If you're of a certain age, chances are you'll remember when "Tattoo" would make you think of that little guy of the same name on Fantasy Island who yelled "The plane, the plane!" or the title of that deliciously creepy 1981 thriller starring Bruce Dern as a deranged tattoo artist so obsessed with a model (Maud Adams) he forcibly uses her body as a canvas.

This weekend's inaugural Capital City Tattoo Convention at Pearkes Arena dispels such stereotypes. A hotbed of diversity with flair to spare, it shows how what once seemed the exclusive domain of sailors and convicts -- has gone mainstream.

Is there anyone in Victoria who doesn't have a tattoo? we wondered while wandering past booths showcasing the wares of body art culture firms like Blank Generation, Permanent Record, Freakshow Choppers and Absolute Underground, where filmmaker Ira Hunter (Zombie Jesus) was about to screen clips from his punk and metal publication's online TV series.

"The industry's at an all-time high and this city per capita has a lot of shops and artists in general," said Ascension Studios' Shawn Steinberg, as Airbourne's Diamond in the Rough blared in the background.

"This is the perfect way to show people we're like everybody else. I have a wife, a mortgage, a family, everything."

Hotties and notties, moms and dads with little ones in tow and more hardcore enthusiasts clad in black T-shirts, leather jackets and knee-high boots happily co-existed while tattoo artists strutted their stuff at stations also featuring fashions, gleaming customized motorcycles and, at the donated AIDS Vancouver Island table, trinkets and literature on safe sex.

"We're the beer bitches!" laughed an attractive young woman slinging Vancouver Island Lager in the beer garden while rock group Fineas Gage ripped into a noontime set. Nearby, children received temporary tattoos at the Zone booth.

Marilise Blignaut, 22, seized the chance to have a Portuguese Man of War tattooed on her torso.

"Once you get your first tattoo it becomes an addiction," said the Camosun College nursing student who got her first one at age 14. "A lot of people get art done because it means something to them, and it's nice that it's on your body forever."

She shows off other inky memorials, including one to a beloved late uncle, another to Hank, her first car, and one that features her favourite Oscar Wilde quote: "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."

Elana Backman said she felt right at home as she took a break from pushing her grandson Kaden, 2, in a stroller.

"I have three boys and they all have tattoos," she said. "It's an expression to me -- of art, or memories."

Her son, Mark, 51, is a relative newcomer to the tattoo craze.

Part of his motivation, he said, was because his father's ex-wife took his art collection when they divorced in the mid-1970s.

"So I figured what is permanently on my body stays with me no matter what," smiled Mark, who also just took up skydiving.

"It's Manopause," quipped mom.

Capital City Tattoo Convention continues today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.