NEWS — Las Vegas

On one of the biggest holiday shopping weekends Studio 21 Tattoo will be having a Tim Burton Themed Art Show at our studio. A call to all artists to invite them to participate, this should be a really fun show. A flyer for the show will be posted on our social media to give you all the particulars on the show, so keep an eye out. It will be a charity event.

TIM BURTON THEMED ART SHOW

DATE: NOV. SATURDAY, NOV. 24TH @ 6-9 PM

DEADLINE: ART DUE BY NOV. 12TH

WHERE: 6020 W. FLAMINGO RD., STE. B-2, LAS VEGAS, NV 89103

ARTISTS GUIDELINES:

1. Embracing Small Business Saturday, Shop Local!
2. Any medium, anything related to Tim Burton
3. Limited art space – reasonable size please
4. $500 Cap on pricing (suggest smaller pieces priced to sell $150-$250)
5. Studio 21 Tattoo Gallery commission 30%
6. Children’s charity will be announced 
7. Please have appropriate hardware on artwork, ready to hang
8. Details of event will be posted on Instagram @studio21tattoo and FB Studio 21 Tattoo
9. You’ll be asked to fill out paperwork for your art piece upon drop-off (title, artist, medium, price, brief description of artwork, and contact information)
10. Artwork must be picked up by Monday, Dec. 10th.
11. If not local, arrange for someone local to pick up your artwork.
12. No out of U.S. submissions, unless you want to donate art to the charity to be announced. We will not be mailing back.

It’s already been ten years since J “Swarm” Wood joined the Studio 21 Tattoo family as an artist and all around mood director!  We at the studio really are excited to celebrate this exciting milestone with J. Austin and Charlie have known Swarm since the late 90’s when we all started tattooing at local shops here in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s hard to believe this much time has passed since the beginning of our tattoo careers together. Time flies when you’re having fun! Yes, it has been fun for sure.

We’ve watched J get married, have two beautiful little girls, Mikayla and Emma who are just about all grown up by now. A great dad, Swarm really is proud of these two and really should be! Sweet as they can be! The girls almost always attend the Studio 21 Tattoo events and add to the family spirit we all enjoy here. It’s always great to have them visit the studio. Could it be that one of these two will be groomed as an artist thanks to the influence of dad? Whatever they choose to do, they will know that they are loved by their dad, that’s for sure. 

During his time here at the studio, Swarm started a project that really influenced his art style and capability. One day J walked in and started installing these empty picture frames on the walls in his booth here at the studio. His idea was to design a tattoo flash sheet for each of these frames. Not a small task as there are a total of fifty-nine of these!

Fifty-nine sheets of movie and video game themed flash sheets! These are amazing art pieces and he’s almost finished! Wow! It’s always fun to just stand around in his booth an admire these works of art. So cool.  This is quite an accomplishment for someone who is juggling the duties of fatherhood, maintaining his sanity and consistently showing up and tattooing hard day in and day out for all these years. That is admirable! We at the studio are very proud to have Swarm on our team. 

In recent years, J Swarm has taken up a new addiction. Running. Running his ass off!

He’s participated in numerous marathons and successfully completed them all. He qualified for the last two years for sponsorship by Michelob Ultra to run in the New York Marathon. They pay all his expenses including airline, a hotel at Central Park and meals. How cool is that? We wish him luck in the upcoming New York Marathon.

J Swarm is a guy you can always depend on to help with charity work here at the studio as well. He has done many tattoos over the years and donated the proceeds to various local charities. He hung in there with us to help do the over three hundred tattoos we did for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting on October 1st, 2017. In very difficult times, he was here, doing what he does with no complaint. For that we are all very appreciative!

From all of us here at Studio 21 Tattoo, love ya J Swarm!! We look forward to what the next ten years brings. Pretty sure it will be a lot of fun. Thanks for being the studio “mood director”!

-By Charlie Spencer

The second Taco Tuesday at Studio 21 Tattoo is just around the corner. As you know we have this event the last Tuesday of June, July and August, so if you missed June, you still have a chance to get that taco tattoo or maybe two. Two street tacos are a bonus with your $50 Tattoo and there’s lots of designs available to choose from so there is no excuse not to head our way. Cheap date, why not? Maybe bring a friend or two. Hope to see you there. Summer wouldn’t be summer without Taco Tuesday.

An interesting phenomenon is currently occurring in our little oasis in th e Mohave Desert we all know as Las Vegas. It’s a serious case of Vegas Golden Knights fever! No matter where you look in our little city, you will find evidence of this new epidemic. The excitement has been building throughout this, the inagural season, of our NHL expansion team.

Now in the playoffs for the 2017 season, the Vegas Golden Knights are creating an amazing buzz around this town! The Las Vegas community has embraced this team like nothing ever seen before. You may be surprised that a town in the middle of the desert would have an amazing professional hockey team. It is interesting to talk to folks who, a year ago had on interest in the game of hockey and now understand hockey terms such as icing and forecheck.

Studio 21 Tattoo has joined in on the fever. For the last ten years of so we’ve only had one true sports fan on staff. Jasen “Swarm” Wood, @darthswarm has been the studio’s dyed in the wool sports fan and has helped our entire staff learn some of the hockey rules and terminology.

No matter if the Vegas Golden Knights win the coveted Stanley Cup, the team has developed a fan base that is as solid as a rock! It is very exciting to feel like a part of something special. After the terrible event on October 1st, 2017, a day that all local Las Vegans would like to just put in the past, it is wonderful to have a feeling that something positive is happening in our community. Without a doubt, Las Vegas residents have something to be proud of!

Having lived in Las Vegas for almost thirty years, I personally have not seen anything like the excitement and positivity that the Vegas Golden Knights have brought to our city. The home games have been sold out since the season began. To attend a Vegas Golden Knights game at the T-Mobile Arena is amazing. It seems that every fan has at least one article of clothing with the Knight’s logo on it. Many of them are wearing the jersey of their favoorite player.

Another interesting thing that has developed is a sense of pride during the singing of the National Anthem by Carnell “Golden Pipes” Johnson. While singing the anthem, when Mr. Johnson recites the line “gave proof through the night”, the crowd roars the word KNIGHT. To be there and hear this fever pitch roar will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck!

To sum it up, Vegas Golden Knights fever has a grip on the Las Vegas community like nothing we’ve ever seen before! Go Knights Go!

Back in February of 2017, I had a shot at tattooing Whiskey Emerson. Interesting name, right? Well, it”s actually a pen name for a very talented young writer from Portland, Oregon. She was visiting a close friend her in Las Vegas when they decided it might be a good idea to get a friends tattoo at Studio 21 Tattoo. As luck would have it, I was chosen to tattoo Whiskey!

I feel fortunate to be able to sit with interesting people from all walks of life. Sometimes you meet someone and right away realize this individual is special! This is the way I felt when I met Whiskey Emerson. One can always find common ground with others if you just take the time to show interest in what they have to offer. Whiskey enjoys motorcycling, which used to be one of my passions. If I were her age, I would still be enjoying the sport. Whiskey also shared some of her stories about her love for the great outdoors, something that I also enjoy immensely!

Our conversation eventually led to the fact that Whiskey was working on a book publishing deal. She told me she had done a kickstarter to finance this deal and was close to being published on Mascot Books, a publisher out of Herndon, Virginia. Whiskey had mentioned at some point in our conversations she was a history buff. “West of Hell”, is a historical fiction that takes place in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City in the late 1800’s. I wished her the best of luck with the publishing deal, finished her tattoo and said goodbye.

A few weeks later, I received an email from Whiskey. She wanted to know what I thought of the illustrations someone had sold her to use at the beginning of each chapter. A quick look at what she had was just some crappy clip art someone had sold her, I felt she had been taken advantage of so I told her I’d be glad to do illustrations for her that would be more presentable. Knowing that Whiskey had put a tremendous amount of effort into writing theis novel, I knew West of Hell deserved some quality illustrations to adorn the pages.

This was the beginning of a relationship that will now lead to my being able to help her with illustrations for her next novel, “East of Hell”, which is currently in the works.

Here we are, a little more than a year has passed since the first time tattooing Whiskey. “West of Hell” was published and is now for sale just about everywhere books are sold! She sent me a signed copy which I am very proud of. I have read my copy and have to say, it’s a really amazing story and a joy to read. Whiskey hooks you in right from the start and created some fascinating characters. The best part is, there’s more to come as West of Hell is to be the first part of a trilogy.

“West of Hell” Book Signing at Studio 21 Tattoo Gallery will take place April 7th, 2018, 6pm – 9pm, Author, Whiskey Emerson…writer, adventurer, renegade.

If you are interested learning a little more about Whiskey Emerson visit her website https://www.whiskeyemerson.com

Charles Spencer – Co-Owner/Tattoo Artist at Studio 21 Tattoo Gallery https://studio21tattoo.com

Schedule of other book signings for “West Of Hell”

March 25, 2018

Vroman’s Bookstore (Just outside Los Angelos,CA)

April 7, 2018

Studio 21 Tattoo Gallery (2 miles west of the Strip, Las Vegas, NV)

May 12, 2018

Barnes and Noble (Just outside Portland, OR)