Harry and Lloyd’s tattoo shop moved to a new location in Moscow Wednesday.

“It is double the size of what it originally was,” Owner Thad Froio said. “I now have room to do the finance part, the appointment making, and the tattoos in another room — it’s amazing.”

Froio said he began tattooing in his 20s and is 10 years into his practice. His friend in Connecticut got him started. He figured he had nothing to lose, he said.

Froio is originally from Connecticut and received an art degree from the University of Hartford, he said.

He said he moved to the Palouse to be near his family in Eastern Washington, but when he found a tattoo shop in Moscow, he decided to move there.

Froio said he did not have many tattoos when he started as an artist, and he tattooed a coworker who only had one other tattoo.

“I was originally called a skinny chef,” he said. “You want to be able to show that you are proud of what you make, which is why every chef tastes their own food.”

He said he opened his own shop a year ago in a small commercial room after working at Bitterroot Tattoo in Moscow for several years.

“It was nerve-wracking, but the factors aligned,” Froio said. “I moved out to Moscow and haven’t looked back since.”

He said he loves having loyal customers and there are many college students who care about creativity in their tattoos.

“I get an average of two regular customers a month,” Froio said. “It might be a new tattoo, they are visiting for the weekend or continuing with another session on their leg piece.”

Froio said his favorite part of his job is his specialty. He focuses on realistic photos of portraits of animals or objects.

“I’ve gotten into renaissance sculptures recently and mainly focus with black and gray matter and realism,” Froio said.

One of Froio’s favorite recent pieces is a memorial for a dog owner of their dog who recently passed away. Froio said he felt the pet’s personality came through with the design. As he was tattooing Froio and the client both became emotional.

Froio has also done work on himself throughout the years. He said his tattoos depend on his environment.

“Some of my favorite ones are these drones from Star Wars. They are on my feet,” Froio said. “I also have an astronaut from the 60s — Bob White, which was the first American spacewalk.”

Froio said he learned many things through this experience of tattooing himself. His main lesson was depth control.

“You want to make sure that it’s deep enough to keep the ink in, but also not too deep to hurt the client, which is a hard task to accomplish,” Froio said. “Depth control is so difficult and why you should practice on yourself if you’re an artist.”

Froio named his store Harry and Lloyd’s after Dumb and Dumber. Froio said he wanted to show that he does appointment-only bookings.

He is the only employee in the store and will recommend piercers for patients to go to. Froio said he wants his clients to connect on a personal level with the art and appreciate their tattoo.

Froio’s Instagram handle for the shop is HarryandLloyds.tattoo, and the shop is located at 116 E. Third St., Suite 203 in Moscow.