Shopping for Shoes, Jeans ... and Tattoos?

Dec. 3, 2008— -- It's that time of year. It's time to see Santa, time to shop for holiday bargains, time to get ... a tattoo.

Now, at one New Jersey mall, shoppers can do all three in one stop. Tattoo Nation recently opened at the Willowbrook Mall, just 200 feet from Bloomingdales.

"Our goal is to certainly reach [a] minimum 100 locations," Tattoo Nation founder Heath Wolfson said. "Very similar to what Starbucks did for coffee, we're looking to do for tattoos."

With one store already operating and 10 more on the way, Wolfson, 31, is hoping to open one of his Tattoo Nation shops at a mall near you.

"Whether it's on a conscious or subconscious level -- it definitely gives parents or people who are seeking tattoos to get a feeling of comfort," he said.

This is living, breathing proof that tattoos -- once the mark of the rebel, the outlaw, the nonconformist -- have gone mainstream. Way mainstream.

But tattoos have always exuded coolness. How cool can they be just down the aisle from a Foot Locker?

"We're not going to service the Harley Davidson guy who sort of brought this to the mainstream culture," Wolfson said. "I think that's why the mall bought into us as well. We'd be happy to service them, but this is not so much a rebellious or coming of age thing that people are doing anymore, it's become an art form."

Ink for All

It has been estimated that 40 percent of 18- to 39-year-olds now have tattoos. Scores of athletes and celebrities have them. And reality shows like "Miami Ink" have taken the art out of the back alleys and into the living room.

Wolfson's business is up 35 percent year to year thanks to customers like 39-year-old schoolteacher Renee Freeman who came in for her first tattoo -- a Celtic thistle on her foot.

"This is such a nonthreatening place, it just seems like a thing to do now," Freeman said. "Walking into a tattoo parlor for me, I just felt like I'd never fit in and here it just feels, like, natural."

Freeman brought a couple of her teacher friends along for moral support.

It could be a bit hard to imagine a scene like this at a traditional tattoo parlor like Daredevil Tattoo on New York's Lower East Side.