If I said 'tattoo parlor,' and you're over a certain age, a pretty seedy visual might come to mind: Biker guys swilling beer in a smoke-filled shack while some other biker type works a crude design on a tattoo-laced arm.

Fugedaboudit, man.

Not today - these days the 'tats' are seen everywhere - on young hotties, band members, doctors, lawyers and upwardly mobile ladies and gentlemen. It's body art, plain and simple, worn for a personal statement or just for fun. Seems like everyone is doing it.

On March 29, I met Jim Karanik at his Red Sky Tattoo studio, across from the Town of Castle Rock government building on North Wilcox Street. He pulled up in his pickup with his young son, and they came inside for the day's business.

The son went to play video games in the back office while we sat in the family oriented front entrance, with one wall boasting several dozen awards for outstanding tattoo art, another seating area featuring candy and gumball machines along with displays and stacks of books of the studio's artwork.

Karanik moved to Castle Rock from Long Island, New York about 5 years ago. An artist by trade, he worked at a shop in Englewood for a couple of years, then opened up his studio - the first in Castle Rock - three years ago.

Karanik, 37, says the art attracted him to tattooing. He had art school training and was working as an artist when a brother got him a gift certificate for a local tattoo parlor in 1990.

While he was looking through the photo albums, he said he realized, "Wow, the artwork is terrible - I mean like the shading and the technique is terrible." He took his own art portfolio around to some tattoo shops to land a job.

Though he had no tattooing background then, he was skilled enough as an artist to say "I can do better than this."

Karanik admits "I was wrong - tattooing is an art in itself, and it took me years - I would say three to five years, before I got comfortable with it. You have to learn to tattoo first, then you can apply the artwork."

"You really have to learn about skin ... it takes years. I mean, people could show you how to set up the machines, and the proper technique, but until you learn the skin and learn what you're doing with it, you're not going to get very far."

While we were talking, it wasn't long before customers and potential customers came in.

A mom arrived, apparently with her daughter, who had a 'jailhouse tattoo' applied by a friend. Mom wanted it done properly - 'filled in' she said. Karanik said he'd like to help, but he has a policy against tattooing anyone under the age of 18.

Another girl, older, came in looking for a belly-button piercing. Karanik had to tell her they didn't have the personnel right now to do that, but gave her a recommendation for a shop that did. She did ask about a small butterfly tattoo, and was quoted a price.

Karanik has three people helping him at Red Sky - Ryan, Martin and Kezia, the apprentice.

The first customer of the day, Mike Vanden Heuvel, owner of Pro Plumbing Services, was havinga colorful tattoo added to hisright forearm.

Vanden Heuvel, a body-builder with a muscular physique, was already sporting tattoos on both arms. While he said he very much liked them, he added it sometimes hurts him in bodybuilding competition because they can hide some of his muscle definition. He got his first tattoo just before joining the Marines in 1993.

I asked him about the very recent Marine prohibition against large forearm tattoos, and Vanden Heuvel said it wasn't like that in the past, and felt it seemed a part of the Marines' tradition to have tattoos.

The tattoo customer base has changed radically, especially over the past decade, Karanik agreed.

"I was right at the cusp of that change to the mainstream - I saw a lot of the old school stuff, and saw it changing rapidly."

And tattoo styles are fluid as well.

"Although it's a permanent thing, there's definitely a style that's 'in' at the time," Karanik says, "they go through phases, you know? - sometimes the butterflies on the lower back is popular - that's been popular for a long time, tribal stuff been popular - there were times when I'd do three or four tribal tattoos a day," he remembers.

"So styles kind of come and go, certain areas of the body come and go ... right now it seems like between the shoulder blades is real popular, as opposed to on the side of the shoulders, which used to be very popular," he said. " Most of the stuff I'm doing now is big stuff - sleeves, you know, where you're doing most of your arm, or at least half-sleeves, because a lot of people have regular jobs so they can't get their forearms tattooed."

Karanik, who sports multiple tattoos, said, "Tattooing for me has become just fun. Like for me getting my own tattoos, I don't think much into it - like a lot of people who are new who are like 'okay this has to mean something very important, it has to symbolize a certain part of my life' ... I've gotten past that, and it's just fun, because I like the artwork - and regardless of what you get, it's going to bring you back to a time when you got it. It can be something goofy, like a Tasmanian devil, or anything, you know, a logo - you're still going to remember that when you get older, whether you like it or not, it's still going to be a memory to you."

Karanik and one of his employees both emphasized in our conversations their belief in tattooing as an art form, something that Karanik hopes will be more accepted by the public.

"I just wish people would be a little more open and less judgmental," he said. "You know, it's not really going to happen, so it's not something I necessarily hope for, but it's a shame."

See more examples of tattoos done by Red Sky tattoo at redskytattoo.com.