Army-Navy Tattoo

A first time visitor to the six month old Army Navy Tattoo Shop. There's plenty to choose from all over the walls, but what the lady wants are simply her initials just above her ankles. Tattooist Fred Biker makes up a stencil, shaves his canvas, and begins the delicate process of applying pigment just beneath the surface of the skin. It's a tingling kind of pain. Fred's been a tattoo artist for years, same for his partner Hal Lafrontier, who is a traveling billboard for his profession. I'm what they call a collector, a piece here, a piece there. If I had a do-or-I-would-do something, there would be a scene around the total arm, That's what they call that in a profession, but I, it's too late now. Such is the plight of the tattooed, but the customer here needn't worry about safety. Hal says every needle is sterilized. All materials are clean. No one under 18 has served, and to protect a person from later regret, they will not tattoo hands or faces. This place, in other words, is not what you think. If you walk in our place, you can bring your children in here. We have nothing on our walls to protect anything vulgar, and this is what we take pride in. Hal also takes pride in his work, She loves it. It's just something that I liked, and I don't mind, I can forget about it when I look at it. To each her own. The owners here say their business has been growing steadily since they opened, that in fact last week they did a tattoo on a well-off local man in his 60s who had never had a tattoo before. To them, that means their once maligned craft is becoming legitimate. In York County, Joel Ribbon, The Daily News.