We propose UV-completions of Froggatt-Nielsen-Peccei-Quinn models of fermion masses and mixings with flavored axions, by incorporating heavy fields. Here, the $U(1)$ Froggatt-Nielsen symmetry is identified with the Peccei-Quinn symmetry to solve the strong CP problem along with the mass hierarchies of the Standard Model fermions. We take into account leading order contributions to the fermion mass matrices giving rise to Nearest-Neighbour-Interaction structure in the quark sector and $A_2$ texture in the neutrino sector. A comprehensive numerical analysis has been performed for the fermion mass matrices. Subsequently, we investigate the resulting axion flavor violating couplings and the axion-photon coupling arising from the model.