When he isn't painting or drawing, Nic Skrade likely is putting his artistic talents to work at Uptown Tattoo.

Skrade opened Uptown Tattoo a decade ago to realize his vision of working in a custom tattoo shop that was more like an art studio.

Uptown Tattoo, which Skrade owns with fellow artist Jon Sweet, serves a wide-ranging clientele: pipe-fitters to prosecutors to housewives, from 18 to 70 and split about evenly between men and women, according to Skrade.

The shop's six artists are booked weeks to months in advance, Skrade says. Bigger tattoos, which are popular now, can take three or four or even 10 visits to complete.

Skrade, 38, got his first tattoo at 16 (though he recommends people wait until they're 18 and won't tattoo anyone under that age). He was into art and tattoo-heavy punk bands. He loved tattoos but thought he could do better.

At 19, he tried teaching himself how to do tattoos (something he also recommends not doing; try scoring an apprenticeship instead) before he finally got into a shop at 22.

"We're just as concerned with the tattooers that work with us being good artists, well-rounded artists and growing as artists, as we are with the tattooing," says Skrade, who's largely self-taught as an artist. "For us, it goes hand in hand. We're tattooing eight hours a day, go home and then find time to paint or draw on our own. There's no end. You constantly grind every day so you can get better."

We're doing a lot of bigger pieces. Half sleeves, sleeves, backs. The rib tattoo is really popular now because you can get a big tattoo but you don't have to commit to people seeing it.