Local restaurant mourning customer whose tattoo made him a bit of a Wichita celebrity
Back in 2019, Ty’s Diner owner Kristen Knebel finally got someone to take her up on a longstanding offer: Anyone who would get the restaurant’s logo tattooed on his or her person would earn free burgers for life.
Most people just laughed at the idea. But regular customer Mark Klamm — a motorcycle enthusiast, Metallica fan and Textron engineer — decided he was game.
On a Thursday afternoon nearly six years ago, fun-loving Klamm walked into Time Honored Tattoo, which operates next door to Ty’s Diner at Second and Douglas, and walked out with an image of the Ty’s logo inside a colorful cheeseburger permanently inked on his left forearm. After that, Klamm became more family than customer to the staff at Ty’s.
But on Friday, Knebel said, she got devastating news: Klamm, who had been struck by a sudden illness two weeks earlier, had unexpectedly died in the hospital. He was 64.
Overwhelmed with emotion and lack of sleep, Knebel decided to close her 72-year-old hamburger restaurant on Saturday. It reopened Tuesday.
“We were all in shock,” said Knebel, who three years ago hired Klamm’s 28-year-old daughter, Amber, to work in the diner . “It’s hard to put on a smiley, happy face and work with the public when you’re in shock. I just needed a breather.”
Now, Klamm’s friends at the diner and his family are remembering him as a warm, friendly man who was fun to be around but serious about his passions. His wife of 41 years, Lorri Klamm, said his death came as a shock.
“I really miss him,” she said. “He gave me a very good life.”
One of Klamm’s passions was Ty’s Diner, Knebel said. He stopped by for lunch at least twice a week — he liked his burger with no tomato, no mustard, side of fries and a side of barbecue sauce. But he never overused the permanent coupon on his arm.
He’d accept the free burger Knebel said. But when she decided it was silly to charge him $3 for his side of fries and threw those in, too, Klamm found a gracious way to deal with the situation: He tipped extra generously, every time.
Klamm loved it when The Eagle published a story about his burger tattoo in 2019, Knebel said.
“It made him feel like a local celebrity.”
Lorri Klamm said she adored her husband and was usually willing to tag along as he traveled around the country to see his favorite band, Metallica. So was daughter Amber.
Klamm also was obsessed with his BMW motorcycle, which he drove everywhere. Last year, Lorri agreed to accompany him on a 1,000-mile motorcycle trek: Klamm was on his BMW, and Lorri rode a Harley Davidson three-wheel trike the couple owned. The route for the trip took the couple from Wichita to Kansas City to St. Louis and then back home, and it lasted about 22 hours.
Klamm’s Ty’s Diner tattoo was the second one he’d ever gotten. But after that, Lorri said, he got more. When he died, Klamm had a Metallica tattoo, an American flag tattoo and a tattoo featuring his BMW motorcycle. His first tattoo was of the words “Make life a ride.”
Although she wasn’t really into ink, Lorri said, she agreed to get a couples tattoo with her husband. The couple always ordered pizza on Friday nights. So Mark got a pizza with one missing slice on the inside of his left forearm. Lorri got the missing slice on the inside of her left forearm. Both tattoos featured the pun “You have a pizza my heart.”
Lorri said that Knebel became a close friend over the years and even was at the hospital with her before Klamm died on Friday.
She and her daughter are in shock and are focusing their attention on their beloved rescue dog, Clover, a lab mix the family adopted about two years ago. Mark was Clover’s favorite human, Lorri said.
Klamm, who worked as a processing engineer at Textron for 46 years, is survived by his wife and daughter as well as a brother, Mike, and sister-in-law Valerie of Wichita, and a sister, Karen, of Everett, Washington.
This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 2:41 PM.
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