LADIES FIRST Ronita Yvarra, owner of soon-to-close New Creation Tattoo, notices that women are often more comfortable being tattooed by her than by a man, and one of her specialties is fairy artwork. “People assume a guy runs the business,” Yvarra said. “I walk out all big and ballsy, and I’m happy to surprise them that way.” PHOTO BY TOM ANGEL

After the poking: To care for a just-inked tattoo, wash gently with water and antibacterial soap, pat--don’t rub--it dry and use a thin layer of ointment such as Bacitracin or A & D. Don’t soak the tattoo in water, keep it out of the sun, and for God’s sake don’t pick those scabs.

Ronita Yvarra, owner of New Creation Tattoo, may seem tough with her confident tone and artistic tattoos covering much of her body. But, like any mom, she softens and beams with pride when she talks about her kids.

One of her two sons, at age 20, last Christmas decided to get his first tattoo--a Spider-Man symbol on his arm. Yvarra did the honors. “I was very proud to be able to do it,” she said. Her 25-year-old, the “rebel,” is also well-loved but ended up a computer geek with no desire for body art.

For tattoo artists and the clients they serve, body art can become a way of life. And the Chico tattoo scene mirrors that of the nation at large: artistic, trendy and here to stay.

People with tattoos fall into a couple of categories: “collectors,” who have many tattoos, often with the ultimate goal of covering their entire body, and those who just want one small tattoo in a discreet location.

Kip Delaney, who opened Victory Tattoo on Mangrove Avenue in 2001, acknowledges that he probably falls into the category of collector. He long ago lost track of how many designs he has inked across his body.

“I never envisioned myself with so many tattoos, but it’s kind of an evolving thing.”

Yvarra points to a spot on her ankle, about 3 inches of bare skin between her tattooed foot and calf. “I don’t have any sentimental tattoos,” she said. “Now I’m going for coverage and space.”

Tattoos are no longer the domain of sailors, bikers and the military. Middle-class college girls are as likely to have a tiny tattoo on the smalls of their back as they are to pledge a sorority or wear a tennis skirt.

“It’s not really stereotypical anymore,” Delaney said. “If anything, it’s getting so mainstream that I feel like the bottom is going to drop out.”

“It’s like that Dr. Seuss book, The Sneetches, where everyone started getting stars on their bellies,” he said. “People [used to be] doing it to be different.”

Some estimates tab the number of tattoo shops nationally at 4,000, with one in seven Americans having one or more tattoos.

Tattoos as body art date back to early Egyptian times and perhaps even earlier. Ancient Greeks, Germans and Britons are also said to have decorated their bodies with imbedded inks. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Westerners came to circuses and fairs to view the marked skin of “exotic” natives of the South Pacific.

In some cultures, tattooing has a spiritual component, marking a rite of passage or status in a tribe. In the far East, Delaney said, a person may go to a Japanese master for a tattoo--perhaps of a dragon or koi fish--and see himself as “giving” his skin over to the artist.

But in the West it’s usually just for the memories.

Matt Ellington, a 23-year-old economics major at Chico State University, has a tattooed armband resembling fragmented barbed wire on his left arm. “I only regret that I did not have it wrap all the way around my arm,” he said.

His friend did the two-hour tattoo job for free because he needed the hours for practice.

But all were not happy. When Ellington’s parents heard of this new addition to his arm they had no real objections. But his grandfather continues to give him grief about the whole thing, asking, “What is that? What do you call that crap on your arm?”

Ellington also is not worried about what people will think of his tattoo in 30 years. “I believe that by that time we will live in a much more tolerant society.”

Delaney said that, while tattoos have gotten bigger over the years, they’ve paradoxically gotten more discreet.

“Generally, when people come in they say, ‘I want to get a tattoo but I want to be able to cover it.” Bottom line, Delaney said, “I don’t want to ruin anybody’s life job-wise or anything like that.”

Sometimes, people will find that a visible, especially controversial tattoo can impede their ability to get a job.

According to dermatologists, trouble getting a job is a common reason people give for wanting to remove tattoos--especially controversial ones--on their hands, faces or necks.

Scott Huber, a real estate agent and Chico school board member, gets some comments about a tattoo on his hand, but doesn’t feel the small moon and stars compromise his professionalism.

“There are times when I am sensitive to someone looking at it when I am at a business meeting. It’s a part of who I am, I guess,” he said. “I figure, take me as I am, and if not, go see somebody else. I give people credit for at least giving somebody the benefit of the doubt.”

Huber, now 47, got the tattoo when he was 17. “I wanted to be the only kid in my high school with one. I was sort of a lone rebel,” he said. “My dad didn’t talk to me for about a month afterward.”

But Huber said he has no regrets and went on to get a tattoo of a sun ("the yin and yang with the moon on my left hand") on his right foot and, just a couple of years ago, a calla lily on his chest, which has “a lot of deep meaning--too deep for me to go into here.” He might get another some day, Huber said, “if the mood were to strike me.”

Terri Elliott, a professor of philosophy at Chico State University, describes her tattoos as being her own evolutionary art representing who she is and who she has become.

The Hegelian dialectic is an idealistic concept of a universal mind that, through evolution and experience, seeks to arrive at the highest level of self-awareness and freedom. This is the basic idea behind the art portrayed on her right and left forearms, which consists of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (E=MC2) and the complete one-word sentence, “Breathe.”

Although Elliott is not the type of person who would fail to remember her ideals, she is constantly reminded of who she is and who she would like to become every time she glances at her wrists.