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October 20, 2025
NORTHEAST WISCONSIN – A local artist with a passion for creativity is helping other businesses spread joy through custom, temporary window murals.
Nikki Kucharski – founder and owner of Tattoo Noire Private Studio in Neenah – said since completing her first painting in December 2019, she’s been taking progressive leaps into being a professional, full-time artist.
“Painting was first, and then about two years into that, I realized my paintings were doing so well that I felt finally comfortable enough in my life to color on humans,” she laughed.
Born and raised in Port Washington, Kucharski said she was living in Wausau around the time she decided to take up tattooing.
“I was living in Wausau, but my roommate was actually from the Minocqua area,” she said. “All the artists I had respected and really wanted to work under in Wausau had apprentices at the time, and I didn’t want to wait to start my life, so I just went with her up north.”
Starting as a tattoo apprentice under a Northwoods-based artist, Kucharski said she honed her skills and, in the meantime, also discovered her overall passion for creating art – not wanting to limit her medium or potential.
“I realized I’m more of an overall artist, not solely a tattoo artist, and it was limiting my range if I was working for someone instead of opening my own space,” she said.
The idea for opening her own private studio space – where she could both offer boutique tattoo services and commission her art, specifically portraits of “famous people” – Kucharski said, was born out of her apprenticeship experience.
“I was realizing I was getting a lot of the younger female [clients], and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the business model of a black space and a gallery-style tattoo shop…, but I was feeling these women were kind of uncomfortable,” she said. “I wanted to give them a brighter, calmer [and] more private setting [to get tattooed].”
So, after a creative colleague sung the praises of the Fox Valley art scene, Kucharski said she moved and opened her own private studio at 1075 S. Lake St., Suite 203 B in Neenah in December 2023.
“An ink company owner [had told me], ‘the Fox Valley is a very art-forward, wonderful area – it’s very heavily populated, and it’s more accepting of all your media,’” she said. “He suggested it was a good area in Wisconsin for me.”
Seasonal, weather-resistant, removeable
Her decision to become a self-employed artist, Kucharski said, gave her the freedom to further expand her love of painting murals.
“I started doing [murals at] Chalkfest in Wausau, and it was getting such an amazing response – more of an instant reaction to my work [versus] when I tattoo people,” she said. “I’ve been doing murals… for probably two or three years, but my first outdoor window was [commissioned] this year.”
Now, in addition to her tattoo studio and portrait business, Kucharski said she’s begun advertising her window mural service.
“It was kind of the [Fox Cities] Chamber’s idea,” she said. “They [asked], ‘Can you put this in a format [so] we can kind of sell for you?’ I was like, ‘Oh, wow – I didn’t even think of that.’”
Per the flyer – available on Tattoo Noire’s Facebook page – Kucharski’s seasonal window murals, typically, “take one day [or] around 8 hours” to complete.
“I’ve been told almost on every front, from paintings to tattoos to everything, I undercharge for my labor,” she said. “[For the window murals], I felt $300 at least covered my costs, the products and probably a couple hours of work – but I have always wanted to be affordable [and] reasonable, [because] it’s more about the people.”
The flyer further advertises that the murals “last months” thanks to the outdoor/weather-proof paint she uses to create them and her “very slow, layer process.”
“On [a] canvas, I can just put yellow on there and then I have yellow, [but] if I try to just put yellow on [a] window, I have streaks in it – it is completely see-through [and] it looks awful,” she said. “[So, I’ve] done so much research on how to get the paint really vivid and vibrant and what products to use.”
To remove the paint – which she said often “still looks amazing” even after months of UV and weather wear – Kucharski said she simply sprays the window with a mix of window cleaner and vinegar, then scrapes it off.
“I let [the solution] sit for 10 minutes, and then I go through with a plastic scraper so I don’t put any scuffs in the window,” she said. “I’m definitely not using metal on a window.”
Though her flyer states she is willing to travel within three hours of Neenah to install window murals for business across the state, Kucharski said she’s “probably willing to go a little bit further” depending on the project.
For ideas on what to paint, she said she encourages business owners to find a direction they’d like their custom mural to go.
“I try to get them to go on to Pinterest and Google,” she said. “I just don’t trust putting all of that drawing time into something and then showing them and them [saying], ‘Oh, that’s not really my vibe.’ I just don’t have time to restart from scratch on big projects like that, so I like to have a little bit of direction.”
Though her window mural service is not weather dependent, Kucharski said the art often fits the vibe of whichever specific season the area is currently in.
“Seasonal [murals] just seems to be reasonable, because then I only have to be there three to four times a year…, [but] I’ve painted in a full winter jacket and mittens [with] a hat [and] snow coming down,” she laughed.
Self-employed creativity
Kucharski said painting window murals for business in her former Northwoods stomping grounds and her current home base in Northeast Wisconsin – as well as anywhere in between – has, so far, been an “amazing” experience.
“What a wonderful way to get people to enjoy things immediately – painting live on a window – and it’s just been so rewarding and so amazing,” she said. “It’s really neat to see the community actively enjoying it even as I’m putting it up.”
What’s even more rewarding, Kucharski said, is that as a business owner, she’s able to determine what kind of art she’d like to create on any given day.
Though her studio was established to provide a more comfortable environment for her female tattoo clients, Kucharski said that doesn’t mean her customer base is limited to women only – as she hopes to provide a welcoming space for all to enjoy.
“I’ve gotten amazing feedback from people,” she said. “I do tattoo men as well, and they love the space. I have a TV, [and] we can watch movies, they listen to the radio and [I have] snacks and stuff. I just wanted to create an environment for the client, instead of working in a shop where it is more artist-driven.”
However, Kucharski said her entrepreneurial freedom does come with a personal price.
“My time is so limited that I only do [portraits on] commission,” she said. “I don’t have anything ready [or] sitting on the walls for people to pick up.”
Regardless, Kucharski said she’s glad to have followed her hunger, now having built a “rewarding” career as a business owner and self-employed artist.
“It’s a dream come true, being able to do that,” she said.
To inquire about Kucharski’s mural services – “inside or outside, [it] doesn’t really matter” – as well as her painting and tattoo studio, visit Tattoo Noire Private Studio on Facebook.
