Federal Way Police confiscated 500 marijuana plants last Wednesday from the basement of a commercial building that was severely damaged by a fire on Oct. 14.

The building, located in the 29200 block of Pacific Highway S., housed businesses Sin on Skin Tattoo and Body Piercing, Awards by Wilson, unoccupied business All Martial Arts Supplies and apparently an illegal marijuana grow operation.

Cathy Schrock, Federal Way Police Department spokeswoman, said detectives have conducted several interviews and continue to investigate, however, there’s not a person of interest at this time.

Officers executed a search warrant on Oct. 15 after firefighters suspected marijuana was being grown in the basement illegally.

The owners of the tattoo and trophy shops have been fully cooperative with police and are not suspected of any wrongdoing, Schrock said.

With a city moratorium in place until Nov. 5, it is currently illegal to process, produce or sell recreational marijuana in Federal Way. It is illegal to grow marijuana without a state license and collective gardens for medical marijuana are limited to 15 plants.

“It’s definitely not legal,” Schrock said. “500 plants is clearly an illegal operation.”

South King Fire and Rescue Assistant Chief Ed Plumlee said the cause of the fire has not yet been determined but expects more information to be released on Nov. 15.

However, in a previous report, he noted the building’s basement received extensive damage from the fire.

Sin on Skin owner Jason “Gravy” Desimas reported the fire after his fiancé noticed the lobby of his business was smokey early that morning.

“I go outside and I look at Wilson’s Award because I know the other building is empty,” Desimas said. “Their building was completely full of smoke.”

Desimas said his first concern was to save the cat living at Awards by Wilson.

“I ran down and turned on the hose, while the whole time I’m running, I’m yelling, ‘Call 911!,” he said. “I broke the window, this is all just to get the cat Oreo, and so much smoke came out, like an oven.”

It was too hot to go in.

Desimas waved down the firefighters who were just starting to arrive.

“There’s not even a thought that I’m going to lose my business,” he said. “I’m thinking they’re gonna spray it and it’ll all be fine.”

But the flames ruined half of his business while the other sustained smoke and water damage.

Desimas ran the business with his sister “Girl” Ryan Desimas for two years before it burned down. However, he’s lived in Federal Way for about 12-13 years and has owned multiple tattoo shops in Federal Way — six were once open at a time.

“Anybody who knows me knows that all my tattoo shops have been really nice,” he said. “It’s more my home than my home is. I spend so much time there. All my money goes to that.”

Desimas lost everything — his wallet, his phone, the $10,000 statue his sister gifted to him.

“I had $1.66 to my name,” he said. “It’s probably the most alone and helpless feeling that I’ve ever had.”

The business was uninsured because last year Desimas’s mother passed away. He and his family flew to Las Vegas to organize the funeral and it took a financial strain on him.

“Since then, I’ve just been recovering from that,” he said. “It was a big pull on us — me, my sister and my girlfriend — doing the funeral.”

But the tattooist said he has plans to sue the landlord for negligence in hopes he can recover some of his financial loss.

“Multiple people were involved in a [marijuana] grow operation,” he said. “It’s something our landlord should have definitely known about and have had more involvement. Everybody knew it was going on, I feel like he’s definitely liable.”

Desimas said it reeked from “wall to wall” of marijuana and there was a 12-foot perimeter gate that “you couldn’t get into at all.”

“They were pretty tight,” he said, adding that he thought it was legal. “There’s grow ops all over the state that are legal. If the landlord is renting to them, I’d imagine it was legal. I just figured they ran a tight ship so they didn’t get burglarized or robbed. That was the joint thought on that.”

But Desimas’s main concern is what he’s going to do next. He’s already looked at other locations and has extra tattoo equipment on hand.

“I’ve got some friends that brought up the idea of doing a rummage sale, get together at a parking lot to sell hot dogs or something,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on but it didn’t feel right putting together my own fundraiser.”

Desimas said he started Sin on Skin with just $2,200.

“All I need is a chair and a tattoo machine and I can do my thing,” he said.

The Sin on Skin community is invited to a fundraiser where there will be raffles, including a $500 tattoo giveaway and the chance to win a free piercing. The fundraiser is at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 26 at the former location of Sin on Skin, 29225 Pacific Highway S. in Federal Way. There will also be a rummage sale and a barbecue with cash donations accepted.

“It’s so crazy. It didn’t hit me until two days after,” Desimas said. “I hadn’t cried at all but two days later I woke up at about 12:30 in the afternoon. I said, ‘Come on babe, I gotta get to the shop, I’m gonna be late.’ That’s when it hit me.”

For more information on the fundraiser, visit www.facebook.com/events/520814504720809/.

For a virtual tour of Sin on Skin before the fire, visit tattoosinonskin.com.