People ask me now and then if I ever do any professional athlete tattoos. To that I say, “yes, I do!”. Tattooing in Las Vegas affords us the opportunity to meet all kinds of interesting people from all over the world. You just never know who’s going to walk through that door.

A couple years ago, I had a young man come in and ask me to tattoo his children’s names on his chest. I said I’d be happy to. We agreed on a price and I went to work on getting the job done.

As he gets in my chair, I asked him what he does for a living. Something I frequently do to break the ice and get the conversation flowing. I remember he had a very strong accent. Wasn’t sure where he was from, but guessed he may be German. He very quietly tells me he plays futbol for a team in Amsterdam. I proceeded to tell him that I know nothing about sports. Pardon my ignorance, but I just don’t have time to keep up with sports. He smiled really big and said that it was all right. I could tell he liked not being recognized.

He explained to me that he played soccer. They just call it futbol over in Europe.

I had heard this before, so now we were clear on what sport he played. I still don’t know at this point that he is some what of a big deal over there.

He told me he was captain of his team in Amsterdam. Sounds like a real big deal to me now. Pretty cool! He was a very soft spoken guy who seemed a little timid.

I had a nice little visit with him while doing his tattoo. He told me he comes to Vegas with some friends for the World Series Of Poker. He didn’t play poker himself but just likes Vegas and enjoys to nice weather. Makes sense because I think the weather over in Holland is not so good much of the time.

Turns out his name is Ron Vlaar. He now plays for a team in England. He played with the Amsterdam team in the 2014 World Cup. I watched my first soccer game during the world cup just so I could see Ron do his job. He put on a great performance! I still don’t know a thing about soccer.  Whatever.

The studio has also had a couple visits from ice hockey defenseman, Deryk Engelland who at the time was playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now he plays for the Calgary Flames. Phil luck got to tattoo him. Phil said he didn’t talk much. As the story goes, Phil asked him why the hell he would move from Canada to Pennsylvania to play hockey. Deryk told him he played for the Penguins. All of a sudden, this made much more sense to Phil.

We’ve had a number of visits from pro athletes, but I don’t remember the names.

Sorry. I’m just not a sports fan. Unless it’s fishing!!! Don’t get me started!!!

Chas. T. Spencer

Owner/Artist

Studio 21 Tattoo