They could've gone bowling, said Laurie Mathews, of Kiowa, but instead she, her two sons and their friend went to Dynamic Piercing and Tattoo in Franktown to commemorate her son Colton Mathews going into the Navy last year.

"We were going to see who cried first, so I went first," said Laurie Mathews.

One year later, she said she still loves her roses that she had inked into the skin above her left wrist at Dynamic.

She brought her sons into the Franktown business after many of her friends had recommended owner and tattoo artist Debbie Johns.

"I heard she's good," Mathews said. "I heard she's patient."

Mathews said that Johns was so gentle she was amazed. She returned to Dynamic on March 14 to have her ink a bracelet on her right wrist and a fairy above her right ankle.

"They say it's cozy in here. It's comfortable," Johns said.

Johns says she remembers some of the new customers she welcomed in to her business after a car accident on Inspiration Drive in Franktown proved fatal to four local teenagers a few years back.

Johns said Ivan Majestic, the father of Tony Majestic, was the first family member to come to her business after his son died.

She said that he didn't want a tattoountil after Tony's death. She said Ivan got a caricature of his son done on his left arm.Johns said she offered free tattoos to his family because "the whole community was affected."

Johns, who has been a tattoo artist for 16 years, said she gets many of her clients through word of mouth. People have come from Kansas, Minnesota, England, Seattle and Ft. Collins to have her work on them.

"She made me feel like I was her little sister or something," Mathews said, describing meeting Johns for the first time.

According to Johns, most of the clients at Dynamic are set to go after a maximum of two hours of tattoo work. The longest she has tattooed anyone in one day was eight hours.

"I think (tattoos are) fun and really a personal thing," said Mathews. "It's about me and the moment."

She said she is working up the courage and the money to get a rooster tattooed onto the back of her left shoulder. Her brother-in-law drew the rooster for Mathews. "This rooster is just so mean, it's gorgeous," she said.

She said that tattoos only hurt when they are started and then you feel numb.

Johns said she named her piercing and tattoo parlor "Dynamic" after name just "popped in her head."

"That's just me. And I was going to do the best job I was going to do and be dynamic at it," she said.

For more information on Dynamic Piercing and Tattoo, visit www.dynamicpiercingtattoo.com.