Palm Beach tattoo artist arrested for stalking, sexual cyberharassment, sheriff says

A Palm Beach County tattoo artist has been arrested for aggravated stalking and sexual cyberharassment involving an ex-girlfriend, authorities said.

John Thomas Ryan, 38, was arrested Sunday on charges including aggravated stalking, aggravated stalking with credible threat, sexual cyberharassment, and extortion, jail records showed.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Ryan was arrested after the alleged victim told the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office that Ryan was sending her repeated threatening messages.

She said they had been in a relationship that had been verbally and physically abusive, leading to Ryan’s arrest in 2024 for domestic battery on her and a second arrest for aggravated stalking, harassing phone calls and violation of pre-trial release, the affidavit said.

Those cases were consolidated, and Ryan pled guilty to the misdemeanor charges of harassing telephone calls and violation of conditions of his pre-trial release in March 2025, the affidavit said.

Ryan had been placed on three years of probation with several conditions including no contact with the victim, but that order was later modified to “no violent contact” after the victim petitioned for it, the affidavit said.

The woman said her relationship with Ryan resumed “against her better judgment,” but said the relationship remained “toxic and unhealthy,” the affidavit said.

On April 17, she said she had confronted Ryan about ripping curtains and damaging furniture in her home and said he became enraged and started calling and texting her from the evening hours of April 17 through the morning of April 18, the affidavit said.

She said she told him they needed to move on and that she was going to call law enforcement based on his repeated calls, messages and threats, but she said he told her he didn’t care and would be willing to go to jail to get revenge, the affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, she said Ryan started sending explicit nude photos with derogatory captions and sexually explicit comments to other people.

While investigators interviewed the victim, her phone suddenly powered off and rebooted, and when it turned back on “had been completely wiped remotely,” the affidavit said.

She said Ryan was the only person with knowledge of her email address and password and said he’s remotely logged in to her phone, email and social media in the past, the affidavit said.

The woman said she had previously uploaded screenshots to Evidence.com and said some photos and messages could be recovered from a cloud backup

In one message after she told him to leave her alone he replied “I’m on my way,” and later messaged her “If you’re not home, I’m setting the house ablaze,” the affidavit said.

She said Ryan made other demands and threats and said she believed he may have relapsed on drugs, adding that when it happened in the past he has become violent and unpredictable, the affidavit said.

Ryan was booked into jail and later appeared in court, where his bond was set at $100,000, records showed.