I saw this movie as a child and can't remember much about it other than it involves a boy traveling around the country to collect letters that spell a certain word for a contest. He has a car, he gets tattooed by some biker gang. I can't remember the word he has to spell or why. Possibly an early 80s or 90s movie.

Motorama (1991) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104922/)

That's it! Thank you so much.