im so glad it started to pick up on this thread!
I am by no means heavily tattooed, (I currently have 8 pieces in my collection, two of them are rather large however, a half sleeve on my left arm and a good size piece on my calf) and even I have issues with people more often than not. I am all for answer questions about where i got my piece done, who did it, why etc etc etc, most of the time. As traceelinn said, whenever you can change someones preconceived notion about the tattooed community, its a step in the right direction. That being said, im sorry I cant stay at the counter at Starbucks an extra 10 minutes telling you all about my ink. I dont want a 5 minutes grocery run to last 30+ mins. It is unfortunate that onlookers decide they have the right to treat any tattooed person as a circus animal(unless thats what you are going for haha). I am female, and i have always gotten a few extra glances, not that I'm hot shit, i just have boobs. go figure. But tattoo ogling is so much more accosting than normal.
I have plenty of male friends that are more covered that as most have mentioned here, are not approached nearly as often.
On the topic of tattoos and judging. I must admit, I am particular about what I find attractive, I suppose you would say. I have to catch myself at times passing judgement on what I think is a crappy tattoo (concept or execution). That has nothing to do with the sex of the person that has the tattoo. Personally, I dont like vulgar tattoos, I would never want to have something of that nature on MY body, however their tattoo is on them so whatever rubs your buddha.