The first San Jose International Tattoo Convention drew scores of tattoo artists and hundreds of people looking for tattoos.

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The artists ranged from members of the Christian Tattoo Association to specialists in more traditional subjects like scantily clad women and skulls.

"We are not saints -- or demons," C.W. Eldridge, a tattoo artist and archivist, told the San Jose Mercury News. "We're just people."

The range of tattoo artists gave a sense of tattoo history. Bill Salmon and Dean Dennis of San Francisco, now elder statesmen in the business, boasted of being taught by Lyle Tuttle, who did Janis Joplin's tattoos.

The customers also covered a wide range, from black-clad Goths and leather-clad bikers, to people such as David Oropeza, a Los Angeles truck driver whose tattoos include portraits of his wife and grandchildren.