The Worlds Oldest Tattoo Shops

Working backwards with the most recently opened shop we have Pointe St Charles Tattoo AKA PSC Tattoo in Montreal, established in 1976. Tony D’Annessa, AKA Tattoo Tony was Canada’s oldest actively working tattooer until his passing in 2021 at the age of 85, who started tattooing in 1958 in New York City but left for Montreal in the 60’s because of NYC’s ban on tattooing that would last until 1997.

According to an interview Tony gave to CBC, PSC was at one time the only (official/professional) tattoo shop in Montreal. Meeting his wife Lorraine was momentous for more than one reason, her brother would be the one to open PSC with Tony in 1976. Tony specialized in classic American traditional work, a bold black panther reportedly being the second tattoo he ever did.

In 1990 Dave Cummings started visiting the shop and getting tattoos. This eventually led to Tony teaching Dave, who the business was handed over to and who currently owns it today.

PSC was an essential establishment for sailors, bikers, and general hooligans and hoodlums that wanted classic, tough working class tattoos before the tattoo scene really took off in Canada. Today you can still pick a piece of flash off the walls of PSC that have hanged for decades and wear a part of Canadian tattoo history forever.

Next up is Bert Grimms legendary Long Beach shop at #22 Chestnut, first opened in either 1952 or 54. Grimm moved from St. Louis where he was already an established tattooer, to Long Beach, bringing with him a wealth of knowledge that was largely missing from the shops along the Pike.

The Pike stood stumbling distance from the docks where the Navy comes through. Tattoo shops popped up in the area by design, most of them staying open 24/7 to fit in as many sailors and servicemen as possible.

The designs Grimm and those who worked at the number of shops he ended up owning are still done today, and really any American traditional design probably came from his empire of shops and tattooers. These include Grimms sad and happy suns, the crying heart and of course an abundance of eagles, anchors, hearts, ships, swallows and other nautical motifs.

While the most common customer were sailors by far, Grimm is known for tattooing another famous tattooer, Owen Jensen along with his wife “Dainty Dotty” a tattooer in her own right as well as working as a very successful tattooed sideshow performer and fat lady, proudly weighing in at over 600 pounds and showcasing beautiful tattoos.

Grimm ended up owning a handful of shops along the Pike, with the most famous being Grimms original. Grimm technically retired from tattooing in 1969 when he passed shop operations to well known tattooer and collector Bob Shaw, his own nephew. Shaw operated the Pike shop until he moved to Texas in 1983, passing the shop on to his sons.

While this exact shop was mostly demolished along with much of the rest of the Pike to make room for luxury apartments and trendy shopping malls, its new location under the name Outer Limits Tattoo and Museum exists right next door and still manages to boast having some of the original flooring.

Not only is the new version of the shop more than 40 years old, it is a female owned and operated business, which given how heavily male dominated the field of tattooing was is an achievement in its own right. Current owner and operator Kari Barba started tattooing at the age of 19 in 1979, helping take over her first business in 1983 before acquiring Grimms shop from Shaws sons in 2002 and turning the shop into an artistic space with diverse styles available including American traditional, black and grey, realism and more.

On top of being a still operational tattoo shop, Outer Limits is also a tattoo museum where you can see photos and flash lining the walls dating back to Grimms ownership and the heyday that ensued.

Hong Kong has its own tradition of tattooing, and its oldest still operational shop is one of the most identifiable in Asia, and certainly for fans of American traditional work. International Tattoo, now called Jimmy & Justin Tattoo, in Mong Kok was opened in 1965 by Jimmy Ho, son of Hong Kong’s first professional tattooer James Ho.

Jimmy learned to tattoo from his father and started working at James’ shop at age 14 in 1958. Early on at International Tattoo and even earlier at his fathers shop, Rose Tattoo Studio, Jimmy mainly tattooed a mix of foreigners mainly in the navy or other form of military service, and local gang members, primarily Hong Kong’s notorious triads.

The walls of Jimmy & Justin are still covered in flash hand painted by Jimmy and even James, showcasing tigers, dragons, ships, flowers, daggers and other classic and timeless traditional tattoo imagery. Jimmy and James both managed to blend East Asian motifs perfectly with American traditional, making their art accessible and desirable to locals and foreigners alike and helping, alongside other Hong Kong greats such as Pinky Yun and Ricky Lo, to create the Hong Kong traditional style. Jimmy tattooed until around 2019, passing his shop on to his former apprentice Justin Ng who continues to keep the legacy alive.

Tattoo Ole at 17 Nyhavn, Copenhagen is the worlds oldest continuously operated tattoo shop, first opened for business in 1884. Known for being a rougher part of Copenhagen in its beginnings and early days, filled with mainly sailors, prostitutes, criminals and drunks Nyhavn was the perfect place for a tattoo shop to establish itself.

Gustav Bechmann opened the shop without a name, simply advertising tattoos being done out of the basement of 17 Nyhavn, sharing the basement with a cigar shop and a bar above them, no doubt sending them lots of business. It wasn’t until 1919 that the basement was exclusively used for tattooing, now being ran by Hans J Hansen.

Other notable tattooers who worked here are Stikke Frederik who started around 1900, Poul Pedersen and Severin from 1925 onward, Tattoo Holger from around 1930-1939, Tattoo Jack from 1939-1947, Tattoo Ole Hansen for whom the shop is still named from 1947- 1988, Danny og Bimbo from 1988- 2010 and Majbritt Peterson from 2010 - present 2026.

Tattoo Ole was named such after Tattoo Jack went to prison for still unknown reasons, though some historical accounts hint at drug charges of some kind. Jack reached out to his friend Ole to run the shop while he was in prison and while Ole initially declined, not wanting the responsibility of running a shop, he eventually agreed and ended up running the place for more than 40 years.

Tattoo Ole was well known for his maritime designs in particular, ships, anchors, swallows etc. and put the shop on the map by becoming known around the world as a must see tattooer, achieving this in part by famously tattooing His Majesty Frederick IX, king of Denmark.

Today the shop is owned by Majbritt who took over the shop after Danny passed suddenly at the age of 60. Majbritt is the first female owner of Tattoo Ole, and is reportedly the first professional tattooer to hail from the Faroe Islands. You can view photos and memorabilia around the shop dating back to its humble beginnings, and still get the very same tattoos sailors and bawdy women were getting back in the 1800’s, keeping the tradition alive and taking home a part of tattoo history.

While Tattoo Ole holds the official record for being the longest continually run tattoo shop in the world, Tattoo Razzouk gets an honourable mention for being the longest running tattoo business with now 28 generations of the same family tattooing.

The Razzouk family can trace their association to ancient tattooing all the way back to about the year 1300, Egypt where they almost exclusively tattooed Coptic Christians. At the time, Coptic Christians starting at infancy in Egypt were known to have a small cross tattooed on their wrists as a symbol of their faith, which was also a way to gain access to churches at the time as non-Christians would not be allowed to enter typically.

The Razzouk family left Egypt for what was called Palestine at the time as many did, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land where they settled in Jerusalem and have been tattooing in different locations for 500 years, with its main and oldest location in Jaffa Gate (the Old City of Jerusalem). While the location has changed a few times throughout history, it has always been located in Old City Jerusalem, close to the Holy Sepulchre Church.

One of the coolest thing about those looking to get tattoos here today is the fact that they still have 168 woodblocks dating back hundreds of years and traceable within their own ancestry that they use as stencils for those who want a historic tattoo.

These small woodblocks include Jerusalem Crosses, olives and olive branches that are important to Palestine, the crucifixtion, the Madonna, St. George slaying the dragon among others. Though the Jerusalem Cross remains the most sought-after design, an embodiment of the spirit of pilgrimage and faith.

In the 1930’s Jacob Razzoug, AKA Hagop the tattooer became the first tattooer in the region to use an electric tattoo machine. Hagop used a car battery to power his machine, and was also the first tattooer here to use colour in his inks. He became famous for tattooing the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie in the 1930’s.

Wassim Razzouk runs the family business today, with his sons Anton and Nizar, still tattooing ancient designs hundreds of years old as well as catering to newer and younger clientele.