'People aren't afraid to have tattoos' anymore. Cincinnatians flock to Tattoo Festival to see the...

Thousands are expected to see some of the world's best tattoo artists at the Duke Energy Center.
Tattoo artists have come from as far away as Italy and Poland to design, ink, and show off their work for this weekend’s Cincinnati Tattoo Arts Convention.

Organizer and promoter Troy Timpel, who bills himself as a “punk rock skateboard kid who got his first tattoo when he turned 18,” says tattooing has just exploded in popularity in the last decade. He says one in three Americans has one.

As Timpel shows WVXU around at the Duke Energy Convention Center, he explains tattoos are as personal as people themselves, “to remember places, people and things or just a really rad cool skull!”

“One of the newer tattoo styles would be sacred geometry, dot work, black work. There are a lot of artists,” he explains, “that are looking at different textures to really make fantastic artwork.”