When he was 8 years old, John Young started voraciously reading every book he could get his hands on about ancient cultures. The tribal symbols fascinated him.

Almost 30 years later, Young has translated his passion into a career inking tribal art on the human body.

Young and his wife, Jana, have opened Arkane Art Tattoo on East Williams Street in Apex - the town's first tattoo parlor.

"I don't think of it as tattooing," he said. "I think of it as erasing the flesh to reveal the ink that's already there."

The shop opened in June and business has been steadily growing through word of mouth referrals and promotion.

"We got a much better response than we were originally expecting," John Young said. "Some people would have thought it wouldn't have broken even, much less do well."

The parlor's artists specialize in tribal, line, portrait, cartoons and custom art. Arkane art strives to have a laid-back atmosphere without any rivalry with other tattoo parlors.

Artists will cover up tattoos regardless if the original tattoo came from another shop, John Young said.

The name of the parlor "Arkane" is a derivative of the word arcane and is a nod to his love of ancient history and the mystical. Arcane means mysterious, obscure or esoteric.

For Young, 36, his tattoo shop is a dream realized. He experimented with inking at age 14, by tattooing a magical eight ball with a star on his hand. He tried an apprenticeship at a shop but was turned off by having to pay $5,000 for what he called the "privilege" to learn, when in reality it was just free labor.

Then, he said, life got in the way. He started a family and worked as a construction worker, never able to scrape enough money to open his own place. This year's tax return finally allowed John Young and his wife the means to fulfill his dream.

The Youngs live in Apex and decided to open up shop locally.

"We realized they don't have anything out here like this," Jana Young said. "There's not the nightlife here like there is in Raleigh."

Originally, the couple planned to open a tattoo lounge with a bar area where customers could hang out. However, with only one bathroom on site, it wasn't possible, she said.

The Youngs are hoping to open a second location as a tattoo lounge in another town.

"I have people who have thanked me for opening a place in Apex," she said. "I was hoping for a positive response and we've gotten it."

While Raleigh has some longtime established shops, Apex and Cary are newbies to the tattoo business. Cary got its first tattoo parlor, Double Deuce Tattoo and Art Gallery, in 2009.

Apex has taken some steps to make sure tattoo parlors don't take over a shopping center or other commercial locations. The council voted to amend the town codes to restrict businesses that are considered "adult uses," such as tattoo parlors and pawn shops, from being within 1,000 feet of one another.

Area towns are just grasping a tradition practiced throughout history. Tattoos have been used in countries such as Japan, Germany and Egypt for multiple reasons including spiritual practice, showing status, symbol of adulthood or to mark criminals.

In America, tattooing has found itself into the mainstream with shows like TLC's "Miami Ink" and A&E's "Inked" and on the arms of rock stars, professional athletes and movie stars.

John Young said his customers aren't influenced by those television shows as much as they are by their own personal experience.

"For most people it's about their families, their pets or some moment in time they want to commemorate," he said.