Long Beach Tattoo Artists – Where Do They Get Their Start?

As a tattoo artist, you’re passionate about the art and it’s a great way to express yourself. But it’s also a hard, challenging job that requires hours of dedicated practice to learn new techniques and find your own unique style.

So it’s no surprise that a number of legendary tattoo artists made their home in Long Beach. Among them were Bert Grimm, Lee Roy Minguh and Owen Jensen.
The Pike

If you ask the tattooers of Long Beach, California about where they got their start, chances are they will point to The Pike. It was a stretch of pier that was home to several tattoo parlors in the ’50s and ’60s, when sailors were stationed here and loved getting sailor tattoos.

It was also a place where many of the top tattoo artists moved their businesses rather than shop-hopping around the country, which is why there are so many tattoo shops in and around The Pike today. The Pike grew to be the first major tattooing scene in the United States, with some of the most iconic tattooers and art styles in the world coming here to get their work done.

In fact, the oldest continually operating tattoo parlor in America still stands on The Pike. That’s thanks to a man named Bert Grimm who came to Long Beach in 1957 from St. Louis and opened the first tattoo parlor on the Pike.

When he was there, the parlors were packed with ten or more artists at once and would stay open until 3am to crank out 20-minute, four-color tattoos for $15 a pop. It was a time when the tattoo industry made its first forays into the mainstream while still maintaining its working class, countercultural roots.

The Pike’s glory days are long gone, but the legacy of the place lives on through its current occupants and the tattoo artists that have found their own places in this historic space. The latest in a long line of tattoo pioneers to call The Pike their home is Lucky Bastard of Fine Tattoo Work, a seasoned Orange resident who still uses one of the original machines from Bert Grimm’s three decades ago.

Another of the tattoo pioneers who started on The Pike was Barba, a Minnesota native who was one of the first women to make their mark on the tattoo industry. She was also a board member of Good Time Charlie’s, whose founder Rudy Cartwright is now helping to create a national tattoo museum to preserve this culture for future generations.
Nu-Pike

The Pike is one of Long Beach’s most storied locations, a place where many modern tattoo artists got their start. Orange’s Lucky Bastard, who tattoos Japanese bodysuits and other big pieces, got his first machine at Bert Grimm’s on the Pike; Paper Crane Studio’s Chelsea Jane used to hang out with her dad on the Pike when she was a kid.

During the 1930s, when Long Beach was home to the Pacific Fleet and a popular destination for sailors on shore leave, many of them would visit the Pike for a drink or tattoo. The city also drew in crowds of bikers looking for a place to hang, and as the decades passed, it became a dangerous place.

For some, it was a place to escape their own neighborhoods or the constraints of traditional family life. For Latino youth, it was a way to get away from their East Los Angeles barrio and experience a different culture. For others, it was a way to get in with the cool kids.

When the Pike opened in 1927, it was one of the world’s first formal tattoo shops. It was a place where artists like Lee Roy Minugh and Owen Jensen made their names.

As the 1950s rolled on, and violence, drugs and prostitution began to take hold, the Pike’s scene began to decline. But the shop owners kept up their traditions.

Some tattooers, like Owen Jensen, stayed later than their competition to try to keep their shops safe. They would carry a small pistol and try to avoid getting mugged. Unfortunately, this was not always successful.

Jensen was robbed at his shop in 1976, and died from the wounds he received. Other tattooers started to be more vigilant about their safety, and armed themselves with weapons in case they were targeted by criminals.

The Nu-Pike (known as Queen’s Park for the steam liner that stopped in 1979) was a fun zone that stuck in a time when it had a different, darker idea of what it meant to be fun. It looked cheap and felt cheap, despite periodic efforts to Disneyize the midway. Among the things that defined it were the mummified bank robber Elmer McCurdy, who hung in the Laff In the Dark ride, and the Lite-A-Line players.
Owen Jensen

Owen Jensen was one of the world’s most prolific tattoo artists. During his lifetime he worked in numerous cities and tattooed in a variety of shops, including Fred McKee’s Fun Palace at 243 South Main Street in Long Beach.

He also operated a successful tattoo supply business out of his home on the west coast. He was a good machine builder and produced quality flash designs.

While Owen Jensen was not the best tattoo artist on The Pike, he had some excellent flash and is known for many of his classic old school designs. These include Betty Bop, Mother, Popeye Sailor Man, Pirate Girl, Bald Eagle, Native Princess Sacjawea and Hula Girl.

Another iconic piece is the pierced heart. This design has become a classic among tattooers as well as fans of vintage style flash designs.

In addition to his own tattoo shop, Owen Jensen also tattooed at Fred McKee’s Fun Palace on the Nu-Pike in Long Beach. He also worked with Lee Roy Minugh at 26 Chestnut.

Although it is impossible to know exactly when and where Owen Jensen began tattooing, he was certainly involved in the early years of Western American Traditional tattooing. He first learned to tattoo from Edwin Earl Brown, then honed his skills under Charlie Barrs in Los Angeles in 1926-1928.

From there he went on to work in San Diego and Norfolk, VA before finally settling down in Long Beach in the late 1940s. Here he met and married Dainty Dotty, the world’s largest female tattoo artist.

Dotty started out as a circus performer working as a “fat gal,” but after meeting Owen she learned to tattoo. She and Owen were married en route from Detroit to Los Angeles in Reno, Nevada on November 24, 1945.

She and Owen were married for over a decade. She was a large tattooed woman, weighing in at 600 pounds, but she was not the largest on record.

She tattooed a wide range of traditional Americana styles, ranging from eagles to roses to snakes to patriotic pieces. She also did a fair amount of hand pokes.
Bert Grimm

If you’re a tattoo fan, you probably already know the name Bert Grimm. The Long Beach-based artist is one of the founders of the American Traditional style and famous for his large scale tattoo work including full back pieces, sleeves and even full body suits.

After moving to Long Beach in the late 1920s, Grimm established several shops in the city and operated them until he opened his own in the mid-1960s. He was also a prolific photographer who had many photos of his tattoos hanging in his shop.

In addition to his artistic contributions, Grimm was a pioneer of the American traditional style of tattooing and created a professional standard that artists continue to follow today. This style is known for thick linings, bold figures and experimental color palettes.

While Bert Grimm is most associated with Long Beach, his roots lie in St. Louis, Oregon and Seaside, Oregon.

The original building at 22 Chestnut Place, where Grimm opened his shop in the 1930s, is now the oldest continually operated tattoo shop in the country. It was purchased by Kari Barba and two silent partners in 2004, when it was in jeopardy of being turned into a condominium development.

Barba’s shop, Outer Limits Tattoo, still exists in the same location and is a museum that honors tattoo pioneers like Bert Grimm and the history of the Pike. The museum also includes vintage photographs that commemorate the lives and art of tattoo pioneers throughout the past century.

LBDA vocalist and tattoo artist Ortiz has a great respect for the legacy of Bert Grimm and the art form of tattooing, so when it came time to memorialize him, he decided to do it right. Together with his friend and tattoo artist Gant, they opened a museum in Bert Grimm’s former shop to honor this legendary tattoo pioneer.

With a few new additions, the museum is a modern interpretation of the historic space. It’s filled with antiques, artifacts, and photos.

But what really draws the crowd is the actual tattoos. It’s a place where you can get inked by a true master of the art, like Rick Walters, who took over Bert Grimm’s and remodeled it into an authentic museum. Fine Line Tattoos