Prolific tattooer, avid storyteller and craftsman, Zeke Owen had a career that spanned roughly 15 years from 1958 to around 1973 (edit: we’ve found from @horifudo_loyaltytattoo that Zeke actually worked into the 2000s!). Despite having a fairly short career, Owen worked alongside some of America’s most notable contributors to tattooing’s history, including Bert Grimm, Sailor Jerry, Mike Malone and Ed Hardy, among many others.
Zeke is often coined with being one of the early establishers of Japanese style tattooing using American methods, under Sailor Jerry. On top of contributing to the stylistic development of tattooing at the time, Zeke worked to advance tattooing’s health and safety standards from his predecessors. Ironically, Zeke was also known to keep his pet monkey, Bob, at his shop in Seattle.
