In the world of tattoos, where every design tells a story, sometimes forgotten, those who carefully collect and preserve it for posterity hold a special significance. In Salt Lake City, Utah, tattoo artist and Look Look Tattoo studio owner CJ Fishburn not only creates new works on his clients’ skin but also actively restores and showcases the rich, yet long-hidden, past of the Beehive State’s tattoo culture. His unique collection, which has transformed the studio into a veritable museum, not only demonstrates the evolution of tattoo art but also proves that the history of body art in Utah is far deeper and longer than many might have assumed.
Secrets of the Past: A Museum Under One Roof with a Studio
The walls of Look Look Tattoo studio in the Sugar House neighborhood have long been adorned with vintage tattoo flash from the 1930s and 1940s, as well as antique photographs of artists from that era. Artifacts are carefully preserved in glass display cases: antique tattoo machines, letters, sketches, business cards, and other relics of the time. Among the exhibits are flash art by Ed Horton, a Salt Lake City tattoo artist from the 1940s and 1950s, as well as vintage tattoo machines and stencils he used. A special place is occupied by items related to the early tattoo artist known as Professor Hugo Spitzer, and original pigments and inks by Basil Bartlett, who worked in Salt Lake City in the 1940s. This exhibition, which Fishburn himself calls “the only tattoo museum in Salt Lake City,” will soon get a new lease on life. The studio is preparing to move to the Central 9th neighborhood, where a separate, more spacious room will be allocated for the historical collection, allowing for an expanded exhibition and making it even more accessible to visitors.
For 42-year-old CJ Fishburn, who has dedicated 16 years of his life to studying and collecting artifacts, this work is a true passion. He opened his studio-museum in 2019 with one main goal: “I wanted tattooing to be alive. I wanted to create a place where all of this was accessible to people,” Fishburn shares. This mission is particularly important in Utah, a state with deep religious roots, where until recently, tattooing was viewed extremely negatively by society, making the preservation of its history difficult.
In the Footsteps of Tattoo Artists: The Challenges of Archival Research
The search for and documentation of the history of a once-underground craft is always fraught with difficulties. However, in Utah, where the dominant faith openly condemned the practice, the task became even more challenging. The lack of interest from official historical societies, such as the Utah State Historical Society, which lacks qualified specialists on the subject, has made Fishburn essentially the leading expert and “amateur historian” in this field. His personal initiative has become the sole bridge connecting the past and present of the state’s tattoo culture.
For artists like Middoni Roman, a Chicana tattoo artist from Only Forever Tattoo, knowing the history of tattooing in the state is of immense importance. “We stand on the shoulders of giants,” says Roman. “It’s like a genealogical tree of tattoo artists. It helps connect everything and see how far we’ve come.” This sense of lineage and respect for predecessors is a cornerstone of any cultural tradition, and tattooing is no exception, emphasizing the importance of preserving heritage for future generations of artists.
Family Roots and the Path to Calling
Fishburn’s family roots run deep in Utah’s history. On his father’s side, he is a descendant of the founders of the Fishburn Department Store, established in the 19th century in Brigham City, where a street still bears his surname. The creative imprint of his maternal great-grandfather, Alfred Lippold, can still be seen in Salt Lake City: he restored elements of historic buildings, including the Tabernacle, the Beehive House, and the Utah State Capitol, and also applied gilding to the facade of the historic ZCMI store on Main Street.
Despite these strong ties to Utah, CJ’s father’s job as a distribution manager for the Smith’s grocery store chain led the family to Southern California and Arizona, where Fishburn grew up. It was there, at the age of 15, that he built his first tattoo machine. At 17, he acquired a professional machine and attempted a few tattoos, quickly realizing that “someone needed to teach me.” He began drawing flash, inspired by magazines, dreaming of one day becoming a professional tattoo artist.
A couple of years later, when his hotel boss offered him a promotion to an office job, Fishburn recalls his tattoo dreams “flashing before his eyes.” “I have to try,” he thought and immediately quit, moving to Salt Lake City to become a tattoo artist, as “Salt Lake had more of a subculture,” offering a more fertile ground for his passion to grow.
From Past to Present: How Tattooing Came to Utah
Curiosity about the past was instilled in Fishburn from an early age by his historian father and English professor mother. “When I first moved back here,” he recalls, “I’d buy cheap coffee and walk around, reading all the historical markers to understand the city.” Similarly, Fishburn absorbed every bit of tattoo history he could find. As his career progressed, the intersection of these two interests became inevitable.
Fishburn discovered that before the widespread adoption of electricity in North America, tattooing existed almost exclusively on ships. As ports grew on both coasts – New York, Norfolk (Virginia), San Francisco, and Long Beach (California) – tattooing began to appear on land as well. Soon, with the spread of electricity and locomotives, body art began to penetrate inland along railway routes into major cities, often accompanying circuses. This discovery, combined with the knowledge of Salt Lake City’s proximity to the transcontinental railroad, was a revelation for Fishburn, suggesting the potential presence of tattoo artists in the region much earlier than previously thought.
“Everything I see here suggests that tattooing should have been here too,” he asserts. “Just because there wasn’t anyone to pass it down to the next generation doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening. So I just got to work,” deciding to fill this gap in historical memory.
Unexpected Finds: Tattoo Artists in Utah Since 1900
Fishburn spoke with anyone willing to share information and scoured every available newspaper archive. “I’d meet people who got tattooed here in the ’60s, and it was a name I hadn’t heard of,” he recounts. “Or I’d find an ad in a newspaper with an address.” Through his research, Fishburn discovered that tattoo artists were serving Utah residents as early as 1900, much earlier than he could have imagined – just nine years after the electric tattoo machine was patented.
An advertisement published in The Salt Lake Tribune in 1900 read: “Professional Electric Tattoo Artist. Japanese and American Designs. Open Day and Evening. Sunday. 70 Commercial Street, Salt Lake City.” The same ad was published again in 1909. Fishburn believes this ad indicates either that the same tattoo artist frequently visited Salt Lake City, or that the building owner – a bar and billiard hall – provided space for visiting tattoo artists to find clients. He also speculates that James Malcolm, a well-known sideshow performer of the time known as “The Tattooed Man,” who also worked as a tattoo artist, might have worked in Salt Lake City when a circus passed through town, thus spreading tattoo art among the local population.
Returning Artifacts “Home”
Fishburn also discovered long-standing studios, such as A.A. Traders on 5th Street in Ogden, which regularly placed ads in the Standard-Examiner newspaper throughout the 1950s, offering not only body art services but also firearms, a telling detail of the era. He also found that Bert Grimm, one of the most famous American tattoo artists of the 20th century, frequently visited Salt Lake City and may have had a studio in Ogden – a suspicion Fishburn hopes to confirm soon, deepening the understanding of regional connections in the tattoo industry.
His research naturally led to the formation of a collection of physical items that he now proudly displays. “I’d find articles and information about relatives and ask around. Often, people still have things. They’re just waiting for someone to ask the right questions,” Fishburn explains. “I’ve befriended other collectors. As for anything of interest to Salt Lake City, most of them understood that it needed to come home. In my collection, it will be in good hands.”