SUMMERDALE, Ala. — There was a time when “tats” or tattoos were for sailors, prisoners, and ner’do wells.

No more. Today, your young doctor, lawyer and almost certainly indian chief are probably sporting brightly-colored, meaningful designs under their shirts and slacks.

Emitt “Pa Pa Smurf” Grant has seen it all. Today, he sits in his Summerdale shop on Highway 59 surrounded by walls full of “flash,” or pre-made tattoo designs and cupboards of ink, rubber gloves, antiseptics and other tools of the body art trade.

Grant, who says he’s in his 60s, has been in his Summerdale location since 2003, but his interest in tattooing goes way back.

“I was about 10 when I started noticing tattoos,” said Grant.

Fascinated by what he could see, Grant, who was born in North Carolina and raised near Birmingham, began reading and studying everything he could lay his hands on about the ancient (it goes back to Neolithic times according to some) art.

“I tattooed myself,” says Grant, “using a needle, string and matches. A year later, I tattooed my cousin, then a boy at school.”

His equipment and technique might have been crude, but Grant had caught the bug. Tattooing would be part of the rest of his life.

“When I was 16, I hears about an (tattoo) artist named (George L.) “Doc” Webb. I read an article about him, and I simply had to go and see and maybe work for him.”

Trouble was, Grant was in Alabama and Webb was in San Diego. Grant had no way to get to California, but he thought of one way to get there.

“The Vietnam war was on, so I enlisted in the Navy.”

Sure enough, the Navy sent 16-year old Grant (after a lot of fast talking with the person in charge of making duty assignments) to San Diego.

“I got an eight-hour pass, and I tracked Webb down. His shop was just three blocks from where the article said it was.”

Grant had found a home. Webb took Grant on as an apprentice, and Grant divided his time between serving Uncle Sam aboard various ships and learning the craft and art of tattooing.

Grant then had a professional home, and more importantly a professional “father,” someone to show him the ropes and smooth rough transitions. When Grant was stationed in Japan, Webb found him a Japanese tattoo artist to train with.

“We did a lot of pointing, smiling and bowing,” Grant recalls.

Grant left the Navy after four years, and says he “drove a truck, was a locksmith and drove an ambulance” for a while. While Grant left the Navy, he became part of the Coast Guard Reserve, and served there for 26 years.

But tattooing was Grant’s first love. Unlike today, Grant says, back then you needed a referral from an established artist to get professional-grade tattooing supplies.

Doc Webb came to his rescue again. Webb contacted “Flo” at National Tattoo Supply, and Grant was set. Grant had two shops,one in Birmingham and one in Gadsen.

Grant also settled into a career as an Alabama prison guard. He says he served in the ”Segregation” and “Maximum Security” units at St. Clair in northern Alabama. “I would not interfere if I saw a prisoner giving another prisoner a tattoo, if I knew they were trying to be as safe as possible,” Grant recalled. “I’d walk in, see what they were doing and say I’d be back and walk out. I couldn’t blame them for doing what I was doing for 12 hours a day on the outside.”

Grant’s reputation was growing as well.

“I met Jack Ruby, a famous tattoo artist,” Grant recalled, and “Spider” Webb, a famous tattoo artist asked me to join his club, then the International Tattoo Artist Association (now the National Tattoo Association). A Japanese club asked me to join their group as well.”

It was a prisoner who gave Grant his nickname.

“We were having a disturbance, and one of the prisoners called out the window, “there goes Pa Pa Smurf” at me,” Grant said. “The name stuck.”

Grant came to this area in 2004, after marrying Georgi Prochazka of Silverhill. The couple makes their home in Foley.

“I had a massive heart attack in 2005, and I parted ways with the state shortly after that,” said Grant, who was working for the work release program in Loxley when he became ill.

Grant is at his shop about three afternoons a week, and is sometimes available other hours if a client needs it.

“State law says you have to be 17 to get a tattoo,” Grant says. “If you are 17 you have to have your parent with you, and if that person has full guardianship, they had better have the papers to prove it. Their ID has to match as well.”

Even if a client is of age and sober (Grant says he checks carefully for that) he tries to steer clients away from certain designs.

“I will counsel young girls like my own,” Hicks, a grandfather himself, said. “If they want a skull and crossbones on their ankle, I do try to talk them out of it. However, if the person is older, over 21, and they want that, I figure they know what they are doing and say ‘hop up in the chair.’”

Choosing a tattoo artist takes a lot of thought, Grant stresses.

“Now you can get a (tattooing) kit from a magazine,” Grant said. “Sometimes what they have is not sterile. I use a hospital autoclave and am inspected by the Health Department.”

Grant added that he imports a British antiseptic because it is “gentle and effective.”

“I run this as a Christian business,” said Grant. “I try to treat everyone right. I do not tattoo private parts, and because I make my living off the locals, I try to stay in a working man’s price range. My tattoo guns are $399 each, and they travel with me. I only buy my supplies from licensed tattoo suppliers.”

While some medical conditions preclude a tattoo, Grant says that there are few reasons why a tattoo “done in a proper shop” should give any trouble.

Grant says he’s also created some special tattoos for people.

“One lady lost five children and wanted to commemorate that. I designed two roses twining with five drops of blood, one for each child,” Grant said.

Another client wanted to remember her father, a firefighter, who was killed fighting a warehouse fire. Others have wanted “tats” to remember friends or other loved ones.

However, a large part of Grant’s work comes from repairing or restoring existing tattoos or covering up previous “mistakes.” He says a tattoo exposed to the sun can fade, and may need to be recolored.

Fixing a “mistake” was the goal of April and Willie Joiner of Robertsdale when they came to Grant’s shop. Willie sported a bare-breasted woman on his left arm. Worse, the tattoo bore the name of Willie’s ex-wife. That was not making April happy, who put up with the reminder of Willie’s former wife for two years of courtship and two years of marriage.

“I was 17 when I had it done,” said Willie. “I’m 38 now.

Grant’s plan was to modify the existing tattoo into an American eagle, a design that was drawn during World War II and given to Grant. The design’s heavy dark lines and dark colors makes it useful to cover exsisting tattoos.

“This design has covered more tattoos than Carter has pills all over the world,” Grant said.

Unfortunately, the new design had to be a little larger than the original, and while the first tattoo could be covered by a short-sleeved shirt, the eagle’s tail feathers would stick out below a normal sleeve.

No matter, said Willie and April. Both were relieved that the old tattoo could be hidden.

After carefully sizing the new tattoo with a special machine, Grant transferred the design. He then outlined the design in black ink. There’s no doubt about it, with a needle going in and out of the skin, tattooing can be a painful process.

“I can take it,” said Willie. “As long as I don’t have to look at what you are doing.”

“Some people get religion here,” chuckled Grant. “They yell, ‘Oh my God!’”

Creating Joiner’s eagle tattoo got Grant reminiscing.

“My late brother wanted an eagle,” said Grant, adding that his brother, Steve, a lieutenant with the Italia police department came to the area often to see his brother and enjoy the ocean. Steve also had lung cancer, and on his last trip to the area, Grant invited him up into his chair.

“We got to talking, and he told me he always wanted an eagle,” Grant said. “I put a big one (eagle) on his arm Boy was he happy. His wife was horrified, but he showed that thing to everybody.”

The eagle was also Grant’s mother’s introduction to his “sideline.” Until then, she was not aware he was a tattoo artist.

As Grant recalled tattoos he had created or worked on before, Willie’s original tattoo disappeared.

“You are going to see a little ad-lib work now,” Grant said as he created a few extra flowers and flourishes around the eagle to cover the original design completely,

April inspected several times during the process and voiced her approval. She had her own tattoo on her back courtesy of Grant, and was pleased with the design she saw forming on her husband. She hopes to get rid of a name on her person she got when she was 15.

“She’ll be all gone when I get through,” Grant promised, taking another look at Willie’s tattoo.

While Willie says that a friend of his did the original tattoo, Grant noted that the needle had gone in “deep” in places.

“I’m not going to go in too deep,” Grant said “There’s a chance of scarring. Coverups are a little harder. You have to be sure it’s all gone. You can come back and I will touch it up.”

Getting the old tattoo covered up took more than two hours. That’s normal, Grant says.

“On shows like “Miami Ink” some of the designs happen over weeks and months. They don’t show you that part,” said Grant.

For Willie, the pain and the need to move and take a smoke was almost too much. Grant gave him a break, and Willie was quickly back in the chair.

A pile of paper towels developed on the tray next to Grant as he wiped away excess ink.

“I like to have a clean area to work with,” Grant said. “I’ve had people from as far away as Pennsylvania come for repeat tattoo work.”

But, as Grant talked, the eagle and the rest of the design took final shape. While there is some touchup work to do a few weeks from now, the offending original tattoo is covered, and both Willie and April seemed satisfied.

“That’s the important thing,” said Grant.