The Boston Center for the Arts hummed with the sound of needles,as people lay stretched across chairs, exposing swaths of skin for tattoo artists to use as blank canvases.

The seventh annual Boston Tattoo convention brought vendors from as far as Italy to showcase their work. It ran through the weekend and featured a tattoo contest where attendees could enter and have their tattoos judged. The winning tattoo and its artist received a trophy and bottles of Sailor Jerry’s rum.

Lightwave Tattoo and Body Piercing apprentice body piercer Charlene Clark entered her tattoo of the mythical faun Pan, from Pan’s Labyrinth.

“I wanted something that represented hope, something more than reality,” she said.

Clark said her tattoos are extremely personal to her.

“It’s like a living, evolving canvas that’s with a person forever,” she said. “You have to believe in it because it’s with you for life; it’s not like you can redecorate.”

Dotty Jenkins, an Effingham, N.H. resident, stood in the crowd, richly colored, ornate swirls and designs covering her otherwise clean-shaven scalp.

Dotty said she never considered getting a tattoo until she was diagnosed with a disorder where her immune system attacks hair follicles, resulting in partial or full hair loss. Three months after her diagnosis, all of Dotty’s hair was gone. Embarrassed by her loss of hair, Dotty wore wigs for years, until she made the decision to get her first tattoo, a butterfly, on the back of her head.

“I never considered a tattoo before, but now I appreciate them more,” she said.

Dotty’s friend, Joyce Sherman, from Chelmsford, who also has the immune system disorder, said she has a similar butterfly on the back of her head.

“My first tattoo was a gift from my son, and I’ll have it forever. Every time I look at it I’ll think of him. No one can take it away.”

“I will not let this disease control me. I do not have to hide my bald head, nor do I have to be ashamed of it,” Sherman said.

Though Jenkins and Sherman wear their tattoos as a form of artistic symbolism, Gina Marcil, of Springfield, has a simple explanation for the chameleons that crawl across her chest and down her arms.

“I have lizards for pets,” Marcil said. “I hear they mean good luck and renewal, but I just really like lizards.”

Tattoo artist Mark Blanchard of Ansonia, Conn., said he came from an art background, which served as an inspiration for his entrance into the business.

Blanchard described his style as, “color realism, with a lot of depth and contrast.”

Father Panik Industries employee Scott Machens said tattooing is like any other art form.

“Ninety percent is crap, but then there’s that 10 percent that’s touched by the hand of God.”