After a torturous 1.5 years of development, Howl Gallery finally opens Saturday in downtown Fort Myers. Just don't expect a typical art gallery.

This gallery features pop art, comic books, collectible toys and something unexpected - two fully operational tattoo parlors.

Co-owner Andy Howl, 33, says he opened the gallery to combine all his great loves: tattoos, comics and street art. Howl majored in sequential art at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

"I tell people that I have a bachelor's degree in comics," he says, "and they usually don't believe me."

Howl and his wife, Alainna Zwiernik, have labored over the gallery since December 2007.

They'd hoped to open it by downtown Fort Myers' first monthly Art Walk in October 2008, but delays kept confronting them. One storefront location fell through, and once they found the ideal spot next to Starbucks on Broadway Avenue, it took them longer than expected to renovate the place.

In the meantime, Howl has been showing art at Envie Lounge during Art Walk every month.

Howl Gallery adds a hip, youthful presence to the downtown gallery scene, says Greg Knezevich of La Case del Arte, one of the main organizers behind Art Walk.

"Andy's concept is a hybrid of sorts," Knezevich says. "It's something that I've never seen done before."

The gallery displays Howl's comic-inspired art and work by his two tattoo artists, Bridey Bowen and Andrya Campbell, both of whom come from a fine-art background. There's also the fantasy-style landscapes of Southwest Florida painter Chad Beatty, the large Erector-Set-like wooden sculptures of Sarasota sculptor Donald Murphy, and the colorful Day of the Dead skulls by Bonita Springs artist Ana Caballero. More artists will be shown in the coming months.

The gallery also sells art prints, limited-edition collectible toys, graphic novels and rock 'n' roll prints (including some by the legendary Canadian artist Bob Masse).

During normal gallery hours, Howl and his tattoo artists will be working at three tattoo stations outfitted with old motorized optometrist chairs they found in a Sarasota barn. That way, people will be able to wander the gallery to the sounds of rock music and the whir of the tattoo needles.

"That's going to add to the overall flavor," Howl says.

People didn't quite know what to make of the gallery concept when Howl first started talking about it, he says. But now people are starting to come around.

"Everybody seems to be excited," he says. "I think they get it now. We haven't gotten any more weird looks."