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Once despised and even banned, tattoos are now becoming an accepted part of modern American culture

Date published: 4/21/2006

By MICHAEL ZITZ

Not that long ago, the sign at the bar at Central Park said "No tattoos."

On a recent night, it said, "Tattoo contest."

There was controversy in Fredericksburg in 2000 when signs appeared outside the Shark Club at Central Park banning patrons with exposed tattoos. That, some insisted, was elitist, and even un-American.

Jessica Perrotte of King George County was nine months pregnant. But she was so upset that she picketed the Uptown-area restaurant on a sweltering July day to protest what she saw as discrimination--then went into the hospital for a C-section delivery the next day.

"It was," she said, " a matter of principle."

Fast-forward nearly half a dozen years and she's literally gone from outsider to insider.

This month, Perrotte was part of a sizable crowd inside Uncle Sam's, the restaurant and bar that replaced the Shark Club, for a tattoo contest.

There, she received only praise from contest-goers as she proudly showed off ink she's done on herself as she works toward becoming a professional tattoo artist.

"Pain is only a sensation," she sniffed matter-of-factly about tattooing her own thighs.

Learning to deal with pain is "part of the joy of getting tattoos," she said. "Mind over matter. You master that."

The tattoo contest at Uncle Sam's reflects cultural change that is easing the pain of past prejudice against those with tattoos, Perrotte and others said.

"It's a step forward," said Wes Moore, who runs the Tattoo U parlor downtown.

The owners of the Shark Club weren't the only ones concerned about tattoos six years ago. That spring, the opening of the downtown tattoo parlor Alluring Body Creations drew complaints from Fredericksburg City Councilmen George Van Sant and J. Richard Garnett Jr.

"This type of business doesn't accord with my ideal goals for downtown Fredericksburg," Van Sant said at a May 2000 meeting.

Letitia Beksha, a 34-year-old mother of three who owned the studio, responded: "We're just regular people. We have dogs and kids and cookouts. We go to church every Sunday morning."

Van Sant later apologized, saying that as a young Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in 1945, "I came within minutes of getting a tattoo myself."

Date published: 4/21/2006