A woman staying at the Radisson in Green Tree for a wedding walked through the wild-looking crowd at a tattoo convention in the hotel's ballroom yesterday and asked whether the tattoo artists were from across the nation. It was actually an international event -- one artist was from Australia -- but the reach may have been even greater than that.

"There are some people who are not from Earth," answered Jason Hendershott of Mithra Tattoo Supply Co. in Los Angeles. "It's intergalactic."

More than 2,500 people were expected over the Halloween weekend at Meeting of the Marked, a convention where visitors could visit 65 tattoo vendors and sit for new tattoos, artists could attend seminars on safety, materials and technique, and where elaborate tattoo contests were held nightly.

Long an anti-establishment symbol, tattoos entered the mainstream at least a decade ago. But they remain otherworldly in one significant way: It is the rare industry that is reportedly doing just fine despite the financial crisis.

"We're not feeling the recession at all. Tattoos are all over TV and sports, and people are still into getting them," said Mandy Fabrizi, an apprentice at Chrome Gardens tattoos in Gettysburg. The lead artist at her shop, Stacy McCleaf, is booked solid into January, traditionally a slow tattoo time on the East Coast (since skin is covered up for the winter).

"People are always going to spend money on something they want rather than something they need," said Tim Azinger of Pinnacle Tattoo in Dormont, the convention's founder.

When Mr. Azinger staged the first convention 17 years ago, he said, tattoos were still seen in a less than positive light, as something for sailors and bikers. His own interest was piqued by an uncle who was in the Navy, who could make a mermaid tattooed on his fingers dance.

Interest boomed in the mid-1990s and tattoos remain ubiquitous -- especially across professional sports and Hollywood red carpets, where they're openly displayed by Angelina Jolie, Megan Fox and other starlets. Regular folks also feel freer to show them these days, said Mr. Hendershott, who used to work in the buttoned-down world of California real estate.

"You're seeing them below the elbows more and more," he said.

The boom in interest has also meant a spike in small-scale work, usually of small symbols or the names of loved ones, where the going rate is $50 per hour. More serious tattoo aficionados -- like those at Meeting of the Marked -- are used to paying artists $150 or more hourly. Some of those getting intricate work yesterday met with the artists months in advance.

Most of the convention-goers had multiple tattoos, but there was the occasional one with bare skin, such as Douglas Salkeld of Ebensburg. The 22-year-old has had the go-ahead from his mother since age 8 to eventually get a tattoo but could never decide on a design. After researching on the Internet, he finally decided to get one yesterday.

He came bare-skinned but left with a black tribal pattern on the back of his right arm.

"It went pretty well. Though it is bleeding a lot, as you can see," he said, his swollen, red arm wrapped in clear plastic. On a scale of 1 to 10, he said the pain was an 8. "It wasn't quite like going to the dentist when you're a 6-year-old -- freaking out -- but it was an experience."

It is also addictive. Mr. Salkeld, an Army National Guard private scheduled for a tour in Afghanistan in three months, was already going over designs for a similar tribal tattoo along his left arm.

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