(CBS) 
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!"

©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Back To Top