I caught a few PT's in my gym taking note of my deadlifting. a couple of weeks, later, they either started deadlifting or just didn't deadlift when I was there, but I am pretty sure I never saw ANYONE at my gym deadlift. and I am the little guy...
I am still a little guy, and seem to be one of 3 or 4 people who do free bar squats (and I think I am the only one who breaks parallel) and deadlifts that I know of. People look at me funny when I do the deadlifts.
Once this big guy who was leg pressing 1000lbs asked me 'what exercise are you doing?' while resting in between deadlift sets.
I don't like hogging up a rack, so I just grab a barbell, and find a nice empty spot in the gym to do my deads. I'm working out at a Family Fitness center now, so I always get kids coming over and asking about deads when I'm doing them. I guess they get a kick out of all the weight you can put on the bar. Its an impressive lift.
Deads used to be my favorite, but I am leaning towards push presses and squats now! Maybe because my numbers on those are going up much quicker than my deadlift numbers...lol.
I deadlift in front of the squat rack or the power rack....whichever one isn't being used.