Tattoo artist carves niche in C-Falls

Jesse Worthey likes flowers.

"You can't go wrong with a flower," he said last week at his new tattoo parlor in Columbia Falls. "Things that are organic are more fun to tattoo."

Flowers aside, Worthey also likes to draw classic tattoo designs - eagles, snakes, daggers, skulls and other organic art.

He opened the parlor about two months ago on Nucleus Avenue next to the Barber Shop.

He likes the old buildings on Columbia Falls' aging strip. He wishes some hadn't been torn down. He's remodeled his shop to give it an old look. The floors are wood. A cow skull hangs from the wall. There's a mount of a big buck in the corner. It looks warm and clean.

The 33-year-old moved from Witchita, Kan. to the Flathead about three years ago. His business partner, Josh Duckworth, invited him up and he loved the place. The mountains are a far cry from Kansas. Kansas is just cold, and the crime was bad. Witchita is not a sleepy little town. It has a million people and plenty of gangs.

Columbia Falls has proven much nicer.

"This area just seemed to work," he said.

In Kansas, he built traditional hot rod cars. He still does that, but tattooing is his bread-and-butter. He's self-taught, learning from other artists.

He starts by sketching designs and then painting them in watercolor. His tattoo needle is custom built, deftly laying the ink into the skin.

"My tattoos heal fast and they're clean," Worthey said.

During the interview he was working on a tattoo of a woman on Heidi Felts' forearm. Felts is Worthey's girlfriend. They have three children together. Tattoos of the kids are on both of her arms.

It's a family thing.

Tattoos run $75 an hour. Most of his clients are younger - between 18 and 25, though he's done work for people as old as 65.

The parlor will have an open house from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Dec. 2 - the same evening as Night of Lights.