Time Flies When You’re Having Fun!
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