The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum (CSPM) is thrilled to announce the opening of Colorado Nick: A Legacy of Tattoo Art in Colorado Springs on Saturday, February 28, 2026. Housed in the AJ Smith Gallery on the museum’s third floor, this fascinating exhibit was developed in partnership with Scott and Kayla Boyer, founders of Yellow Beak Press, a publishing company based in Colorado Springs focused on preserving and promoting tattoo history.

Born in Victor, Colorado in 1914, Leonard Newell “Colorado Nick” Wisner worked a pressure drill in the gold mines before heading to college in Denver. Although the origins of his training are unknown, he excelled at tattooing and eventually travelled across the country to work in “tattoo hot spots” such as Hawaii, San Diego, Long Beach, North Carolina, and Chicago. Returning to Colorado, Nick operated out of several locations in Colorado Springs including the back of Recreation Billiards at 123 West Colorado Avenue. For years “Colorado Nick” catered to a Ft. Carson military crowd on paydays and mentored the next generation of tattoo artists.

Featuring a vibrant range of tattoo art known as flash, tools of the trade, and stories highlighting the history and legacy of Colorado Nick along with a host of others, this unique exhibit highlights the little-known but important cultural history of tattooing. As Guest Curator Scott Boyer explains, “This exhibit aims to bring the hidden history forward. The early tattooers featured here were key figures who shaped the craft in Colorado Springs, but their stories were scattered, forgotten, or never recorded at all.”