Months after devastating fire, Grimm Tattoo opens new shop in Kansas City’s West Bottoms

More than two months after a fire stole much of its physical history, but not its style, Grimm Tattoo has reopened in Kansas City’s historic West Bottoms.

The storied family business — at least four generations and a century in the making — caught fire on April 6. On Wednesday, they opened the doors to a new location at 1613 Genessee St.

Landing permanently in the West Bottoms, which used to be home to the city’s stockyards, feels like coming home, said owner Wes Grimm, 63.

“I’ve never felt more comfortable in my cowboy hat,” he said.

And so lives on a family business started in 1916. It’s evolved over space and time, and the new move from the burned out building at 3915 Broadway Boulevard where they’d been since 2011 to the West Bottoms is only the latest iteration.

A new home in the West Bottoms

Sometimes Grimm says he still goes looking for an old tattoo book or a piece of art. Then he remembers it’s been lost to time and the fiery inferno that consumed their former location. When he finds “an old friend” amid the move-in boxes that escaped the lick of the flames, it’s a relief.

Thankfully, most of Grimm’s most prized possessions, namely, his great grandfather’s artifacts, were spared inside the museum, which used to be in a converted house at 311 W. 39th St. and was not connected to the shop that caught fire.

The blaze started next door, at West 25 Boutique, which also suffered immense damages. The salon owner said the culprit was an electrical fire, according to a GoFundMe to help rebuild the hair, fashion and beauty shop.

While the past several weeks have been immense work, Grimm contends the new shop is in a better location now. For one, it’s easier to access, being just a few blocks off the highway.

“This is way easier to reach than fighting your way through midtown,” he said, adding that with their new location in the West Bottoms, he already sees “more smiles and a lot less shaking fists.”

As of Thursday, a GoFundme online fundraiser garnered more than $23,000 in donations toward its $50,000 goal to go toward rebuilding Grimm Tattoo.

Grimm has a lot of people on his list to thank: Donors, fellow tattoo shops, customers and firefighters are at the top.

A legendary tattoo family

While much of the physical history may be gone, there’s still a digital document trail tracking the Grimm’s story.

A St. Louis Post-Dispatch story from 1934 documented the pioneering tattoo work of Grimm’s great grandfather, Bert Grimm, who opened the first tattoo parlor in St. Louis in 1926, tattooing riverboat workers.

In 1980, Grimm’s father and grandfather opened a tattoo shop in Kansas City at 38th and Main streets. It was there that Grimm himself began leaving a permanent mark on customers. Since then, he’s tattooed multiple generations of multiple families.

A Kansas City Star front page story from last summer announcing the grand opening of Bert Grimm Tattoo Museum, which regaled the tales of Bert Grimm, who, legend has it, was hired by William “Buffalo Bill” Cody to work the last of his famous Wild West shows before tattooing famous outlaws, including Pretty Boy Floyd and Bonnie and Clyde.

The museum documenting this rich history has also moved as a result of the fire. Grimm said the antiquities will eventually be displayed inside the new parlor space. But his first priority was getting his artists back to work so they can feed their families.

“I just have good news,” he said. “It’s been kind of a long road, but I feel like we’ve finally landed home.”