Ronnie Dell’Aquila can remember when so many West End Fair patrons wanted tattoos, he worked until well past midnight to serve them all.

“The constables had to ask ‘when are you leaving?’ I’d go ‘there’s four more people waiting, I can’t leave, these people have been waiting all this time,’” he recalled.

The owner of Ronnie’s Tattoos in Stroudsburg has been tattooing at the fair since 1983. Over the years, numerous artists have set up shop in the area, but back then, Ronnie was it.

In the early days of his shop, which opened in the late ’70s, he noticed that business would slow during the week of the fair.

He found a camper from the 1950s, and had a contractor outfit it as a mobile tattoo studio. Lined with photos of celebrities, the yellow trailer has become a mainstay at the fair. The outside wall is covered with displays of the tattoos Ronnie offers.

“I just bring with me what can be done in an hour’s time, done the right way, not rushed, not where you’re giving anybody a fast job and collecting more than you should be, the prices are fair,” he said.

Eventually, it became known that the fair was the place to get a tattoo. The result was that people would be lined up when he got to the fair, and stayed long after it closed.

“The other areas didn’t have it, so they’d come here and they’d get it. They liked the work, the prices were fair, and everybody was happy. That’s what it was,” he said.

Nowadays, people have a lot more choices when it comes to tattoo shops. Customers don’t line up outside the trailer during fair week, but when it’s busy at night, there are still those who want a permanent souvenir from the event. Ronnie still stays from 1 p.m. until about 10 p.m., but the days when customers would be lined up outside the trailer are gone.

“Some still stop and still get it as a thing to get, but it’s kind of dwindled,” he said.

It’s not uncommon for a fairgoer to walk up and show a tattoo of an old snake, or panther, and say they got it at the fair back in the day.

On Monday, Bryn Mawr resident Joe Donnelly stopped at the stand and showed Ronnie a dragon tattoo he did at the fair years ago.

“You said come back in 30 some years and get another one,” Donnelly joked.

These days, a lot of fair customers stop by and ask about getting a tattoo, and take a business card. Of those, some might stop in the shop, and some might come by six months later.

“It varies. It’s not like when you get back, you have a line waiting for you,” he said.

Over the years, there have been temporary tattoos and other novelties, but only one other real tattoo artist came to the fair. He was part of the traveling group that brought the rides and games. The two ended up striking up a friendship, and the other artist had Ronnie tattoo him before he moved on, realizing it was Ronnie’s territory.

“He said ‘this is your thing, I got other ones I can go do,’” Ronnie recalled.

A lot of young people looking for tattoos today are looking to replicate something they’ve seen online.

As a purist, Ronnie explains to them that some things won’t show up on skin like they appear on a computer. Some customers think he’s just not interested, but Ronnie’s tattoos are made to look good years after they’re done.

He said there are other artists who do it because they need the money.

“I need your money as much as he does too, but I’m not going to do things that go against what I believe in. And that’s the whole story,” he said.