NEWS — Las Vegas

People ask me now and then if I ever do any professional athlete tattoos. To that I say, “yes, I do!”. Tattooing in Las Vegas affords us the opportunity to meet all kinds of interesting people from all over the world. You just never know who’s going to walk through that door.

A couple years ago, I had a young man come in and ask me to tattoo his children’s names on his chest. I said I’d be happy to. We agreed on a price and I went to work on getting the job done.

As he gets in my chair, I asked him what he does for a living. Something I frequently do to break the ice and get the conversation flowing. I remember he had a very strong accent. Wasn’t sure where he was from, but guessed he may be German. He very quietly tells me he plays futbol for a team in Amsterdam. I proceeded to tell him that I know nothing about sports. Pardon my ignorance, but I just don’t have time to keep up with sports. He smiled really big and said that it was all right. I could tell he liked not being recognized.

He explained to me that he played soccer. They just call it futbol over in Europe.

I had heard this before, so now we were clear on what sport he played. I still don’t know at this point that he is some what of a big deal over there.

He told me he was captain of his team in Amsterdam. Sounds like a real big deal to me now. Pretty cool! He was a very soft spoken guy who seemed a little timid.

I had a nice little visit with him while doing his tattoo. He told me he comes to Vegas with some friends for the World Series Of Poker. He didn’t play poker himself but just likes Vegas and enjoys to nice weather. Makes sense because I think the weather over in Holland is not so good much of the time.

Turns out his name is Ron Vlaar. He now plays for a team in England. He played with the Amsterdam team in the 2014 World Cup. I watched my first soccer game during the world cup just so I could see Ron do his job. He put on a great performance! I still don’t know a thing about soccer.  Whatever.

The studio has also had a couple visits from ice hockey defenseman, Deryk Engelland who at the time was playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now he plays for the Calgary Flames. Phil luck got to tattoo him. Phil said he didn’t talk much. As the story goes, Phil asked him why the hell he would move from Canada to Pennsylvania to play hockey. Deryk told him he played for the Penguins. All of a sudden, this made much more sense to Phil.

We’ve had a number of visits from pro athletes, but I don’t remember the names.

Sorry. I’m just not a sports fan. Unless it’s fishing!!! Don’t get me started!!!

Chas. T. Spencer

Owner/Artist

Studio 21 Tattoo

To find out why Studio 21 Tattoo was voted Las Vegas best tattoo shop, one only needs to pay us a visit and see what goes on inside. Our shop is located two miles west of the Las Vegas Strip on West Flamingo Road, only a short cab ride from the heart of the strip.

Visitors will always be greeted by the friendly, smiling faces of Courtney or Penny. First you will see a comfortable lobby filled with objects of interest and a gallery of outstanding art, mostly provided by the studio staff. Our customer service representatives will direct you to the artist portfolios and help you find the artist that best fits the type of tattoo desired.

There are six well appointed booths with very comfortable seating to make the tattoo process as painless as possible. Every booth is always spotless. The cleanliness and professionalism will be apparent the instant you walk through the door.

It has taken years to find artists that meet our standards of professionalism. We have artists that work in many different styles of tattooing. If you want a portrait, you might want to come by and see Mike Biggs @biggsstudio or Tyson @savageson. These guys both do black and grey or color portraits very well. If you are more inclined to traditional style tattoos, check out J. “Swarm” Wood @darthswarm or Phil Luck @phillucktattoo. Phil has just returned from New York to work with us again.

If you want a pug tattoo, you just need to check out Nick Bones @nickbonestattoos. Dog portraits are not all that Nick does, but he certainly does his fair share.

Owners, Charlie @21tat and his son, Austin @onmydong also do their fair share of tattooing at the studio. Charlie sticks with the traditional tattoo style while Austin has a style of his own. Austin spends much of his time doing amazing tattoo sleeves with his skeladudes.

Stop in and find out why Studio 21 Tattoo was voted Las Vegas best tattoo shop, but hey, It’s my family business, family owned and operated since 2003. We will continue to strive to do the very best for every person who walks through the door!

Chas. T. Spencer @21tat – Owner/Artist, Studio 21 Tattoo

Tattoo cover ups are a great solution to an old problem. These days, I hear people saying they aren’t worried about their tattoo choices because they can just get them removed if they decide they don’t like it. Keep in mind, tattoo removal can be a very expensive, not to mention painful experience. The results of removal can sometimes be less than satisfactory as well.

Most tattoos can be covered up as long as the tattoo artist knows the process and has the experience necessary to get the job done correctly. If you can tell it’s a cover up, it probably wasn’t very well done.

Obviously, it’s harder for the artist to cover a tribal arm band than to cover up a name or your ex-wifes color portrait.

The popular water color style tattoos with no line work will be the easiest to cover because much of the color in these tattoos will go away with time anyway. The black ink tends to stay very well over time, so it is not easy to cover. This is where experience becomes very important.

It’s probably most common to cover name tattoos. I’ve been married for over 37 years and still have not put Becki’s name on me. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t care if I have her name on me or not. That’s good, because I don’t plan on it any time soon. I have been getting tattooed for over 25 years and haven’t had a touch up or a cover up done. Does this mean I make good decisions? I don’t know. I try. I feel that if you are going to go through the painful process, (yes, it hurts) I just want to add a new tattoo instead of dwelling on the past like so many folks do. If I don’t like a tattoo I have, I just surround it with more tattoos so you don’t notice it so much!

Covering a large tattoo without removal is possible, but more difficult than the smaller stuff. A good tattoo artist can educate the customer on what it takes to make that shit go away. The tribal and Celtic stuff has so much black it’s always a pain to hide. In most cases, it can be done.

I see these guys with their whole arm tattooed black and wonder why? What decisions were made that put them in that position? When the sun hits that much black ink, it’s very hot. Las Vegas summers are not conducive to this type of tattoo. Just my humble opinion. Maybe they just got really cheap tattoos from amateur hacks and had no other choice than to do solid black. Who knows?

Think before you act. Tattooing should be fun. Don’t think too much or you’ll never decide what you want tattooed on you until you are no longer with us!

Chas. T. Spencer @21tat – Owner

www.studio21tattoo.com

Studio 21 Tattoo even does the popular tattoos daily! I’ve often pondered what causes tattoo trends. What makes people want to have the same tattoo that everybody else has? The most popular tattoos now are the infinity symbols. Nothing new about this symbol. It’s been around for an infinite number of years. I don’t know how long really. Google it!

More super popular tattoos would be the dandelion with birds flying out of it. The ladies just love this one! Many of them find their ideas for tattoos on Pinterest. Imagine wanting something original and clever and finding it on Pinterest.

Remember tattoo flash? If you don’t, I’ll give you a little info on the subject. You may have seen pictures of old tattoo shops with all these sheets of art on the wall. You just walked in and looked around at all these little tattoo pictures which usually had the price next to them. This was a brilliant idea. It made decisions easy for people who wanted a tattoo, but just couldn’t decide what they wanted. These flash sheets were usually prepared by an experienced tattoo artist who knew what was involved in the tattoo process. These guys knew how to design images that were easily applied to the skin and would last a very long time.

Fast forward to today. The customer walks in the studio with a “smart phone” in their hand, shows a very skilled artist a very bad picture of something they found on the internet. These are the same folks who would tell you they don’t want just any tattoo off the wall. This brings me back to Pinterest. This is the largest wall ever!

One thing I have learned over the years is, these trendy tattoos are the ones we cover up in a few years. Fortunately, the infinity symbol is going to be fairly easy to hide as soon as they figure out they have the same tattoo as everyone else in town.

What I am trying to say is, if you seek out the best tattoo artist in Las Vegas, try to let the artist help you come up with an image that is not so trendy. That way, you won’t be looking for a cover up tattoo in five years.

Chas. T. Spencer @21tat – Owner/ Artist, Studio 21 Tattoo

We had a blast last year at SEMA  and we’re already thinkin’ about how stoked we are to see whats new this year! Here’s some pics from when our buddy Big Meas came back out to Vegas to visit and laid down some seriosly wild script on our good buddy Brian Hendersons ROTIFORM Beetle. #TATTOOFIGHTCLUB #ROTIFORM #BIGMEAS

# STUDIO21TATTOO