Bob Shaw

In 1979, Houston Texas became the final home of the legendary tattoo artist Bob Shaw. However, before he settled in the Lone Star State, Bob traveled the country and even the world, making history as he went along, and eventually become the pioneer of Pike Style which is THE STANDARD lettering for American Traditional tattooing.

Bob was born in the hot summer on June 22, 1926. He had a brother who was two years older than him. When Bob was a small child, his father died. In 1941 when he was 13 years old, his mother remarried and he and his stepfather didn’t get along and nothing Bob did could ever please him. His brother invited him to St. Louis and couldn’t get there fast enough! He decided not to go back to school and to start working as a dishwasher that just so happened to be around the corner from Bert Grimms shop. He and his brother had got tattooed and the lifestyle intrigued Bob and he began hanging around and spending nearly all of his free time at Grimms place, soaking up every bit of the scene. In fact, he spent so much time at the shop, he would stay late into the night and would be unable to wake up in the morning to get to his job. Soon enough, Bob was fired and Bert decided to hire him to work for his wife in the photography studio, run errands, and be a gopher for the guys in the shop. Over time he had learned so much from working and watching Grimm and even became his secondhand man. Grimm decided it was time for Bob to show what he was made of, and Bob did his very first tattoo in September of 1941. After 3 months of tattooing, Bob got the opportunity to tattoo his brother and after this, Grimm gave him a spot doing tattoos for $0.25-$1.50 but only outline and color at first. 

By 1942, he had full sleeves on both arms, and he was only 16 years old, which is unheard of even today! Like most tattooers and young men of this time, he enlisted in the US Army the next year and stayed for 3 years until he was discharged in March of 1946. The whole time he was in, he tattooed fellow servicemen and continued to hone and improve his skills. Back at Grimms shop, business began to dry up as the barracks closed and the servicemen were moving which meant that Bob would have to follow the money. Fortunately, in 1949, Bert Grimm really wanted the best for Bob and hooked him up with a gig in San Antonio, Texas working with fellow artist Jack Tryon on a circus wagon. They went from town to town, place to place, doing tattoos for the military men who were gutsy enough to let a man pierce their skin repeatedly with a needle full of ink until a picture formed. The airbases were packed with servicemen so there was no concern on how they would fill their pockets. Over time, the outfit became a running business in a brick-and-mortar building. Soon enough, the Korean war ended, and the City of San Antonio decided it was a dynamite idea to ban tattooing which really left Bob and Jack in a pickle. Jack Tryon was getting older and wanted to settle down a bit and take it easy, so Bob took over for him and ran the business. At this time, Bob had gotten married and had 2 young children with his wife and was no longer interested in living in Texas and wanted to move his family where the money was. He traveled from NOLA to Biloxi and back to St. Louis, where he would work for tattooer Earl Brown for a spell. After 3 years of working there and a detrimental hurricane, the troops all moved out again and business once again became barren. Earl turned out to be a real snake and undercut and backstabbed Bob for years and Bob had enough of his bullshit. 

Moving on, Bob and family in tow made their way to Clarksville, Tennessee in 1958. Here he worked for his good friend and soon business partner Col. Todd. The two worked well and made history together by creating and perfecting the assembly line tattoo. Bob would line the tattoos, and Todd would fill them with color. It is said that Bob was so incredibly fast with the outlines that there would be several people sitting and waiting for their color. After a beautiful year of growth, friendship, and tattooing, Bob packed up once again, this time to Kentucky. He and Todd stayed here and worked from 1958 to 1964. 

Bob began receiving letters from his good ol pal Bert Grimm and in the final letter that he had sent him, he said he “in 6 months I will be 65, and I’m going to say goodbye to tattooing”. He only wanted Bob to take over because he knew he could trust him. Bob made the easy decision to move out to Long Beach and work with Grimm. He said that it was “the best thing that ever happened to me” so he decided to invite his partner Col. Todd out as well. The city passed strict health and licensing code to block out scratchers (uneducated, unlicensed, and unexperienced tattooers who are unprofessional and do not work in a shop) so business was really going well. Bob worked the day shift from 10AM-6PM and over time he developed a steady clientele. People would travel from all over just to come and get a tattoo from Bob at this world-famous tattoo shop. Many notable artists made their pilgrimage to the shop such as Don Nolan, Zeke Owen, Rio DeJanier, Phil Simms, Bob Oslo, Bob Roberts and sons Bobby and Larry, as well as Jonathan Shaw. The shop saw so many famous and inspiring artists and that’s why it was successful and is known as one of the greatest shops in tattoo history. 

Bob bought Berts shop at #22 Chestnut in Long Beach in 1969. Here he created an atmosphere of education in tattooing for his son, Larry. He learned to tattoo from his pop and in 1972 he began tattooing at his fathers shop. Col. Todd made the decision to move out west to where his good friend was doing well and making a nice living and became partners and took management over Berts Nu-Pike shop. Bobby Shaw, Berts oldest, was in the Army and got out in 1973, just in time to see his father and good friend Col. Todd opening yet another tattoo shop in Santa Anna. Not unlike his younger brother, Bobby was also taught how to tattoo by his father and was sent to work at the Shop in Santa Anna with the up and coming artist known as Bob Roberts! Once again, the friends couldn’t get enough and bought yet another one of Bert Grimms shops in San Diego and two years later bought his shop in Portland, Oregan. 

After spending so much time in his successful shop building a career that changed tattooing for life, doing one tattoo after another, he grew tired and wanted to slow down a bit and enjoy whatever time he had left on this giant spinning ball. He packed up the troops and headed down south, where the yeehaws and Howdy yalls are prevalent. The family eventually settled in Aransas Pass where after a time, Bob opened a shop and one in Houston where his sons Bobby and Larry worked alongside other notorious artists. He left Todd in charge of the Long Beach shops, trusting him with managing them both and solely focused on his Texas locations.

Bob spent most of his time drawing and painting flash and was the very first to perfect the “Pike style” lettering that was mentioned earlier. Also known as “Shaw style” this is the quintessential lettering that is the norm in traditional tattooing even today! His lettering style was hallmarked by its curling serifs, long extending and sculpted lines, and flowing movement as opposed to the more simplistic, stiff, and rigid style that was prevalent before his time. Shaw made the lettering a highlight of the design and a standalone art in and of itself.  

He was a pioneer in color shading and blending techniques. Bob mentioned that early on he had two shades of red for contrast in design. He also incorporated green to yellow blending and red shading into yellow. Bob was the first to accent the center of roses with yellow which gives the image a distinctively more vibrant look. These subtle techniques are commonplace today but in the 60s it was almost unheard of in tattooing. Most artists of the time had only a limited color palette and to shade multiple colors was considered an inefficient use of time when tattooing boat loads of navy men. Bob’s color techniques greatly influenced artists like Bob Roberts who is known as a king in the realm of color tattooing. Taking his color theory from Long Beach with him to Texas he has influenced directly and indirectly an entire movement of bright and bold work in the state. Now known as “Texas style” perfected by artists like Dave Lum, Bob Moreau, Chris Trevino, and Jason Brooks to name a few.

Bob Shaw will always be remembered as one of Tattooing’s great torch bearers. He helped bridge the gap between Bert Grimm and Ed Hardy, from the old guard to the new. Bob had a lifelong passion for the world of Tattooing, and it showed in everything he did. He gave back to us more than he took and it is because of true tattooers such as himself that we have the world of tattooing we know and love today. We modern tattooists should all be thankful and consider ourselves lucky to live the cushy, air-conditioned, online lives we live and never forget the ones who came before us who worked in circus wagons, sideshows, and penny arcades.