NEWS

We are proud to have Mr. Ryan Cush on our team. A family man with a lot on his plate, Ryan has a beautiful wife named Sarah and four children, Nick, Devan, Mason and Hailey. That’s a lotta mouths to feed there! It’s no wonder Ryan always seems to have his head down working. 

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mr. Cush was brought to Las Vegas at a young age so his parents could get away from the extra chilly winters up north. They certainly don’t have to worry about snow any more. Desert life now! Only one or two snows per decade for us desert rats.

Ryan graduated from high school at Mojave High in 2002. He developed a tattoo drawing style while still a student by drawing tattoos for his friends. Guess he was pretty good at it! He played in a ska-punk band for a couple years and decided there was not money in it so he needed a change. Being the multi talented person he is, Ryan found an apprenticeship at Voodoo Tattoo here in Las Vegas and established himself as a respected tattooer in the community. With a number of years tattooing on the strip, Ryan was pleased to join us out here in the suburbs to get away from some of the madness on Las Vegas Boulevard. He really enjoys doing neo traditional style stuff and basically anything with lots of color with the exception of realism.

When asked what his favorite movie was, he said “Big Trouble in Little China!” Guess he really likes Kurt Russell. His favorite band is Mad Caddies. Sounds good to us! Ryan has been a great addition to our staff of outstanding tattoo professionals. So glad to have him with us! Check out his portfolio on the web site. He’s here for your next tattoo several days a week. Check him out!

https://studio21tattoo.com/artists/ryan-cush-tattoos/

Staysi is a bona fide born and raised Las Vegas native. She grew up on the west side and is the daughter of a construction company owner so she understands the value of a family owned business. She’s married to a guy named David and together they have two beautiful children, a nine year old daughter, Wynter, an a two year old son, Knox. As a family, these guys love to spend their weekends at Disneyland! Staysi also said she loves doing dishes and laundry. But then, don’t we all?

When she’s not running the show for us here at Studio 21 Tattoo, Staysi enjoys fashion design both as a hobby and vocation. Ms. Lee studied fashion design at U.N.L.V. and F.I.D.M. in Los Angeles. She’s been specializing in retro style wedding dress design for  the past ten years. After designing her own wedding dress she realized she could utilize her skills and talents in providing wedding dresses for those folks that preferred retro dresses to available at the local wedding shops! Her Etsy store is staysileecouture.etsy.com. Check it out. It’s awesome!

It sounds to us like Staysi’s a very busy lady. But Wait! There’s more! She’s also the President of “Luscious Ladies”, a pinup social club. What is a pin up social club you ask? I’m about to tell you! They are an organized group of ladies with around twenty chapters nationwide that provides pin up models for mostly car shows and numerous charity events. The group has their annual meet up at the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender at the Orleans Hotel right here in fabulous Las Vegas Nevada!

When asked how she wound up here, Staysi replied, I was already a customer and was following the Studio’s social media when Becki ran an ad for a customer service representative. She applied, and we thought she was perfect and the rest is history!

We couldn’t be happier to have Ms. Lee greeting our customers with her smiling face and positive attitude!

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.

Well, the year 2019 is winding down and the Holidays are upon us. It’s been another stellar year at the studio. Time flies when you are having fun and it sure has blown by fast. We are so fortunate to have a wonderful staff to keep our reputation spotless and customers elated. As I sit here writing this, there is a family from San Francisco getting tattoos and hooting it up like there’s no tomorrow! They own a sushi restaurant so they probably need to let off some steam. That happens here a lot. We are in the heart of Sin City after all.

Just wanted to take a moment to let our wonderful customers know how much we appreciate their business. There are about two hundred tattoo shops in Las Vegas. That’s a whole bunch of choices! It always makes us feel good to be selected from a field that large. Everyone here at the studio strives to be the best at what we do. We rarely have a slow day and are still open seven days a week after all these years. Seventeen years to be exact! It’s no easy task to stay on top in this town. Las Vegas is a very fast paced city and people expect to be treated well on very short notice sometimes. As business owners, the Spencer family always wants to know if anyone is displeased with our product or services. It is very rare to hear of a complaint!

Here’s to wishing you all a very happy holiday season. Thank you Becki, Austin, McKenna, Kayla, Chad, Jose, Nick, Das, Travis, Mike and Josh for all that you do to make this studio run like a well oiled machine! Your hard work does not go unnoticed! Looking forward to seeing what the next seventeen years brings. Like one of my tattoo mentors said about twenty years ago when Austin and I were just getting started, “There’s a new batch of eighteen year olds every year!” So true. Thanks again.

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’.