NEWS — Tattoo Artist

Joshua Sutcliffe @fitz_tattoo is a home grown Las Vegas dude with a sports and outdoors addiction. Josh has also lived in southern California, Arizona and did a short stint in Cabo San Lucas while working with Hart and Huntington at the beginning of his tattoo career. He said they sent him down there to cut his teeth on the inebriated tourists. Interesting!

The Instagram handle @fitz_tattoo was derived from his eleven year old blue nose pit bull whose name is Fitzgerald. To take this a step further, Josh’s pit bull was named after Arizona Cardinal’s player Larry Fitzgerald @larryfitzgerald. Nothing weird at all about that! It works!

Mr. Sutcliffe has always had a passion for sports in general. From and early age he was engaged in football, BMX, motocross, snowboarding and surfing to name a few. In recent years he has also enjoyed hiking and running. “Basically anything outdoors will do”, Josh says.

Traveling is also one of his many interests. Josh went to a new destination once every three weeks last year! Some of the places he visited include Venice, CA, Sedona, AZ, Chandler, AZ, Seattle, WA and even Costa Rica. “It’s exhausting” says Josh.

Art and music also captivate Josh’s attention when he’s not pursuing athletic endeavors. He enjoys playing bass guitar (just for fun) and is an avid fan of classic rock music. Some of his spare time is spent doing watercolor paintings of deceased rock stars such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Tom Petty and a host of others. “It’s a flat piece of paper that doesn’t talk” is why Josh enjoys the watercolor medium.

Currently a single guy, Josh said he was “technically married” to a very beautiful Canadian girl. This one lasted a whopping three months! “Relationships are not my strong point” says Mr. Sutcliffe.

It’s been a pleasure having Josh as part of the Studio 21 staff for the last couple years. His tattoo art is outstanding and will not be pigeonholed into any particular style. The attention to detail cannot be overlooked. Check out his portfolio here on our site. You won’t be disappointed!!

Charlie Spencer

Owner/Artist

Studio 21 Tattoo Gallery, Inc.

Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Mr. Frank was previously known as Ben Elliott. Oh how things change!

Ben’s first influence in the world of art began when his third grade art teacher took him under his wing and had him doing special art projects during his lunch period at school. After impressing his teacher with an amazing butterfly print made from styrofoam. Ben was mentored with private lessons at his teacher’s home. Now, this was back in the old days. These days that would probably not fly! (insert laughing face here).

Fast forward to the year 2003, Ben picked up and moved to Las Vegas and soon began an apprenticeship with some wacky characters at a shop on the fabulous Las Vegas Strip where he soon adopted the nickname Frankenberry. We’ll leave that one alone! They soon shortened it to Frankie. Later on while working at another shop across the street, a customer who was a regular from over in Germany started calling him”Das Frank” and it just stuck. We think Ben kinda liked the whole nickname thing. Why not, right? Well, there it is folks. We all wondered about this and now we know!

This young man now known as Das Frank started tattooing full time in 2005 and has been at it ever since. He has a diverse portfolio covering a range of tattoo styles. An excellent painter when time permits, Frank is also recently married to a lovely Canadian lady named Sam and has an eight  year old daughter named Emma Gene. This guy has been married four, count ’em, four times so far. When asked if he planned on doing that again he emphatically replied “Sweet Jesus I hope not!” (insert another laughing face here).

For the past seven years Frank, sometimes called Das, has been making the long trek in the hot month of August to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. He has been tattooing with the American Tattoo Society (sounds fancier than it probably is). This began when a guy named Reverend Bob from Richmond, Virginia recruited him. This year he towed his recently acquired 1964 Aristocrat Little Loafer the 2, 278 mile round trip without a hitch! Just kidding about the hitch. Pretty sure there was one of those attached.

Das Frank’s hobbies include painting, sculpting and restoring his 1964 T-Bird. That T-Bird is going to look great towing the aforementioned Aristocrat trailer!

When asked what the weirdest tattoo he’s done, Frank replied “I got paid $500.00 to tattoo (I heart Steve Madden) on some tourist dude who was on a scavenger hunt. That is weird! Don’t even know what to say about that one.

If you are thinking about doing a session or two with Das Frank you might want to know that his favorite  part of the anatomy to tattoo is the outside of the calf. Das says “Nothing beats the good side of the calf!”. He actually has a good point there. Pretty sure most tattooers would enjoy nothing more than doing calf tattoos ’til the cows come home! No pun intended.

When asked if it hurts when he tattoos Frank said with a smile, “Of course it does!”. He still likes to tell his customers that if feels like being licked by kittens. Not sure if we would all agree with that but Das Frank will always put his best foot forward and try to keep you entertained while those kitties are a’ lickin’.

Nick Bones is proof that you don’t have to be some fancy schmancy dude with a fine arts degree to be an excellent tattooer. Like many tattoo artists today, Nick is totally self taught. Fascinated with drawing at an early age he was inspired mostly by Disney cartoons. “I would turn off the television and try to draw what I had just seen on the screen” says Nick. His interest in comics still shows in the numerous flash sheets he’s done depicting characters from adult cartoons. These adorn the walls of his booth here at Studio 21 Tattoo.

Mr. Bones grew up in Dayton, Ohio and eventually found an apprenticeship at Vertigo Tattoo in Oxford. He moved to Vegas twelve years ago. Nick got married to Destiny in 2012. They have two pugs together named Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Pugsley. Supporting Southern Nevada Pug Rescue is one of their many shared passionate interests, as well as embracing the vegan lifestyle.

Most of Nick’s time away from the studio is spent running. As of last month Nick completed his first 50 mile marathon. Congratulations to him on that great accomplishment. I am sure there will be many more runs on the horizon. He also enjoys cross-fit training and rock climbing out at Red Rock Recreation Area. For those of you not familiar with Las Vegas, Red Rock is an amazing geological formation about a twenty minute drive west of town. Rock climbers from around the world enjoy some expert level climbing adventures year round.

An avid outdoorsman, Nick recently purchased a Mercedes Sprinter Van he says is “fancier than Nick”. He has plans to outfit this rig as a camper with all the bells and whistles. We are all looking forward to seeing what this baby will look like upon completion! Las Vegas is a perfect hub for anyone who enjoys the great outdoors. Vegas is surrounded by National Parks and Bureau Of Land Management property, also know as BLM Land as far as the eye can see. Over sixty percent of the land in Nevada is managed by the BLM.

Mr. Bones has been working with us here at Studio 21 for about nine years now. He enjoys traditional style tattoos with bold lines and a simple color palette. A versatile tattoo artist, Nick has been working a lot recently in black and gray. It’s super popular right now. He’s an excellent at that too!

It’s always a pleasure spending time with Mr. Bones. His schedule is always busy so you might want to call ahead and set up an appointment. You will not be disappointed.

Get familiar with Nick on Instagram @nickbonestattoos

Click on the link for Nick Bones portfolio: https://studio21tattoo.com/artists/nick-bones/

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