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Owen
Jensen (1891-1976)
Owen
Jensen was born
in Pleasant Grove,
Utah. As a young
man he worked in
the railroad shop
in Ogden, Utah.
In a 1972 letter written to Paul
Rogers, Jensen said that in 1911
he walked 12 miles to Provo, Utah
to see the Buffalo Bill Wild West
Show. It was there that he saw
his first tattooed man, James Malcom,
who had been tattooed by Charlie
Wagner. Owen Jensen got his first
tattoo in 1913 from Bob Hodge on
the Lucky Bill Show. This photograph
shows Jensen (right) with Harry
Lawson in front of their shop in
Los Angeles, California.
That fall Jensen went to Detroit
and met J.G. Barber. In a 1930s
radio interview with the roving
reporter Jimmie Vandiver, Jensen
said that because he had skills
as a machinist, he was offered
a part time job working in a machine
shop making tattooing machines.
He was interested in how the tattoo
machines worked, and before too
long he became a tattooist. Jensen
did say which supplier operated
that machine shop, but it could
well have been J.G. Barber, as
Barber had been in the supply business
in Detroit since the 1900s. While
in Detroit, Jensen also met Edwin
Brown and his wife Sadie.
Jensen enlisted
in World
War 1 serving
overseas
and upon
his he was
stationed
near Grand
Rapids Michigan.
Edwin Brown
was tattooing
in Grand Rapids at this time
and Jensen
spent his
weekends
with him
and his wife.
Jensen had
been tattooing
while in
the service
but during those weekends, Brown
taught him how to paint flash.
When Jensen was discharged he
stayed in
Detroit for
a while working
for the Ford Motor Company.
 When
he returned to his home in Pleasant
Grove, Jensen built himself a
trunk tattoo outfit and hit the
sawdust trail. In the following
years, Jensen tattooed on several
shows and in many cities including,
Denver, Casper, Rollings, and
Laramie, Wyoming. In 1923 Jensen
headed for Los Angeles, California
and when he first arrived the
fleet was out so he took a foundry
job. Shortly after, he was tattooing
with Jack Julian, (as seen below
tattooing a customer) at 412
South Main. Jensen did not like
that arcade so he relocated to
San Pedro and set up shop in
a pool hall and worked this fleet
town for several years until
Charlie Barr ask him to come
to work with him back in Los
Angeles at 234 South Main Street. The photograph above
shows Coleman in his
Main Street shop in Norfolk,
Virginia.
Barr was one of the best
tattooists of that era
and Jensen said that
he was very pleased to
get such a chance. Around
1929, business was not
so good and Jensen and
Barr split up and Jensen went
to Long Beach. 1931 found
Jensen in Honolulu for
a spell, then back in
San Pedro. But the fleet
was on a world cruise
so in 1934 Jensen moved
back to Los Angeles and
started building some
machines and selling
some of his designs.
In the spring of 1938
Jensen traveled to New
York City, visiting other
tattooists along the way. He
found a small stairwell
in New York to rent and
opened up a shop. Wanderlust
hit in just a couple of months
and he sold the shop to Lou Norman
and headed to Norfolk, Virginia
where he visited with Coleman,
Sturtz and his old partner Charlie
Barr. Jensen returned to Los
Angeles and reopened
on Main Street.
Jensen was on the move
again in 1940, this time
to San Diego to work
with Harry Lawson. It
was June 1940 when a
special delivery letter
arrived from Andy Sturtz,
telling Jensen he had to go into
the hospital and asking if Jensen
would work in his shop. Jensen
headed east to to Norfolk and
worked in Sturtz's shop
as well as with Coleman.
It is unclear
when Jensen returned to Los Angeles,
but when he did he kicked his
supply business into
full gear, setting up
at #120 West 83rd Street,
while tattooing at 243
South Main Street. As
the only tattoo supply
house on the west coast,
Jensen's business was
a success, offering quality
machines and well drawn flash.
Owen Jensen married "Dainty Dotty",
a famous circus fat lady. It is
said he also tattooed her, but
to date the Archive has never seen
a photo of Dottie's tattoos. Weighing
in at 600 pounds, Dotty was not
considered the largest woman on
record, but she was perhaps the
largest female tattooist. Dotty
died from a heart ailment in December
1952.
Owen Jensen last worked
on the Nu-Pike in Long
Beach with Lee Roy Minugh
(shown here with Paul
Rogers) at #26 Chestnut, just
a stone's throw from
Bert Grimm's location
at #22. Lee Roy tells
the story that Jensen once worked
with Grimm at #22 Chestnut, but
around 1971 Grimm and Jensen
had a disagreement over
flash and Bert "ran
him off". It was then that Jensen
then went to work with Lee Roy.
At this time the Nu-Pike was past
its peak and in a letter written
to Paul Rogers in 1972, Jensen
was worrying about crime on the
street. Jensen said, "I have
been carrying my working machines
home in a shopping bag. As if I
had a nice looking small bag they
would think I had money in it and
at least hold me up, maybe kill
me". In that same letter Jensen
said that Lee Roy worked days till
6PM and he worked nights till 1AM.
In a 1973 letter he said
that it was getting rougher
around the Nu-Pike and
Lee Roy thought they
should start closing
at midnight. In May 1975
Jensen wrote, "We
still get $5.00 for a name on the
arm". In November of that same
year Jensen's letter said, "We
both carry a small derringer in
our pocket while we work".
As fate would have it,
on July 5, 1976, some
young punks came into
#26 Chestnut, grabbed
Owen Jensen around the
neck and stuck a knife
in his back. They beat
him up pretty bad and took $30.00.
They must have caught him by
surprise as he was not
able to get to his derringer.
Owen Jensen never recovered
from that beating.
Tattoo Archive © 1993
See
an Owen Jensen
postcard, supply
catalog, machine
booklet, and a
machine I. D. chart in
our online store.
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