

A shared experience

Take Maureen Wyse, a 23-year-old magazine editor now living in Brooklyn, N.Y., who sports an estimated $10,000 worth of fine art all over her body.

Wyse, who's from Seattle, and her best friend, Brandie Bailey, from Vancouver, made a "totally scandalous" decision to get the words "Northwest" tattooed on the inside of their right, middle fingers before boarding a plane and heading to their adopted home in New York City, she said.

Five months later, in May 2005, Bailey was struck and killed by a trash truck while riding her bike.

"It was already so meaningful," said Wyse of her scripted tattoo. "I remember the expression on her face, comparing stories about how our tattoos were healing. It was this fun and exciting thing we shared that now just has so much more meaning."

Changes in business

Custom tattoos, often portraits or renderings of a personal object or symbol, almost always have deep meaning to their owners.

Michelle Myles, owner of FunCity and DareDevil tattoo shops in New York, where 90 percent of the business is custom tattoos, says better artists mean better tattoos these days.

"People are a little bit informed about tattoos, they understand you can go in and have something that you want drawn up, and they understand the skill level has dramatically improved from years ago," she said.

Surprisingly, it usually doesn't cost more for a tattoo artist to come up with a custom tattoo, but the price may increase depending on its complexity since most tattoo parlors operate on a per-hour basis.

Designs that glow or scar

For those who are private about tattoos, but still want to be able to easily show them off to the right crowd, there is now the option of glow-in-the-dark designs.

Kimberly Mulder, of Salt Lake City, wanted to have "slave bracelets" tattooed on each of her wrists, but feared such a bold move wouldn't fly in her office.

Then, about a year ago, the customer-service rep discovered the ultraviolet tattoo ink that is nearly invisible to the naked eye, but glows a brilliant, bluish hew when placed under a black light.

"With the UV tattoo, I'm not offending anyone at work. I'm not shoving it in anyone's faces. I can say 'This is who I am' and don't have to worry what people will think."

Some, like Kate Leroux, a 32-year-old stay-at-home parent, are taking the art to new levels, opting for "inkless tattoos," where the needle stabs at the skin without any ink. The result is a raised, off-color scar, not always permanent.

"I was interested in the idea of the experience of a tattoo, but not necessarily the idea of permanence," said Leroux, who initially had difficulty finding a tattoo artist to etch her without ink. "I also think it's more beautiful than ink."