Why the city shut Outer Limits tattoo parlor 27 days after it opened
By Theo Douglas

Taped to the shutters of the new Long Beach Outer Limits tattoo and body-piercing parlor is a note from the owner, Kari Barba:

“We are deeply sorry to report that this Outer Limits location is temporarily closed due to outrageous circumstances beyond our control . . . .”

The way city building inspectors shut down Barba’s shop—the former Bert Grimm’s World Famous Tattoo—after just 27 days may have been outrageous, but it wasn’t unusual. In Long Beach, the department that sells business licenses doesn’t talk to the department that inspects buildings. So even if you have a business license from the Business License Desk, the Department of Planning and Building can shut you down if you need inspections, have outdated permits, or are remodeling your shop. That’s what happened to Barba.

“It’s not uncommon,” said Larry Brugger, the city’s building superintendent. “. . . she could have been open for five years and this came up. It could have been five months, it could have been five years. It happens a lot when people go into an existing establishment and do work.”

This time it happened to the country’s oldest tattoo parlor, which opened in 1927 at 22 Chestnut Place, in the basement of the Sovereign Apartments. Barba, a Long Beach resident who owns and operates three other Outer Limits locations in Orange County, bought the place three years ago for $465,000. She spent 36 months and more than $300,000 renovating it. She ran through two contractors, at least two sets of building plans—she says the city lost the first set—and an order from the city to halt work because building inspectors said the first contractor hadn’t been filing plans or getting any inspections. Barba even sold her house. But the sacrifice seemed worth it March 31, when the metal shutters were raised to a crowd that included Second District Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal.

“I thought I was going to a tattoo parlor, for which I had a steroptype locked in my mind,” Lowenthal told The District, “and it wasn’t anything like that.”

Today, the place is all fresh paint and nautical touches—with a major collection of vintage shop memorabilia that includes historic flash and tattoo machines, the original safe and cash register, and a biography of old Bert Grimm. Taped in the window on opening day was a conditional business license signed by city Inspector Wendy Goetz and good through Sept. 19—provided, Barba said, that she finish the electrical, plumbing and building inspections and add a second wheelchair-accessible bathroom. Four weeks later, on April 26, Goetz called and said Outer Limits would have to close.

“She told me that her boss wasn’t happy with it and they were going to revoke [the business license],” says Barba, who went to City Hall that afternoon—and got worse news from Commercial Inspector Supervisor Gerry McKay. “He was really angry. It was really kind of strange. He just kept saying ‘You didn’t finish the work you needed to do.’ He told me to send everybody home.”

Barba believed that her conditional business license gave her until September to finish the work.

“They don’t tell you why,” Barba said as she inked butterflies on a client’s calf at her shop in Anaheim. “You figure it out as you go along, and if you screw up, too bad.”

Brugger confirmed that Barba still needs to submit building and electrical plans, and to renew her building permit. “If she gets to a point where we feel it’s safe, she can occupy it,” he said. “We issue what’s called a temporary occupancy permit.” Brugger wasn’t sure if Barba needed another handicapped-accessible bathroom; the city rule is that you need two if your business has more than four employees or 1,500 square feet of retail space.

A source in Lowenthal’s office said Planning and Building was satisfied that the plumbing at Outer Limits was in fine working order, and that her office was working with Barba to get the shop re-opened.

“You know, I have never experienced this before,” said Lowenthal, who’s only been in office since June 2006.

There’s still no definite word from the city on when Outer Limits will reopen or exactly what plans went missing—that’s the thing about missing plans: they’re missing.

As for having the Business License Desk talk to Planning and Building, Lowenthal thinks that’s a great idea.

“I think that needs to be examined,” the councilwoman said. “I think there probably needs to be more linkages between the two processes.”