Ultimate Arts Tattoo owner Stripe suggests the best place to get poked in the Madcity

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In Madison, the art of tattooing has a long and vibrant history and few studios have contributed

to that culture as consistently as Ultimate Arts tattoo. Founded in 1988, the shop is known for

original artwork on world-winning artists and a reputation that attracts clients from across

the country, even internationally. It's Madison's best place in town to get poked,

and tonight, founder and an award-winning tattoo artist, Stripe, joins us in the studio.

Stripe, welcome to MagSync Radio. Hello, hello, how are you?

Good, man. Good to see you here again. So I got to throw one correction for you. I'm not actually

the founder. You're not the founder? I believe I'm the third owner. You're the third owner.

Yeah, the studio started back in like 1998 or 1999. I was still in high school back then.

I didn't get into Ultimate Arts until 1994. Oh, wow. And then I worked up to the manager,

and then I worked up to buy in the place I'm sick of this. Wow, that's pretty cool though.

I mean, honestly, I didn't know all that much history. I found on the internet that it started

in 1988. Yes, that was a husband or wife were running it at one time, and then it just kind of

bounced up to me. Wow, where was that location? I think the first location was right by East High School,

very short time. And then after that, it was on Antwood Avenue. Oh, I can't remember the name of

the bar that's there right now, but I think it's the harmony. Oh, yeah. So I could have for the

harmony is where the original main Ultimate Arts was for a few years. But I actually remember that

now. I didn't realize that that was in Ultimate Arts. Yeah. Well, you know, at your home,

your fur baby doesn't have any fur. Oh, I got one of them. Oh, you do. But I know that you have one

that is just skinned, right? Yeah, I got a, you were doing some research. Yeah, I got a

black and white Argentine Tagu, which oddly doesn't have scales. Really? It feels like leather

with native beads on it. And it's black. It's black and whites. It's main color. But then as the

the orchids, it kind of changed their gorgeous. And she's about, you know, almost four feet long.

Wow. She's a good patch. They call them the puppies of lizards. You'll sit on your lap. It'll

hang out. It just wanders the house from time to time. And it's got big enclosure that it hangs

out there. But it's a, it's a pretty fun. How big is your enclosure? About the size of two

refrigerators. Wow. It's pretty big. Oh, my goodness. What is that kind of a thing to eat?

rodents. It's favorite eggs. It likes a medium to soft boiled egg. It makes it very fruity.

Straight before you get to Ultimate Arts again. Tell us a bit of your backstory. I mean,

how did you get started as a tattoo artist? Oh, a tattooing story was a little funny. I was a chef.

I went to cooking school and art school at the same time. Okay. And my goal was I wanted to do

food art. I wanted to do ice sculptures, wedding cakes. I wanted to do a, like photographs that

were in gourmet magazine or in advertising. So I wanted to prep those gorgeous plates and do

these neat things. Unfortunately, I was back in the early 90s. I really couldn't find a job

doing it. So the tattoo thing came up. But I wasn't really big into tattoos. But I saw where

something was happening. I looked at this tattoo magazine and I was like, oh, this is like real art.

There's these people, especially down in the Chicago area that were doing these really nice

actual more like paintings than they weren't yet to is that the days of the old traditional

sailor theory were going to die. And they were like painters. It's wonderful graphic artists doing

great work. And I'm like, oh, I could be in the beginning of this. And so wow. With the

limited art school experience that I had and I charged into it head first. And I got to ride

this wave of artwork blowing up. Wow. And it was really cool. I can't complain about that

projection. But now, what was your, what was your parents role in kind of your artistic and your

food? Were they supportive of you being artists? Slightly. Also, then when it came to tattooing,

they were like, find a real job. They weren't dead into it. But my dad owned an advertising

art studio. So they did the pre-press preparation for stuff. So I grew up sitting on light tables

and using razor blades to cut colors out and playing with CMYK combinations and doing color

separation. And yeah, pre-press. There was no scanners. So they did all that stuff by hand.

And I sat there with all these people. It had graphic arts degrees doing this tedious

and not in this stuff. So I knew I didn't want to be in that part of the artwork. So that

definitely taught me that much. What were you artistic as a kid then? Yeah, I drew most of my life.

There's just kind of always the thing. I was the doodler in class that got yelled at all the time.

What my comprehension while doodling was better than if I wasn't. So they let me.

Oh, that's funny. That's true. And you're in the motorcycles. Are these?

Oh, yeah. I used to. No, I got I got a BMW. I'm boozy. Oh, it's pretty cool.

Yeah, I got off the Harley thing probably five years ago or so. I just got sick of fixing it.

And it was a pain in the butt. And I didn't like the world that surrounded it. And I got a very fast,

very large BMW. For a whole lot less than it would have hardly. Well, that's very cool.

Well, now tell us about Ultimate Art statue. And where you were at. And you've got a new location.

And tell us about, you know, why you moved. Well, start the story. I'll go back to

2000. That's about when I bought out the former owner. And I wound up almost immediately

being evicted from the place we're at. Weird circumstances. Goofy. So I found this new place,

which is the one you've been to, which is that little place over at. Yeah. And we moved in there.

We're doing about 24 years. We were rocking along. It's really tiny in a horrible parking lot.

Today's full size pickup trucks couldn't fit in there. It was kind of bad. But we'd, you know,

rocked along pretty good. You know, lots of artists, lots of people. And then we ran the big toy drive

every year. Tats for Tots. We're bringing a thousand people in one shot, like just in a matter of,

you know, four hours we could have almost 1,500 people roll through that. Wow. And we did a lot

of crazy stuff. But then city of Madison's, why is wisdom decided they prefer apartment complexes

over in that area. And so they pushed for that. And I got a year. They gave me years. Notice

that here, this is what we're doing. Yep. And I went past it on the way here. It's gone. Yeah,

yeah. Yeah. You know, it's demolished. And so I went out about a six month search. Then I found

this great landlord that I absolutely, but great to us. And we found this good building.

Took forever for the city to let us move in there. I think we're going to move in in July. But then

it took all the way till November to actually finally get the city's okay. Oh, bureaucracy is not

fun. Where is the new location? And we are now on 2017 South Stoughton Road, which is right by

farm and fleet. It's across the street a little bit towards the north from there. Sure. Yeah,

it's really neat. It's about double the size. Huge parking lot pickup trucks can actually park

there now. Yeah. Which is what everyone's complaint was. So we got you covered. And we ran

the first toy drive out there this year. And it was great because we have over 100 parking stalls.

Wow. Yeah. And so many people through so fast. And we're running over a thousand people

through in those few hours. And it was pretty spectacular. That was the three weeks after we opened.

How many artists do you have doing tattoos in your current location? So right now,

there's four of us here full time. One guy who's just working his way in and I have an apprentice

to. And then we have a assistant that works there. And I've been interviewing people.

It would probably get in them. Might have up to about seven over the next couple of few.

Wow. That's it's been growing and it's getting busy. And we're doing really cool stuff in this

large space that's really well lit and it's bright and fun. And we're having a good time.

Now you just mentioned twice for tats. And Ultimate Arts has always been involved with community

events over the years. Yeah. You know, talk about some of your successes and your belief in

community engagement. Absolutely. One of the most important things I think any individual

business can do. If you don't give back, you're taking money out of your community. And if you

don't put it back in, you're not a good person. You're not a good business. So, you know,

I guess some people do tie things of 10%. I'm going to do more than that. I'm going to make sure

the people I buy jackets for homeless. We do just regular give-outs for that. I've collected

a lot of money for cancers. Individuals with cancer. Individuals with just about any problem. We

did a mental health awareness fundraiser. We helped with a couple weeks ago. We helped out by

donating to a guy who's bringing his daughter home from India and just needed the funds to get

them back. And so it says many things we possibly can to keep giving back to the community. Some

of them will be our clients that we're helping. Some of them are just generically who needs help.

We're going to be there for it. Wow. And if kids that are local need toys, man, I like toys.

I like them a lot. You've seen my garage. Oh, yes. Yes. But if you don't, I just say shame on you

for putting it all at your own pocket and not helping your community grow. Wow. That's incredible.

I really love that. How can we keep up with Ultimate Nerds Online? We are literally everywhere.

We got UltimateArtsTN2.com. We got a TikTok page. Instagram page, Facebook page, Twitter page,

or X or whatever you call it. There's a social media page. We're probably on there. I think the

only thing I don't have would be a Pinterest page. That's because I lost my login. Otherwise,

I'd be everywhere. Nice. Is there anything we missed about Ultimate Nerds? Got any specials

or anything coming up or anything you want to announce events? I don't know. We never do specials.

But we have thought of them. We just never get a drone to it. It's a we thought about it special.

Head into the new location. Yeah. Then we get so busy. It's fun. I love being busy.

Well, that's awesome. I can't wait to go over to the new shop and park my big pickup truck

in your brand new lot and bring some Star Wars toys. Yes. You know I'm like that.

Strike, thank you so much for coming down to the studio to chat with us tonight. I'm Max

Ingridio. We really appreciate it. Hey, love you guys. I listen every week and I love Madison

music. Well, let's get to some Madison music right now. Taylor Sharik. He plays with the

the Fufu dolls and I'm looking. Do we have what he's playing in a place? Oh, we don't have any

he's playing in a place. But you know, we just had him in last week and you can get the podcast

at civicmedia.us to search Max Ingridio there. And let's listen to him right now. This is

brand new Taylor Sharik. The flame you're listening to Max Ingridio. We are local music shop local

eat local listen local. This is Max Ingridio. We are local music.