Obituary: Tattoo pioneer David Yurkew did many roses

Tattoo artist David Yurkew lost his teeth to the 1965 Fridley tornado, his daughter to a murderer and his brothers to traffic accidents. But he always found solace in a beautiful tattoo. He liked tattooing roses rather than skulls and snakes, saying he could be "free with flowers."There must be 10,000 to 20,000 of those roses out there in Minnesota," his stepson Michael Yurkew said on Thursday.

The elder Yurkew, who in 1976 established Minneapolis' first tattoo shop since the 1940s, died May 24 of congestive heart failure. He was 64.

Now called Twin City Tattoo, his shop at 31st St. and Nicollet Av. S. has served clients ranging from musicians Gregg Allman and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top to basketball player Stephon Marbury and ex-Viking John Randle.

Yurkew's son said that tattoos covered 70 percent of his father's body.

Yurkew was a strapping man, with parrots and eagles decorating his arms and legs. His back was covered with an intricate "Hobbit" scene that took 21 hours to complete.

Tough and combative enough to deal with the rowdies he faced when his career was young, he sued the Minnesota State Fair in 1980 over officials' refusal to allow him to tattoo fairgoers, unsuccessfully pursuing the case all the way to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

But Yurkew was sentimental, too. He raised money for Toys for Tots. After his 19-year-old daughter Ramona was murdered in 1982, he offered free tattooing to residents of a battered-women's shelter who wanted to obscure tattoos that included the names of their abusers.

And when an Iraq war veteran who was missing a leg came into his shop, Yurkew wrote a letter to the Star Tribune about how he had to retreat to a back room to compose himself before facing the man again.

Billy Tinney, editor-in-chief of Tattoo magazine, knew Yurkew for 30 years. They met when Yurkew organized the first national tattoo convention in Houston in 1976. Tinney said his magazine, which is published in four languages and sold in 40 countries, might never have started had it not been for that first convention.

"He was a friend forever," Tinney said. "He was an arrogant cuss. You had to be at the start, when the old drunks and sailors came into the shop. You had to be able to throw them out on their ear."

In the 1970s, tattoos were still something of a subculture. Tattoo shops were secretive places where artists were sometimes reluctant to share their trade or techniques.

Convention was a success

Michael Yurkew said that when his dad pitched the idea of a convention, people wondered if the attendees "might kill each other if they're all in the same room." But the meeting was a success, and Yurkew was involved off and on with conventions for the rest of his life.

"They get tattooed, do a lot of talking, a little bit of drinking ... have a 'beauty contest' showing off the best work," Michael Yurkew said. "Then they do a little more drinking."

Yurkew once said that he wouldn't mind if he didn't ever tattoo a Taz (a cartoon Tasmanian devil) again. "He did some biker stuff, but he was more toward beauty," his son said. "He did a portrait of Mozart and loved that one. If it was a nice flower and in just the right place on the body, it was magical."

Yurkew grew up in Columbia Heights and also worked as an emergency medical technician, as a taxi driver and at two radio stations. He was a volunteer firefighter in Blaine in 1965 when the famous Fridley tornado hit the area. Yurkew was directing traffic when he was hit by debris that knocked out his teeth, Michael Yurkew said.

"He had to wait all weekend to go to the dentist on Monday," his son said. "He said it was the most painful thing."

Two of Yurkew's brothers died in motorcycle accidents and the third perished in a car crash. But the biggest blow came in 1982, when daughter Ramona was strangled by her boyfriend, Craig Bjork.

"It took him a long time to get back into conventions and things" after that, his son said.

Besides Michael, he is survived by his third wife, Nicky of Fridley; his son, Dave Jr. of Blaine; other stepchildren; several grandchildren; his father, Tony, stepmother Agnes of Minneapolis and extended family.

Services will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at Miller Funeral Home, 6210 Hwy. 65 NE., Fridley. Yurkew's tattooing machines and pictures of his work will be displayed.

Mary Jane Smetanka • smetan@startribune.com