DAVID Beckham has a full sleeve of them. Angeline Jolie and Amy Winehouse have 13 each, Megan Fox has nine, Bollywood model and actor Arjun Rampal has several and Jamie Foxx has them on his chest, arms, shoulders and now, supposedly, on the back of his head.
They are tattoos - and they come in different shapes, sizes and colour.
For each of these celebrities, their tattoos have meaning and celebrate a happy occasion. Beckham has angels, roses and the names of his sons and wife. Jolie carries the birth location of her children - both biological and adopted - with her wherever she goes.
Winehouse has sailor-type tattoos which remind her of pain and Foxx got a tattoo on the back of his head to celebrate his 40th birthday.
In Fiji, the trend for getting a tattoo has more to do with fashion rather than meaning.
And this trend has a lot to do with what the celebrities - the actors, wrestlers and those famous for being infamous - are doing overseas.
Wasant Raju of Fineline Tattoos says that most of his customers - young Fijian men - come to him for tattoos they either saw on a wrestler or actor.
"They say, 'you know that wrestler? Yeah, I want that tattoo'," he says. "So I ask them to bring the design and I tattoo them."
Sam Wilson of Classic Tattooz agrees that fashion is driving people's desires for a tattoo. But that is not the only reason.
Tattoo shops in Suva - and there are currently four - do get local and foreign customers who seek a particular type of tattoo because it has spiritual, traditional or personal meaning.
A good number also want tattoos to cover up scars, old tattoos and ugly burn marks.
According to Sam, another trend is emerging - and that is the increase in the number of female customers.
And he has his very own personal canvas - his wife Michelle has about five tattoos.
Sam, who operates from the family hair salon on Cumming St, says tattooing can be addictive.
He is right. A female friend and colleague now has three, and is planning a fourth. The real hurdle is in overcoming your initial fears and prejudices, and committing to a design. Once that's settled, the pain is awful (like slicing skin as one friend put it) but eventually turns into a throbbing and numbing experience.
Sam believes that as the body ages, the pain of a new tattoo is greater than the last one.
He returned from Iraq early this year where he tattooed Americans, Bosnians, Romanians and other Europeans all working for security companies in the Middle East.
"Your art is your reference," he says. And as word spread of his abilities, Sam says his highest paying job cost an American in Iraq $2000 for a tribal tattoo starting from the shoulder and ending at the elbow.
Sam got his first tattoo in 1987 while as a student at Natovi in Tailevu.
A thorn from a lemon tree was his needle and black powder from an old battery mixed with coconut oil was his ink. His tattoo was a heart-shaped one.
From thorn and black powder, Sam upgraded to a home-made kit in 1992 until he went to Iraq to work for a security company.
It was there that his mind opened up to new ideas and designs, his knowledge improved and he gained more experience and exposure from his after-hours tattooing activities. Today, his designs portray a mix of Pacific tradition, contemporary, Middle Eastern and European.
Firikesa "Cash" Taito and Amoe Aisake work out of The Tattoo Shop on Toorak Road. They have been there for about a year now. Before that, they did tattoos at home.
"We see this as a living," says Amoe, the more outspoken one of the two.
"You have to love what you do in order to succeed. And for us, it's not about the money.
"It's about our art, about meeting people and about doing what we love. Tattooing is a way of life for us."
The friends have done a lot of tribal tattoos on local and overseas men who favour the macho designs. But they have also done Celtics and flowers on the female customers who grace their threshold.
"As tattooists, we can tell which customers are serious about getting one and which ones are not," says Amoe.
The dreadlocked tattooist and Cash are not keen on keeping portfolios of their work because they believe in originality.
Amoe says it goes against his values to tattoo copies of one thing on multiple bodies. He likes originality in design because it keeps his customers happy and happy customers always return.
Amoe is also very conscious of the fact that appearances matter to a lot of people.
"People judge me by how I look," he says.
"They come to the shop, it doesn't look like much and then they see me with my tattoos and my dreadlocks - and they judge me."
But he adds that it's these people who eventually return for a tattoo because he believes that his tattoos are a reference for him.
To deal with this, he has tattooed on his hand the phrase: "Only God can judge me". There is also "Ghetto youth" to remind him of his "rasta roots" in Nadera, Nasinu where he grew up.
Their charges vary depending on size, colour and type of design.
However, they have done tattoos that cost $1000 on several local customers and quite a few in the $500 price range.
