Celebrity Tattoo has inked professional football players, actors, musicians, police officers, and survivors of the Columbine shooting. Now Zeke Pusateri, the owner of Celebrity Tattoo, is bringing his business to Denver's Lower Downtown.

With his new shop at 1628 Market Street, Zeke is hoping to reach out to new customers, including people in the city, for functions, family reunions, and those who have sought him out. "I think we'll be seeing a lot of that," Zeke said.

It's not surprising that Celebrity Tattoo would become a hot spot for travelers to Denver. In recent years, Zeke and his employees have received national publicity for being one of the finest tattoo parlors in the world. Covered by publications ranging from the local papers to Easy Rider, his Lakewood shop at 11730 W Colfax Ave already hosts customers from around the world.

The new store, which will have five stations for the tattoo artists and one for body piercing, will employ around twenty artists. Many of these will come from his Lakewood shop, which will remain open. "I want my employees to be recognized in the downtown area," said Zeke.

Zeke is also hiring new artists to fill out both shops. Most of the new artists will be installed at the Lakewood shop.

Competition for these slots may be fierce -- although Zeke ultimately hires artists by his instincts, all of his employees must be serious professionals.

That professionalism, more than anything else, is the hallmark of Celebrity Tattoo. Zeke's Lakewood shop is beautiful, clean and cozily furnished in Southwestern pine furniture. A powerful metal sculpture, one of many, holds out business cards. What wall isn't covered by art instead boasts plaques of thanks from Veterans for the Homeless, the Children's Diabetes Foundation, the Fraternal Order of Police, and other civic and charity organizations.

Last Saturday, Melissa Hauk walked past all of these plaques and sat down at tattoo artist Eric Mitchell's booth. Hauk, a mother and director of a nursery school, already sports a tie-dyed sun on one ankle and a tribal band on the other. This time she decided to impress on her shoulder a tribal bear claw, an image which already adorns her silver bracelets, necklace, and earrings.

Before Melissa even entered the booth, Eric began sterilizing his already spotless working area. He wiped down the counter with antibacterial soap, and then laid out a stretch of plastic wrap. He covered the spray bottles containing the soap and alcohol with more wraps. Having put on blue rubber gloves, Eric then chose a needle for the small design from among several sizes in a rubber tub. The needle was in a sterilized pouch.

"So why did you choose a bear claw?" he asked, as he covered her sports bra with a cloth to protect it from the ink.

"Oh, it means power or something," Melissa replied. To the artists at Celebrity Tattoo, helping people to express themselves through their tattoos is very important. Eric, like many of the tattoo artists, took painting and graphic design classes through high school, college, and a skill center, but counts those skills as only part of his job. "It's a little like being a bartender," he said. "You really get to know the psychology of your clients -- why they choose to get tattoos, what images they choose."

Zeke said, "You get an instinct for what a client is trying to bring out." The artists use the phrase "bringing out" a lot to describe their tattoos: A reflection of the soul on the surface.

Sometimes, Eric helps a client look through examples of his work to help him or her decide on an image. But, like 50 percent of his clients, Melissa knew just what she wanted. He drew up the bear claw while Melissa filled out her release forms.

"The job can be stressful," Eric commented. "It has to be done right the first time. I just took six months off, to deal with the stress." He drew the image on carbon paper. After wiping down her shoulder with the antibacterial soap to act as a transfer agent, he applied the image to her right shoulder. He inserted the needle into the tattooing machine, sometimes called a ‘gun', and began the outline of the claw. He wiped the excess ink off of her shoulder after each line, to prevent it from obstructing his vision. The process was painful. But Melissa sat there, smiling, breathing slowly. "I just think about something else," she said. "I'm looking over at my friend getting her belly button pierced."

Although the tattoo machine, which contains coils similar to those used in a telegraph, vibrates many times per second, Eric just seemed to be drawing the image on her skin. After he finished the outline, he went back and filled in the claws and palm of the bear claw.

The whole tattooing for this design took less than half an hour. Melissa grinned when it was finished. "I like it. It's little and simple," she said. Eric then instructed her on how to care for her tattoo: Keep it out of water (except for the shower) for two weeks, apply a moisturizer for the same period, and don't ever expose it to the sun. Sun exposure eventually washes out a tattoo, fading the colors and blurring the lines.

"It's actually better to get a tattoo in the winter, when you cover up. But business is better in the summer. People are out doing what they like to do then," Eric said.

Eric's art experience and concern for tattoos as a self-expression make him fairly typical of the new generation of tattoo artists that Zeke employs. Tattoos used to have a reputation of being associated with bikers, or prisoners. Today they've found a much wider following. As a result, the tattoo industry, which used to be fairly small and isolated, has now gone mainstream. New artists are sometimes expected to pay for their apprenticeships at a shop. But, Eric feels, the customers are getting much better tattoos today.

Amber, another artist at Celebrity Tattoo, agrees. "Tattoos are now more of an appreciated artwork than just a marking," she said. "Kids with a lot of talent are getting into it, making the business flourish."

Zeke certainly hopes his new business in LoDo will flourish as well. "It's going to be really futuristic, high tech. I want to provide something for customers that will be very fulfilling."