Ace Huff grimaced a bit while tattoo artist and Notorious Ink co-owner Mark Childers added red ink to Huff’s tribute tattoo.

Childers drew the tattoo, an arrow going up Huff’s right arm, then he added red and white to make the tattoo stand out. Huff said the tattoo was in honor of his brother, Rory Dale Huff, who died in an automobile accident three years ago.

“It took me a while trying to figure out what kind of tattoo to have in tribute,” Huff said. Rory Huff had an arrow tattooed across his shoulders, so the arrow seemed to fit. “He’ll always be with me. I was thinking about getting another tattoo and I wanted to put his memory in it somehow.”

Childers opened his shop almost a month ago on North Highway 395 – the address is 30600 Sturgis St., Suite A – and has started to build his clientele. The day Huff was getting his tattoo, at least three other people were in the shop, checking out the tattoo flash. A flash is a tattoo design printed or drawn on paper or cardboard.

The brightly painted interior of the shop sports skulls, women, flower and other designs, hand-painted by Childers. Even the restroom has flash on the walls.

“It was a lot of hard work,” said Tina Childers, Childers’ sister-in-law. Tina’s husband Joe Childers is a partner in the business.

Tina added they all spent long days getting the shop ready for occupancy.

The most popular tattoo designs seem to be skulls – even for women, Childers said. Butterflies and flowers are a close second.

“Flowers are huge,” Tina Childers said. “Men get Hawaiian flower tattoos, flames and roses.”

Childers learned his trade in Hood River at The Ink Spot. He has been creating tattoos on bodies for more than two years.

Mark uses a stencil pencil to stencil the design on the skin and then applies the ink.

Depending on the size and the detail of the tattoo, it costs around $250 for a tattoo like the one Huff had put on his arm.

Notorious Ink is open from noon until 8 p.m. The phone number is 567-3993.