For 57-year-old Levant resident Steve Doddy, attending the Down East Tattoo Show has become a yearly tradition that includes a group of friends from Canada, a birthday party and searching for the perfect ink.

“I was 55 when I got my first tattoo,” he said Saturday while standing in the middle of the show surrounded by tattoo artists applying ink. “I always thought about it, but never dared to” get one.

Doddy is part of a growing trend among people his age who have decided to throw out stereotypes and get ink done. But as tattoos have become more acceptable, growing numbers of “nontraditional” clients are getting inked, artists at the 17th annual Down East Tattoo Show said.

At the show, held over the weekend at the Bangor Elks Lodge on the Odlin Road, people of all ages and both genders were looking for tattoos, and a number of them were between the ages of 40 and 60.

“There was a time, years ago, where it was only sailors or bikers – now it’s moms,” said Dan “The Hand” Shaw of Rockland, who describes himself as a master body piercer. “About 30 percent are moms. Now, it’s everyone from every walk of life.”

Jeanette Marchaud, 44, of Merrimack, N.H., agreed. She hid her tattoos from her parents for years, but now proudly displays them, she said.

“Years ago it wasn’t acceptable for women to have showing tattoos,” she said. Nowadays, “my whole body is done. I have tattoos from my toes to my ear.”

The annual show, which is traditionally held at the Elks Club, has always been a place for tattoo collectors to show off their artwork, and this year participants could see everything from family portraits to tribal ink to colorful oriental dragons, and there was even a sailor at the show getting a tattoo of Popeye.

Maurice Cornell, 19, is from Minnesota but is a U.S. Navy sailor living in Bath with his wife, Aili, who is 20. Both have several tattoos and have matching Japanese eternity symbols tattooed to their backs.

When asked why her husband decided to get Popeye, Aili Cornell said, “It’s Popeye the sailor man. Toot. Toot.”

The couple traveled to Bangor just for the tattoo show.

The annual event had around 30 vendors, who spent the weekend applying ink to patrons, piercing body parts and selling merchandise. This year’s show had a 1950s theme, and many of the artists and their helpers were dressed to suit the part – in poodle skirts, fuzzy sweaters and bobby socks.

“It’s addicting,” Doddy said of his tattoos, and added that he has “a couple” of tattoos and is looking for the perfect image that includes a guitar, and maybe an Irish theme, to add to his collection.

“I come every year,” he said.

nricker@bangordailynews.net

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