Fans of body art attend tattoo festivals and conventions across the US

 The hobby of collecting tattoos has exploded into the mainstream of society in the US with tattoo conventions and festivals held year-round across the country. Above, artist Greg French works on his client, Brittany Keylon at the Hampton Roads Tattoo Festival in Virginia. Brittany has recently separated from her husband, overcame a battle with cancer and the death of her father. She considers Greg her "therapist" during their sessions and says that each piece of work done on her represents her life story.

A group of women from an adjacent quilting fair sneak into the National Tattoo Association Convention in Cincinnati to take a picture of a heavily-tattooed convention-goer in Ohio.

 Keisha Holcomb shows the Mom and Dad tattoos she had applied to her feet as she participates in the National Tattoo Association Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio

A tattoo artist works on the shoulder of a client at the Hampton Roads Tattoo Festival in Virginia

 A tattooed participant in the Hampton Roads Tattoo Festival holds her baby in Virginia

 A visitor shows off his neck tattoo at the Hampton Roads Tattoo Festival in Virginia

A female full-body tattoo contestant is judged during the National Tattoo Association Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio

   Keisha Holcomb (2nd R), 31, from Fort Collins, Colorado, waits in line to have her tattoos judged in a contest during the National Tattoo Association Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. Holcomb, the product of a military family upbringing, was 16 when she got her first tattoo and is now a budding tattoo artist herself. She wants to have a full-body tattoo eventually, with the exception of her hands, throat and head. Try to keep it classy, she says.

Male full-body tattoo contestants including Jeff Bitting (R) wait in line to be judged at the National Tattoo Association Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. In his 33 years of getting tattoos, Bitting says he has had about 500 hours of work and will complete his other leg in his bid to win more full-body contests.

 Shannon Toohey, 23, works on one of her clients during the National Tattoo Association Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. Toohey, who has been surrounded by tattoo artists during most of her young life, drew her first tattoo on her mother at the age of ten and now works at a tattoo shop on Long Island, New York.

 Artist Sean Karn applies a tattoo of Captain America on the leg of Ron Raucci during the Hampton Roads Tattoo Festival in Virginia. The tattoo, completed from start to finish in just one five-and-a-half hour session, won the prestigious tattoo of the day prize at the festival.

A tattoo artist works on the head of a client during the second annual Hampton Roads Tattoo Festival in Virginia

 Robert Seibert, 62, from Burlington, Kentucky, shows off his full body of tattoos, including the tribal-inspired designs he has accumulated over 40 years, during the National Tattoo Association Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio.

 Of his art, Seibert says, I'm one of the people that can't have a favorite tattoo, each is like a certain phase of my life. To me it's a picture history of what I have gone through, through the years.

 A contestant has her tattoos judged at the National Tattoo Association Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio

 David Billings, from Abingdon, Maryland, wears a full-back tattoo featuring all nine members of his favorite band, Slipknot, as a woman admires the art at the Hampton Roads Tattoo Festival in Virginia. Billings says he has had over 150 hours of tattoo work done over a 12 year period, now covering over half his body. He says tattoos are now as mainstream as Coca Cola.