Growing up, Tara Conrad never thought she’d get tattoos. The older generation warned that tattoo parlors were no place for nice girls. But now the 50-year-old Scranton romance novelist and homemaker is part of the broadening market for tattoos.
She and her husband and adult children all have tattoos. “I think we’re really pretty normal people,” she said. The shops she uses are safe and fun, she said.
She hopes to stop by the 15th Electric City Tattoo Convention this weekend. More than 230 tattoo artists will bring their needles to the Hilton Scranton and Convention Center from Friday through Sunday.
“They’re from all over the place,” said Woody Wodock. He’s a partner at Electric City Tattoo in Scranton, which organizes the convention.
Tara Conrad has a tattoo of book covers. (COURTESY OF TARA CONRAD.)
People gather at the 2024 Electric City Tattoo Convention. CHRISTOPHER DOLAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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Tara Conrad has a tattoo of book covers. (COURTESY OF TARA CONRAD.)
Wodock said the market for tattoos has been expanding since the 1980s. Later, reality TV spread the fashion for tattoos, he said. “It’s become more socially acceptable,” he said.
Disney and the Army have both loosened their tattoo policies in recent years. The percentage of American adults with tattoos grew from around 21% in 2012 to more than 30% in 2019, according to Ipsos, a market research firm.
There is still a reputational risk. Around three in 10 people without tattoos say ink gives a more negative than positive impression, according to the Pew Research Center.
Women are more likely than men to have tattoos, the Pew Research Center found, something that would have once been shocking. More than half of women ages 18 to 49 have at least one tattoo.
Conrad organizes the Electric City Love Con romance readers convention. She invited Electric City Tattoo to last year’s event. “They were busy from beginning to end,” she said. Conrad got tattoo versions of her book covers.
Many styles of tattoos will be available at the convention. Right now, handwriting transfers are “super popular,” Wodock said. Customers bring in a sample of a loved one’s handwriting, sometimes from an old birthday card or driver’s license, as a template.
Tattoo prices start around $80 locally and go much higher, he said.
Contacting artists though the list on the website electriccitytattoo.com is the best way to start prepping for the convention, Wodock said. Some will require appointments. Others will take walk-in customers who bring their own designs or choose from “flash,” a preset menu of designs.
“If you’ve never gotten tattooed, you can check out what’s going on and see if it’s for you,” he said.
Wodock, 44, started getting tattoos 20 years ago. “It was just something that happened one day,” he said. As his tastes have changed, he likes some more than others.
His tattoos include a chicken, a cat, a panther and his son’s name on the figure of a sad cowboy. “I have one of Annie Oakley on the back of my leg that I really like,” he said.
Vendors will also offer piercings, tattoo-related merchandise, crafts and crystals.
If You Go
What: The Electric City Tattoo Convention will bring in over 230 tattoo artists.
When: Friday, 3-11 p.m.; Saturday, noon-11 p.m.; Sunday, noon-8 p.m.
Where: Hilton Scranton and Conference Center, 100 Adams Ave., Scranton.
Tickets: A one-day pass is $20 and a three-day pass is $50. Sales are cash only at the door. There are no advance ticket sales.