Inside a small shop in Dublin’s Fleet Street, a queue of teenagers wait patiently in line. A few more loiter outside, peering in the window every now and then to see if they will be served soon. The crowd is mostly female and they chat animatedly among themselves. For some it is their first time here, others know what to expect and are content to bide their time till their turn comes.

The shop in question could be a hairdresser or a tanning centre. Instead it is a tattoo studio, the latest in a long line to open in Dublin in recent years.

The Golden Cat in Fleet Street, Temple Bar has been in operation since February 2006. Set up by Vicki and her partner Jay, the shop is flourishing with steady lines of young customers frequenting the shop most weekends. Vicki served her apprenticeship in another tattoo studio in town and has 17 years’ experience of creating and engraving artwork onto people’s skin.

On Saturdays, Vicki works in tandem with Isabelle and they are probably the only two female artists working together in the city’s tattoo studios.

Today, one of the shop’s customers is getting a rose planted on her left foot. Suzanne already has a small tattoo on her leg and is not concerned about the prospect of a high-powered needle carving into her flesh. Vicki consults with Suzanne about the style and shape of the rose. Once she is happy with the final artwork, she allows Vicki to proceed with the tattoo.

Vicki begins by tracing the outline of the rose on Suzanne’s skin. Colouring and shading comes later.

Vicki uses a high-powered machine, which looks like a cross between a dentist’s drill and a spray gun. Five needles can be accommodated inside a single instrument but in this instance, Vicki uses a device which drives three needles in and out of the skin in rapid succession, sometimes up to 100 times a second.

A lot of people associate tattoos with pain, but Suzanne says she doesn’t feel anything too uncomfortable. She describes the sensation as “no worse than shaving!”

The whole process takes about 45 minutes and Suzanne walks away delighted with the result. Before she departs, Vicki applies some soothing cream to the raw tattoo, and then puts on a dressing, which has to be kept in place for a few hours to allow time for the pores on the skin to close up. Every customer who receives a tattoo also goes away from the shop with specific instructions on how to keep the tattoo clean and free from infection.

In the other chair, Isabelle is seeing to the skin of a teenage girl, who has brought quite a few of her friends and family with her for support. The girl doesn’t flinch as Isabelle applies a small wing motif to the centre of her lower back.

As soon as she is done, another girl immediately takes her place and orders a similar tattoo in the same part of her anatomy. The tattoo on the lower back, sometimes disparagingly referred to as a ‘tramp stamp’ is now very much de rigueur for many women. When high profile film actors and pop stars started wearing them, it didn’t take long for the power of global media to take effect and girls around the world to beat a path to their nearest tattoo studio. On a sunny day in Dublin, you don’t have to look far to see girls showing off their skin designs, lying just above their derrieres.

Later on in The Golden Cat, Isabelle takes care of her first male customer of the day. Brian is a tattoo virgin and is nervous about facing the needle. He chooses a five-point star from the studio’s tattoo portfolio. Once he decides on the exact size and location of the star on his shoulder, he allows Isabelle to begin her work. The pain is a little bit hard to bear for Brian and he needs the firm grip of his girlfriend’s hand to guide him through the procedure.

Isabelle herself is a walking advertisement for tattoos with one lower arm covered by a fire design (applied by Vicki). She also has a large panther on her shoulder. Her piece de resistance however is a depiction of the Little Red Riding Hood story complete with a large wolf and goblins in the forest, all of which completely covers her back.

As the clientele of The Golden Cat or any other tattoo studios proves, tattoos have long since passed from the realm of sailors, stevedores and borstal boys. Nowadays, there is no class or income divide among tattoo wearers. Professional classes have taken to tattoos just as much as the people from working-class backgrounds. Our new found confidence as a nation is reflected in the body art of our young tiger cubs. It is not just the sheer number of people now wearing tattoos; it is the size and style of the designs that has changed dramatically too.

Previously tattoos would amount to nothing more than a simple ‘Mum & Dad’ or a small illustration of a cross or tricolour. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to witness limbs covered with the most intricate and elaborate patterns. In the past, people would be content to take their designs from the books and the drawings in the tattoo studios. Now artists are finding that people are walking in with their own ideas of what they want to wear. Celtic designs are hugely popular as is Chinese lettering.

Trends come and go of course, but an increasing favourite among wearers is memorial tattoos. The death of someone close can now be applied to someone’s skin as easily as it is etched onto their memory.

Whether they form part of a rites-of- passage for teenagers, an initiation ceremony for gang members or simply an accessory for fashionable young folk, tattoos are now leaving their mark on all kinds of Irish people.