Vocalist Sully Erna, of the band Godsmack, will perform Saturday.

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AP / ROBERT E. KLEIN

Paul Zukoski is 61, lives in New Jersey and had one tattoo that was so bad he had it removed (“It cost a lot more to get it off than to get it on.”)

So why is he one of the organizers of the Rock the Ink Festival, a three-day celebration of the inked-up, amped-up lifestyle that takes over the Dunkin’ Donuts Center and the Rhode Island Convention Center this weekend? It’s a sign of the times, he says: the rock lifestyle and the tattooed lifestyle are becoming one and the same.

Zukoski, who along with his wife, Irene Zukoski, have been organizing music festivals for decades, including the B.B. King Blues Festival and the Tattoo the Earth tour that included groups such as Metallica, Stone Temple Pilots and Slayer. A tattoo is a permanent mark that says you are different from the rest. “It separates you from the norm. You’re not taking that normal, straight-lane path.”

Nowadays, though, as rock has grown up, so has tattooing.

“What was out of the norm is becoming more central,” Zukoski says. A Harris Interactive poll earlier this year estimates the 14 percent of all American adults have one or more tattoos; a 2006 Pew Research poll estimated that 36 percent of Americans ages 18 to 25 and 40 percent of those 26 to 40 have them.

“It’s bigger than people really think it is,” Zukoski says. “The generation that’s coming along, that whole generation will be tattooed. The whole lifestyle will get bigger.”

That popularity has been reflected in the welcome he’s gotten from the city for what he calls Rhode Island’s first tattoo festival. “It’s been a little interesting dealing with the Health Department. … This was a whole new event for them. But they’ve been great. They’ve really worked with us; they want to see the event come off. …

“This was radical 10 years ago when we did [Tattoo the Earth],” Zukoski says. “Now, not that it’s central, but look — we’re in a beautiful facility; we have everything that everyone else uses, and we’re presenting a lifestyle that was looked at in a very different kind of way. People would lock their doors. Now, everybody’s involved with the lifestyle. It’s one tribe, but different groups of people.”

The different groups of people include the hard rock, metal and hardcore fans who will come to the Dunk for the three stages full of music, but the people coming for the 150 tattoo artists, exhibits and competitions, he hopes, will be as diverse as the people getting tattoos. He says the fastest-growing group of people getting inked is women 20 to 45.

For the music, Zukoski stuck with acts with New England roots and/or a New England following for this show; hence, groups such as Killswitch Engage, from western Massachusetts, and Godsmack, from Boston. There’ll be a stage for local bands, run by the producers of the annual Locobazooka hard-rock fest.

Two of the headlining bands, Godsmack and Killswitch Engage, are playing the Rock the Ink festival even though they aren’t making a lot of public appearances these days. Killswitch drummer Justin Foley says that the band is in the writing process for a new album after 2½ years on the road in support of As Daylight Dies.

The melodic hard-rock and hardcore band gets “little [offers for] shows popping up here and there,” but they’ve been turning them down: “Sooner or later you’ve got to start writing or you’ll never do it and you’ll never get another record out.” This show, however, was different for the western Massachusetts band: “We thought we were done, but this show came up, and it’s a great show, and right down the street.”

Ironically, Foley doesn’t have any tattoos, and with the exception of singer Howard Jones, he calls Killswitch “a pretty not-tattooed band compared to a lot of bands.” But the connection isn’t lost on him: “It’s always been there.”

Godsmack has been “being dads and doing some side projects” since finishing the touring for 2006’s IV album, says singer Sully Erna, and the writing process for a new record won’t begin until February. Don’t look for the Boston-based band on tour until 2010, he says.

Meanwhile, he’s working on a solo record that he describes as “very orchestrated and very tribal. … Something you would hear in Braveheart or Gladiator. Just experimenting, getting some stuff out of my system that’s always been there but that I can’t quite do with Godsmack.” He’s also doing some solo shows that tell the story of “the gift of music,” and explore what music exactly is, and why we respond to it the way we do.

But the Rock the Ink show was different. Erna’s on the creative team of the festival, and it’s an opportunity to “let people know we’re still alive,” he says of the band.

“It’s really more about the lifestyle, about the people who sport the ink. Whether it be skateboarders or bikers or musicians or actors, whatever. The music just becomes a bonus.”

On the tattooing side, the star power comes from Ami James, 36, of Miami, best known for starring in the TLC reality show Miami Ink. He says he didn’t necessarily mean to make tattooing mainstream, but that “my goal was ‘don’t be scared to walk into the tattoo shop. We’re not all crazy convict bikers — whatever persona you had in your mind.’ … Not to be mainstream, but to be embraced by the mainstream, and at the same time to be an individual.”

It’s a fine line, he admits.

“It used to be an underground thing, and now it’s no longer an underground thing. And I think some people liked it being an underground thing. So, you know — good and the bad.”

He’s proud to claim Lou Sciberras as one of his mentors, and mentions Ed Hardy as a cautionary tale, who he calls one of the great tattoo artists, now more known for his clothing line. “People are clueless to who he is. … He’s going to die down when that company goes down.” James gets the connection between music and ink, as well: “I can’t tattoo without music, and every rock star has tattoos.”

Erna and James are quick to say that a tattoo might seem to project out, but it really reflects inward.

James is tattooed “head to toe,” but during a conversation this week he was wearing long sleeves and long pants, and said that if he didn’t live in Miami he would do so all the time. His tattoos, he says, are like mementoes of the people who gave them to him.

They’re from “close friends,” he says. “And they don’t have to be really good tattoo artists. At this point, I’d rather have a [bad] tattoo from a great person than a good tattoo from a [bad] person. It’s something that you keep for life. I got a few tattoos from people I learned not to like or trust, and no matter how good that tattoo might have ended up, you don’t want it on you. It’s like bad energy.  …

“To me at least. Some people don’t care.”

Erna, from Godsmack, agrees: “I don’t have them to impress other people.  … I almost get annoyed when people want to look at my arm. I give them the three-second tour; I feel invaded.”

He says of his many tattoos, “Even though they didn’t have any sentimental value at the time, now I look back and they do to me. Because I can look at each tattoo and remember a certain time in my life.”

Erna “filled up my arm as quick as I could” because he knew someone who would do it free. Perhaps not surprisingly, that led to some rash decisions.

“I just did a lot of decorating when I was young, because I was a rocker, and I was influenced by Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee, who were cool-looking rock stars, and I just wanted to obtain that look without thinking too much. …

“It’s really important that people understand: Do something that will always be a part of you, and don’t just stick the Tasmanian Devil on you because you want a tattoo. … Make it your zodiac sign, or your children’s names and birthdates. Make art out of that. I didn’t learn that until later.”

This is the first Rock the Ink festival, but Zukoski’s got big plans: Next year, maybe 10 cities, maybe incorporating extreme sports. Erna says, “We want to turn it into the new Ozzfest.”

But for now, Zukoski’s happy to be in Providence, which he calls “a perfect location” with the Dunk and the Convention Center connected, allowing easy indoor access to everything.

“It’s the whole lifestyle under one roof.”

The Rock the Ink Festival begins tomorrow and runs through Sunday at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center and the Rhode Island Convention Center, in downtown Providence. Killswitch Engage headlines tomorrow night, Godsmack Saturday and Bret Michaels on Sunday. Tickets are $29.50 per day; go to www.rocktheink.net for a full schedule and more information.

rmassimo@projo.com

CORRECTION: The Web site URL for Rock the Ink was incorrect in a previous version of this story.