Are tattoos for you, or do you shrink from the ink?

    There’s a tattoo convention in Philadelphia this weekend, but you may never know it. Seems like everyone has a tattoo these days. Are tattoos your nightmare as a parent? Or are you a fan of getting inked? Tell us about it.

    Through this weekend, tattoo artists, equipment vendors, burlesque performers, and hordes and droves of inked fans will converge at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

    Once again the Tattoo Arts Convention has rolled into town, but you might not be able to tell walking around Center City. Seems like everyone has a tattoo these days.

    Think you’ll stop by, or is it not foryou? Tell us in the comments below.

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    Getting a tattoo was at one time seen by the mainstream as an anti-social behavior — or something for sailors and soldiers. In recent decades it’s been upgraded to merely a sign of rebellion and, later, a trendy fashion statement. In some circles tattoos still have a naughty allure, but increasingly tattoos are the mainstream as getting inked becomes more common and more accepted.

    A CBS News report from a few years back quoted research finding that 23 percent of college students and 36 percent of Americans 18- to 29-year-olds have tattoos. And employers are not as reticent to hire someone with a forearm full of roses and skulls as they used to be.

    Still, some of us may not be ready to accept the trend. Are tattoos your nightmare as a parent (“Can I get a tattoo, Mom and Dad?”), or do you think it’s no big deal?

    If you were to take the plunge, what would you get — and were would you get it? (Do you already have one? Show it to us!)

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