Name: Colorado Nick: A Legacy of Tattoo Art in Colorado Springs
Start: 2026-02-28T10:00:00-07:00
End: 2026-02-28T17:00:00-07:00
Location: Pioneer Museum

We’re excited to announce the opening of Colorado Nick: A Legacy of Tattoo Art in Colorado Springs, a year-long exhibition developed in partnership with the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.
Opening alongside the exhibition is the release of our newest book, Colorado Nick. More than ten years in the making, this 320-page hardcover traces the life of Leonard Newell “Colorado Nick” Wisner, a war-era tattooer whose career unfolded across pool halls, mining camps, arcades, military towns, and roadside stops throughout the American West.
Nick spent much of his career in Colorado Springs at a time when tattooing was still fringe and widely misunderstood by the general public. The exhibition features hand-painted flash, photographs, signage, tattoo machines, original tools of the trade, and Nick’s hand-built tattoo trunks, offering a rare look at an important chapter of Colorado tattoo history.
The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum stands just a few hundred feet from where Nick once tattooed at Recreation Billiards. This exhibition brings his story back to the city where he lived and worked and helped shape early tattooing on the Front Range.
Opening day will include live tattooing by Scott Huttenmaier and Nate Hudak, who will be tattooing select designs from the Colorado Nick book. Please contact the artists directly for booking information.
To mark the opening, free sticker packs will be available, along with a limited Colorado Springs–themed canvas tote inspired by Nick’s artwork, included with any book purchase on opening day.
Colorado Nick has been a deeply personal project for us and a kind of love letter to our hometown. This exhibition extends that work by bringing a hidden local history into a beautiful historic space, just blocks from where it originally unfolded. We hope you’ll join us to celebrate.