One of the few still-tattooing shop owners older than 70, Walters himself is a part of the art form's history. Even more impressive is Walters' tattoo of Hot Stuff the Little Devil on his left shoulder, done by Owen Jensen himself most artists are just thrilled to have one of the legendary tattooer's signature machine models. On the walls are ancient flash sheets and designs from some of the biggest names from the Pike era: Bob Shaw, nephew of Grimm and the owner of Bert Grimm's once Grimm retired in 1970 Dave Gibson, who took his skills from the Pike to help grow San Diego's tattoo scene and handfuls of others, including a tattooer known only as Snickers, who was also a major player in the 1970s punk scene. He's sitting inside his shop-appropriately named Rick Walters' World Famous Tattoo Parlor-just off Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset Beach. Rick Walters leans back in his black chair. They need to keep those traditions going." "A lot of young tattoo artists don't know the history and tradition, so I have to teach them about that history and to recognize where they work. "I try to always remind people of where they are," she says. But as the nautical theme and half-empty drum of Vaseline (which hasn't been used since Barba purchased the space) in the museum attest, Barba understands the importance of the location. The rough-and-tumble boys' club of the past is long gone, and Barba's shop has moved beyond Grimm's American traditional designs, the simple, bright, bold style that dominated America for decades. It's now called Outer Limits Tattoo and Museum, run by Kari Barba, who bought the place in 2002 with partners. But 22 Chestnut Place is still open for business as the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue of the tattoo world. Nor is Bert Grimm's, which closed in 2002. The Pike is no longer there, knocked down and redeveloped over the past 20 years, now home to pricy apartments and trendy retail. The saying is 'What the West Coast originates, the East Coast imitates.' All of the style and influence came out of California." "You had all of these styles coming together there for the first time, and people would build on it. "I think it's had more impact on the styles of tattooing and where they come from than anything," says Phil Sims, who worked at Bert Grimm's from about 1972 until 1980. Already, the Pike boasted one of the world's first formal tattoo studios (opening in the back of a photo shop in 1927, the same space Grimm had just bought), and it would occasionally host some of the industry's first legends, pioneers such as Lee Roy Minugh and Owen Jensen and his wife, "Dainty Dotty," a 600-pound fat lady at the circus when she wasn't tattooing. Its parlors stayed open around the clock to make sure the seamen boisterously waiting in lines that stretched down the block got the pieces they wanted, often sacrificing hygiene and safety as they cranked out as many eagles, anchors, hearts and daggers as possible. When the Navy docked their ships mere stumbling distance from the Pike, the strip transformed from mainstream fun zone to a tattoo paradise. But business had dried up, so Grimm did what generations of Americans passing through the Gateway to the West had done before. Louis, where he had established himself as the best ink slinger in the Midwest. A middle-aged man with dark hair and tattoos up and down his arms, Grimm had just moved to Long Beach from St. But the Oregon-born Grimm wasn't there for those niceties.
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