I’m two minutes into my chat with celebrity tattoo artist Jonathan “JonBoy” Valena in his new studio, located right inside the lobby of the Dream Downtown Hotel in the Meatpacking District, when there’s a knock on the door. It’s a woman, with a martini in hand, asking about appointments.

“I left my husband and son upstairs,” she says before admitting she doesn’t have any tattoos. She asks if he’s good at doing anything small or minimalistic. He jokingly tells her to watch Season 3, Episode 9 of The Kardashians. (In this episode, he gives Kim her secret lip ink after she hosts SNL .) She jots down his info, spills a bit of her drink on the floor, and says she’ll “be back” before leaving New York.

It’s a fleeting interaction, but it captures a rising trend perfectly: Body art is

See Full Page