Tattooed America: The Rise Of Skin Art

At Dare Devil Tattoo on New York's Lower East Side, Glenda Gonzales is about to take the plunge.

"Actually there's no pain," she told Sunday Morning correspondent Serena Altschul. "I feel numb. Feels numb. Is that how it's supposed to feel?"

She's picked a bluebird for her back. It's her first tattoo.

"I probably decided when I was 18, but my parents wouldn't let me get it," she said.

Now 22, Glenda has made her move — and she has plenty of company. According to a study by the American Academy of Dermatology, 36 percent of Americans between 18 and 29 have a tattoo.

"I mean at this point it's just hugely popular, it's gone way farther than any of us would have envisioned from even 10 years ago," Michelle Myers, who has been tattooing for 15 years, said. "Some people define it as a trend, but I would say it's more like when women started wearing slacks. It wasn't a trend, it just became acceptable."

Across town, at the Last Rites Tattoo Theatre, Yousef O'Dey is also getting his first tattoo from artist Paul Booth. Booth is considered the master of the macabre. His dark and otherworldly images adorn rock stars and anyone with a taste for the night. His waiting list is two and a half years' long.

"I wanted something dark and very unique, and somebody who would understand when I say I want something that is on the edge of being repulsive," he said.

"Right now I'm just kind of rendering the face of the demon," Booth said. "I've always made it a point not to be spouting off, bragging about what I make. I can tell you that, you know, I charge a little bit more than my lawyer does."

Booth says he loves that tattoos require commitment.

"There's a validation in having your art appreciated to the level that someone is willing to wear it on their body for the rest of their life, is a really intense experience," he said.

What's unusual about the man making that lifelong commitment is not just the theme of his tattoo, but what Yousef, who lives in Wisconsin, does for a living. He's a cardiac surgeon.

"This is pretty unorthodox probably for any surgeon, let alone a cardiac surgeon, probably," he said.

According to a recent Harris poll, 16 percent of all Americans have at least one tattoo. CBS News caught up with some of them at a tattoo festival in suburban Chicago.

Diane Filpi is 42 years old and getting her fourth tattoo.

"I'm a nurse, very quiet person, I'm a classical pianist," she said.

Zach Sikora is studying to be a psychologist. His tattoo expresses his belief in God.

"Just kind of symbolizes my faith and having it on me kind of symbolizes me defeating sin, defeating, you know, the struggles in my life," he said.

Nancy Rocha is getting two butterflies which represent her two daughters.

"It's just a reminder of my children, and having the colors and the art on my skin forever, it's just amazing," she said.

According to Boston College sociology professor, Dr. Sharlene Hesse-Biber, the practice of tattooing goes back more than 5,000 years.

"We know about the presence of tattoos by the unearthing of various mummies, mummy sites in Egypt, for example, around 2,000 B.C.," said Hesse-Biber, who is an expert of body art.

The Bronze age man found frozen in the Italian Alps had 57 tattoos. In the 18th century, England's Captain James Cooke sailed to the South Pacific and found cultures rich in tattoos.

"He was in awe of the tattooing. He brought one of the Tahitian men back to King George's court," she said.

Tattoos caught on with sailors the world over, even Popeye. In 1891, New Yorker Samuel O'Reilly invented the modern tattooing machine, a machine still in use today - and more in demand than ever.

"We've made tattooing become fashionable," she said. "In our country, we associated it with prisoners, outcasts. And all of a sudden, it's become this kind of fashionable thing."

Celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp have propelled tattoos to popularity, along with professional athletes like Shaquille O'Neal and Dennis Rodman. And then there's TLC's "Miami Ink" which has brought tattooing into our living rooms.

The laser is changing the history of tattoos as now they can now come off. At New York's Tattoo Removal Center, dancer Hernan Lucero is having one erased.

"For professional reasons, I don't want it to affect my career or my work adversely. That's really the bottom line," he said. "I really like it, I just don't want to have it there."

Removing a tattoo typically takes 6 to 8 treatments, and without the right equipment it can be painful. Dr. Jeffrey Rand says big motivators for his patients are tattoos with names.

"Ex-wife, ex-husband, soon as the divorce papers are dry, the first thing that people do is come in and get their tattoo removed," Rand said. "A bad breakup, boyfriend, girlfriend, a similar reason."

But removing tattoos costs a lot of money.

"The tattoo cost about $125, 130 to put it on," Lucero said. "It's gonna cost me about 1,500, 1800 dollars [to get it off], like ten-fold. They say mistakes are costly, so this is a good example of it."

Will the tattooed third of today's youth someday see their tattoos as a mistake? Hard to say. But the reasons of the moment seem to outweigh the concerns of tomorrow.

"I often see young people, you know, sort of saying to their parents, 'I'm having a tattoo, mom and dad, 'cause you know, I'm grown up. I can make my own decisions,'" Hesse-Biber said.

That's a sentiment Gonzales agrees with.

"For so long I felt protected, too protected I guess by my parents, too protected by people around me," she said. "This is a way to reveal and to say, like, you know, it's my body, and I do what I think is right for me."

When it was all done, she was thrilled.

"Ah! It's so beautiful," she told her tattoo artist. "Oh my God, I can't wait to get another one! Thank you so much!"