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GREENSBORO — With the North Carolina Tattoo Convention in its 15th year, it’s no longer just the hard-core body art crowd descending on downtown Greensboro each summer.

While plenty of full-arm tattoo sleeves and colorful back shields were on display over the weekend at the downtown Marriott, there also were a large number of bare-skinned first-timers.

“I really didn’t come with the intention of getting a tattoo,” said Jolie Parrish, a Greensboro systems administrator.

Parrish nonetheless found herself splayed on an artist’s table with her skirt halfway up her thigh, getting an elaborate Monarch butterfly permanently etched on her leg as crowds wandered by.

“I was a little apprehensive about getting my first one done here, where thousands of people might be watching,” Parrish said. “But I just turned 40 last week, and I really thought of getting it as a rite of passage. It was time to do it.”

Hans Drost, the Charlotte-based artist responsible for Parrish’s butterfly, put her at ease by winning a number of the convention’s artist awards, including both first and second place for “flash” — or ready-made tattoo designs — on Sunday.

Drost did the butterfly using two photos Parrish brought him from the Internet for reference. The effect on her skin was startlingly realistic.

He and his partner John Williams from Unbreakable Inc. said they enjoy the challenge of creating art on someone’s skin and knowing how high the stakes really are.

“When it’s permanent, when you’re drawing on someone’s skin, you’ve got it all riding on the line,” Williams said.

This year’s convention brought more than 70 artists to the Gate City. Since the event regularly draws some of the best talent in the industry — including some from as far away as Germany, Austria and Japan — first-timers often can find artists of greater skill than they might at their neighborhood tattoo parlor.

“There are people here from all over the country, all over the world really, who your average person looking for a tattoo might not ever normally have access to,” said Jassen Bury, brother of late convention founder Little John Bury.

Little John was an institution in North Carolina tattooing circles, helping to revise state laws on tattooing and to legitimize the practice with his own popular tattoo and piercing shops. He died last year of a gunshot wound the police called suicide but family and friends believe was murder. His presence was sorely missed at this year’s convention. Large and boisterous with a shaved head, red beard and many colorful nautical-themed tattoos, he reminded many of the pirates of yesteryear that he loved.

“He was such a larger-than-life figure,” said Lisa Cordson, 28, of Winston-Salem. “I have been coming to the convention for five years and I miss seeing him all over the floor, meeting with other artists, just welcoming everybody. He was a rock star.”

The counterculture convention he helped launch is still thriving and expanding. This year area rockabilly band The Tremors and Asheville’s Crank County Daredevils performed, extreme convention- goers were hoisted on hooks by their body piercings before applauding crowds, and more than a few tattoo newbies got their first ink.

“That’s the thing about this convention,” said Jay Morrow, 36, of Jacksonville. “It’s not just tattoos. It’s a whole alternative culture lifestyle. You come once and you love it; you come twice and it’s part of you, then you keep coming and you’re deep in it like the ink on your skin.”

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com