Tattoo Lovers Wear Heart on Sleeve and Skin

John Larotonda had already said it with flowers.

And chocolate.

And balloon bouquets.

Once, he even said it with a diamond ring.

But lest there be any doubt about the depths of his love for his girlfriend, 16-year-old Paula Lavear, Larotonda decided to declare his dedication in a slightly different way.

This time, he decided to say it with skin.

“I’ve always wanted this tattoo, and this just seemed like the right one to get,” said Larotonda, 18, as he bared his shoulder on a recent afternoon to get his first tattoo--a red heart with the name “Paula” written in ornate letters through the middle. “Now everyone will know how I feel about her,” he said with a grin.

Larotonda isn’t the only one who has been moved by love into a permanent declaration of his feelings. When pierced by Cupid’s arrow, many tattoo store owners say, an increasing number of men and women are seeking out the tattooer’s needle as well.

“Business increases around Valentine’s Day. That’s when we’ll start doing a lot more hearts and names,” said Colin Kaas, owner of Sins & Skins, a tattoo store in Van Nuys that also sells lingerie and leather garments.

“Tattoos are getting more mainstream, and a lot more people are getting them,” Kaas said. “We’ve had everyone from bikers and musicians, to house wives and doctors and a bank president.”

To accommodate the change in clientele, the store now accepts American Express cards.

At the World Famous Emporium of Tattoos in Van Nuys, the trend appears to be much the same.

“A lot more people come in and want names on them, including a lot of boyfriends and girlfriends, and women who want the names of their husbands,” said the store’s owner, who identified himself only as California Ralph.

“Not too long ago,” he said, “a couple came in here and they both wanted a tattoo to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. We get all kinds.”

There are those, too, who are not so much smitten by love as they are stunned by it.

“I can’t believe how many men come in after their wives or girlfriends have left them, and then they tattoo her name on in the hopes that she’ll come back again,” California Ralph said. “It’s sad. I always think, ‘Why would you want to put her name on if she’s gone?’ ”

Not everyone who considers getting a tattoo d’amour ends up going through with it, however. One woman, who works as a paralegal in Los Angeles and asked not to be identified, said she had an affair with a lawyer in her office. After several weeks, she said, he wanted them both to be tattooed on discrete parts of their anatomies with the number 517.

“It was the hotel room where we were first together,” she said. “He wanted us always to remember it.”

The lawyer turned out to be married, though, and had no intention of leaving his wife. “Needless to say,” the woman said, “that kind of killed the idea of a tattoo.”

Valerie Fleming, a 28-year-old secretary in Tarzana who got married on Valentine’s Day last year, said she is still debating whether to give in to her husband’s wishes and get a tattoo that only he would be able to see.

“He wants me to get a tattoo right here that says ‘Property of Philip,’ ” Fleming said, patting the back pocket of her pants. “It’s not that I’m afraid that we’d split up or anything, and then I’d be left with it. I’m just afraid of the pain.”

While it’s true that breaking up may be hard to do, getting rid of a tattoo can be even harder. And when the ink lasts longer than the relationship, tattoo owners say, most people decide against trying to have them removed. Instead, they often go in for some more creative designs.

“A big part of what we do here is covering up names. I specialize in this,” said Doug Stinnett, owner of the Tattoo Depot in Pacoima. “One person had three names and I made it into a bird. I’m getting ready to change some initials into a dragon. You get a lot of people who have been married a long time and then they get a divorce, and then they want to get rid of the tattoo.”

Just as tattoo choice differs between men and women--store owners say that women tend to get more flowers and cupids and men choose more masculine symbols such as eagles and snakes--their styles of covering up ill-fated tattoos also vary.

“With women, when the relationship is over, the man’s name always gets changed into a butterfly or a rose,” said California Ralph. “But men don’t do it that way. They’ll put a black rose over it so the name still shows, or a void stamp over the name.

“Women try to hide that it was there, but men try to say in definite terms with the new tattoo that it is over.”

Lavear, who has no problem with her boyfriend of a year wearing his heart on his sleeve--or his shoulder, for that matter--said she isn’t concerned about what would happen if they ever broke up. “As long as he doesn’t leave me, he’ll be fine,” she said. “And even if he does,” she said, “he’s still stuck with me.”

Which just goes to prove what California Ralph says he always tells his customers.

“Tattoos are forever, but love isn’t always.”