Nikolas Art World

Born and raised in Colorado, I began drawing as a child inspired by my father’s ability to draw cars and bikes from memory. He taught me basic drawing skills at an early age. Looking back on my early sketches as a kid they were almost all Hot Rods, Pops would teach me the differences between makes and years of all the cool cars I wanted to draw. Motorcycles and Tattoo art became important elements as well.

Greg Skibo (a favorite local tattoo artist) used to visit our home and his illustrating style is still a powerful influence. He is a master tattoo artist with roots in the “old school” of tattooing. His style is a great fusion of Asian, Folk and Biker styles, he is also known for his awesome flame techniques. Greg and my father are good pals and the tattoos he was doing in the early 80’s were setting examples on a national scale, I was lucky enough to be exposed to his art, and those tattooed images of skulls, demons, dragons and Koi, were burned into my artistic consciousness FOREVER.

My formal art education is very limited to junior and high school art classes. Always the outcast, my art projects were often late or incomplete, and always had an anti-social twist. Frustrated teachers and administrators struggled to keep me from flunking out, even in art class. But drawing I still did, lots of drawing, and those sketches helped me to land my first real job.

At age sixteen armed with a crude portfolio of drawings I pursued an after school position of floor sweeper and go-fer at a new local tattoo shop near my high school. Impressed by my enthusiasm I secured a $70-per-week job where I was able to learn some tricks of the trade. I was also at this time doing scratcher tattoos on my buddies at home (a hobby frowned upon by my father who later persuaded me to hold out for a formal apprenticeship under “Master” Greg Skibo).

This was a real turning point and an exciting time for a young artist. After graduation (yeah, I actually graduated from high school) I was able to talk to the Skibo’s (a family run business of 3 shops) about a real apprenticeship. They took me in, at age eighteen I was a full time tattoo apprentice. I learned how to draw and color tattoo “Flash” and had lots of practice fixing up those crappy homemade tattoos on my buddies. Everyone at the shop was great, Jim Capano, Mike O’Neill, and Chris J’Tot, just to name a few. Chris was also an apprentice when I showed up, and for only tattooing for a year, he had developed a cool graffiti/skate style. We clicked right away, and in a few short years we became the main artists in the Greeley shop.

The tattoo environment in Greeley was a great place for us to develop our skills, there is a large Hispanic population as well as a large pool of blue collar folks to tattoo on. The Mexicans love their black and grey fine line style; I was doing lots of low-rider, vato, catholic, and L.A. style stuff. This opened a lot of doors as far as style and really defined my shading technique. The college tattoos weren’t extravagant, however small cheap tattoos teach you a lot about being an efficient tattooer. These skills paid off when we started working bike swap meets, tattoo conventions, auto shows and anywhere else we could find a crowd.

Chris and I always worked well together we have a kind of competitive/supportive thing going on. We always work close so we can bounce ideas off each other we stay as creative as possible each of us critiquing the other and pushing the limit of our abilities. It didn’t take long and we had a great following of faithful clients. We both had tattoo shop friends in Denver, and soon we gravitated toward the bigger city scene. Chris moved to Denver full time and was working at penetration tattoo (now Phantom8) and within a few years ended up buying the shop with his wife Krisha. That year (1998) I also moved back to Denver and Phantom 8 was now my permanent hub to tattoo the world from.

Phantom 8 has a creative vibe and a strong sense of pride and quality. I have been fortunate enough to be tattooing here for almost a decade. I’ve also developed a love for the road, working and meeting new friends along the way. I hope you enjoyed my little story for it is written and lived by me with much respect for the “OLD SCHOOL.”

Nikolas