NEWS — Tattoo Shop

J “Swarm”, a resident tattoo artist at Studio 21 Tattoo Gallery in Las Vegas, Nevada since 2008, is an accomplished traditional artist and proud father of two beautiful girls. In December, 2015, Swarm decided to make some life changing decisions. He decided to start running to improve his physical and mental outlook. Swarm began running two miles three times a week. As time passed his running distance increased as did his goals. For 2016 Swarm aspired to run 1,000 miles and complete 6 races for the year. Not only did he accomplish ambitious goal, he dropped over 50 lbs. in the process and exceeded the original 1,000 mile distance by 200 extra miles.

As a benefit for outdoor enthusiasts, Las Vegas offers ideal weather and beautiful scenic areas to train for races. Whether its early morning runs through the 17 mile loop in Red Rock State Park or conquering the 20 mi. round trip trek to the 11,056 ft. elevation of Griffith Peak summit in the Spring Mountains of Southern NV. There is no shortage of breathtaking scenery to benefit those training endurance runs.

The year 2016 marked a significant time period of great accomplishments for J Swarm and his excitement and enthusiasm carried forward to 2017, leaving his old habits behind him. Swarm’s new intentions were designed to go beyond his dream to achieve even bigger goals, including 2000 running miles, drop additional weight and complete 10 races ending the year with a marathon in Hawaii.

Among the many races completed his 5th race of 2017, the St Jude’s Rock & Roll Marathon, really tugged at Swarm’s heart strings. In 1993 his younger brother passed away from Leukemia. With the help and generosity of friends and family he raised $1500 to benefit the St. Jude’s Hospital and Research for Childhood Cancer to help those families with expenses as they go through such a difficult time.

In July of 2017, J. Swarm was notified that Michelob Ultra was giving out 100 bibs (running numbers) to the New York City Marathon. In order to win a bib, one must share your name, email and a written story about running. With nothing to lose, he decided to take the challenge. He began relaying the details of his tremendous weight (now down 80 lb) and how his passion for running developed into an obsession for his personal achievement. J Swarm won his bib to run in the New York City Marathon. on November 5th, 2017
as a winner of the team Ultra contest. Needless to say he is honored, humbled to be among the chosen candidates and extremely excited to win the opportunity to experience to this historic marathon. The NYC is right around the corner and the Michelob Ultra Team has supplied Swarm with all the right gear to hit the ground running.

The entire Studio 21 Tattoo family wish him luck accomplishing this great running event.
These are the races completed by J Swarm:

2016:
Lake Mead 10K
Hot Chocolate 15k
Recycled Run 10K
Pumpkin Man 10k
St. Jude’s Rock & Roll Marathon, San Diego, Half Marathon (raised $1500)
Turkey Trot 12k
1200 miles outdoors

2017:
Lake Mead 10K
Hot Chocolate 15k
Revel Mt. Charleston Half Marathon
Running With the Devil Half Marathon
Dam Ruck & Run Trail Race Half Marathon
Pumpkin Man 10k
St. Jude’s Rock & Roll Marathon, Las Vegas (raised $1450)

Upcoming:
New York City Marathon 11/05/17
Turkey Trot 12k
Hawaii 12/10 Full Marathon

https://studio21tattoo.com/

https://www.tcsnycmarathon.org/

As the world is aware on Sunday, Oct.1, 2017, Las Vegas locals and visiting tourist became the target of a senseless, evil mass shooting. This attack took place at the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Musical Festival at Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino. Words cannot express how heartbroken and devastated our great city and community are. It will be difficult to deal with the aftermath of this horrific incident. Studio 21 Tattoo Gallery organized a fund raiser to help raise money for the Las Vegas Victims @GoFundMe set up by Steve Sisolak, Clark County Commissioner Chair from Las Vegas. The funds will provide relief and financial support for the victims and their families. Studio 21 Tattoo Gallery will be offering the state of Nevada outline with a red heart in the lower sector representing Las Vegas. All proceeds (100%) received will be donated to this fund by Studio 21 Tattoo Gallery. Due to the volume of tattoos being done, there are no substitutions to the existing design offered. For those who cannot give blood, this is a good way for our tattoo enthusiasts to show their love for our community. If you prefer to opt out of the tattoo, you are welcome to come by the shop and donate money to the cause or you may go direct to Las Vegas Victims’ Fund @GoFundMe. The amount of support that our local community has shown is overwhelming and greatly appreciated by the owners, staff and all of our tattoo artists who are donating their time and talent to help the victims. At current count, 59 people have lost their lives and over 500 injured, let’s try to help them in any way we can. Please follow us on Instagram @studio21tattoo.com and FB  https://www.facebook.com/Studio-21-Tattoo-Gallery-206119829429/ for updates on the #Las Vegas Love Fundraiser.

The following are links to information you might find helpful.

https://www.gofundme.com/dr2ks2-las-vegas-victims-fund

https://www.lvmpd.com/en-us/Pages/LVRoute91FestivalShooting.aspx

On certain summer Tuesdays, in blazing hot Las Vegas, tattoo fans can get a smokin’ good deal at Studio 21 Tattoo. We call it “Taco Tuesday” and a great time is had by all who participate!

The idea is that those who join in on the festivities get a fun, taco themed tattoo and a couple home made street tacos prepared by the Spencer family for fifty bucks. This year, we picked the last Tuesday of the month in June, July and August. Most of the folks that took advantage of this awesome offer last summer will show up for all three events. We also gain newcomers each time Taco Tuesday comes along.

All Taco Tuesday tattoo designs are prepared by the artists at Studio 21 Tattoo. There are so many cool designs to choose from, some people go ahead and get two!

This event is offered to give back to the community that is that has supported our studio over the years. Not limited to locals, we have had numerous tourists who just happened to be in town join in on the fun. It is always announce on social media by the studio and each of our artists and employees.

So if you feel the urge for some great tacos, excellent company and really fun little quickie tattoo custom designed by our outstanding staff of artists, drop on in on Taco Tuesdays for a real good time.

Follow us on Instagram @studio21tattoo https://www.instagram.com/studio21tattoo/ and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Studio-21-Tattoo-Gallery-206119829429 and visit our website to stay up with our stellar staff of artists. https://studio21tattoo.com/

Dayum! Studio 21 Tattoo has  been havin’ a real good time with the Taco Tuesday events! If you havn’t heard about it already, you missed out. This idea came up pretty organically,  taking an age old tradition of eating delicious tacos on ..well.. TUESDAYS! Studio 21 decided to then combine Tattooing with the most amazing  food ever. Who doesn’t like this idea!? UH…NOBODY!! We decided to grill up some steak and chicken, make some fresh pico de gallo, salsas, corn tortillas and threw down some amazing street tacos mashed up with small tattoo designs related to our favorite food. “Taco Tattuesday” kicked off in the summer of  2016, offering $50 tattoos small “as is” designs with a couple FREE street tacos and a FREE beer even! On a hot summer desert day, June 21st marks the very first EVER Taco Tuesday event at a tattoo studio…I really believe that this WAS the first ever. We provided over 100+ small designs starting with a “taco” theme on this particular day, later evolving and adding themes such as “Desert”, and “Summertime”  tattoos with each fallowing summer month. June went pretty well! We kicked off the first event with 22 tattoos done in 3 hours of taco tattooing. Later in July we followed up with the “Summertime” themed tattoos and had another cookout unfortunately on the HOTTEST day ever with temperatures reaching 118 that day..this sucked. I was over the grill too..not cool. This wasn’t our most successful day, only doing 16 summer themed tattoos but whatever..we had fun. Too HOT for taco tatts. Quickly learning how to put this event together, we decided to get our shit together and really push the next event hard! August was the BEST “Taco Tattuesday” yet! We had a new fresh set of designs for the party, “Desert” themed. This idea got everyone really excited to make some great super appealing designs and the turnout showed. We did 48 tattoos in a little over 3 hours. Augusts event had ALL the sheets of designs from the whole summer, providing 300ish designs to choose from and had people stressed on which one to choose. Our last Taco night for the summer was a crazy success, leaving us tattooing till roughly 11pm. I had to leave the grill to help the guys finish off the line of people hungry for taco/summertime/desert tattoos! We originally planned on there only being 3 events total, one in June, one in July, and the same for August. Starting an anual Summer time exclusive event…but then we got a call. A call from a producer from a little magazine called VICE. If you know me, you know that I’m OBSESSED with VICE. So with that being said, they will be in town in September and asked if we would throw ONE LAST “Taco Tattuesday” for the summer…I said YES. If you missed this summers parties, this will be your last chance to get that little tattoo you procrastinated on all summer and is now the time to show up early on September 13th and get in line from 6-9pm to collect one of these limited designs!! Till next time guys. Thanks so much to all the collectors that came out and participated in Studio 21’s first ever summer of “Taco Tattuesday”!! You guys rock. Love you guys.

Austin Spencer

Studio 21 Tattoo Gallery

Artist/Owner