Researched and written by Derin Bray

Business card for Prof. Alfred Gagnon, Electric Tattoo Artist, 596 Montgomery Street, Manchester, New Hampshire, ca. 1925.

Alfred Gagnon spent decades painting, cartooning, and tattooing from the first floor of his parents’ triple-decker in Manchester, New Hampshire. He was prolific and well-known in the Queen City, but his story, like so many others, nearly faded into obscurity. During a recent visit with a West Ender from the old neighborhood, I was led to a kitchen table covered with a spectacular assortment of Alfred’s original work. These items, ranging in date from 1916 to 1941, provide fresh perspective on the life and career of a little-known artist.

Native Americans, by Alfred Gagnon, ca. 1930.

Head of Christ, by Alfred Gagnon, 1941.

Arthritic hands and limited mobility prevented Alfred Gagnon (1891-1954) from ever taking a traditional job. While his brothers and sisters toiled away in Manchester’s cotton mills, Alfred stayed behind at the family house at 596 Montgomery Street, where he got around in a wooden wheelchair ornamented with a greyhound.

Alfred “Fred” Gagnon holding a rose at a family wedding, 1928.

Alfred poured himself into his work, quickly transitioning a hobby into a career as a commercial artist. By the mid-1920s, he offered services as a painter, cartoonist, and designer. Several caricatures and custom letterheads from this early period survive in one of his portfolios.

Cartoon by Alfred Gagnon, Manchester, New Hampshire, ca. 1925.

Alfred Gagnon stamp, ca. 1925.

Sacred Hearts by Alfred Gagnon, ca. 1925.

Letterhead for Acrobats, by Alfred Gagnon, ca. 1925.

Soldier and Sailor, by Alfred Gagnon, ca. 1925.

How and when Alfred learned to tattoo is unknown, but he was probably active by the mid-1920s. From 1930 until 1947, he was the only professional tattoo artist listed in the Manchester City Directory. In fact, he was the first professional tattoo artist to advertised in any New Hampshire directory. In addition to several sheets of his stylized tattoo designs, a set of miniature mimeographed tattoo flash and two business cards are known.

Alfred Gagnon, Tattooing, 596 Montgomery Street. Manchester City Directory, 1930.

Tattoo Designs by Alfred Gagnon, ca. 1925.

Alfred Gagnon stopped advertising as a tattoo artist in 1948, probably because of declining health. According to family tradition, severe arthritis prevented him from holding a brush. He pressed on, though, and continued to paint with his mouth. A few years later, in 1954, he passed away in the family home on Montgomery Street, where he had worked for nearly forty years.

Mermaid, by Alfred Gagnon, 1941.

Pinup by Alfred Gagnon, 1938.

Sampson’s Youth, by Alfred Gagnon, 1937.

Researched and written by Derin Bray

Clarence “Shorty” Schultz, tattooed by Prof. William Grimshaw, Chicago, ca. 1919. Collection of Derin Bray

In 1918, still reeling from a tumultuous divorce, Clarence “Shorty” Schultz (1891-1935) quit his foundry job in Davenport, Iowa and made his way to Chicago for a fresh start in life. He soon found himself in the capable hands of Professor William Grimshaw, a seasoned tattoo artist who was happy to set Schultz on a new path.  And So, from his winter headquarters in a South State Street arcade, Grimshaw covered his new canvas in fashionable designs.

Quad-City Times, Davenport, Iowa, April 5 1918.

Shorty Schultz, tattooed by Prof. William Grimshaw, Chicago, ca. 1919. Collection of Derin Bray

By the winter of 1919, Schultz had retuned to Iowa to open the American Shining Parlor at 212 Harrison Street in downtown Davenport. In addition to shoe shines and hat cleanings, customers availed themselves of his service as “the only professional electric tattoo artist in the tri-cities.”

Quad-City Times, Davenport, Iowa, May 2, 1919.

This motley venture didn’t last long. By the summer of 1920, Schultz was out of the shoe shine business and trouping with T. A. Wolfe’s Superior Shows as The Tattooed Marvel. At the end of a short six-week season he returned to Chicago to join “old friends” at Ward Burton’s arcade at 434 South State Street. Relative newcomer Bert Grimm was likely one of those friends. He too worked at Burton’s arcade during the wintertime and had helped complete Schultz suit.

Billboard, Sept. 25, 1920.

But Shorty Schultz’ foray into electric tattooing was short lived. That October he remarried his ex-wife in Chicago; they eventually made their way back to Davenport, where Schultz resumed work as a core maker for the Davenport Machine & Foundry Company. He seems to have retired from tattooing at this time, but his colleagues in Chicago remembered him well. In 1925, his former employer at Burton’s arcade advertised for a first-class tattooer; he asked for Schultz (and Grimm) by name.

Billboard, April 18, 1925.

Collecting and studying tattoo history is often a lesson in patience and perseverance, but a little luck helps too! A few weeks ago I got a call about a stash of tattoo photos that had remained intact for more than a century. It’s a moment collectors dream about, and boy did it deliver! The images are bright, bold and packed with clues about the history of tattooing in America. The icing on the cake, as you’ve probably guessed, is that the photos came from tattoo titan Gus Wagner (1872-1941), the celebrated globetrotting artist and showman who has captured peoples’ imaginations for more than a 120 years. I’ll post additional images in the near future, but until then scroll down for a look at Ed Miller, one of Wagner’s nearest and dearest human canvases. Enjoy!

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The Tattooed Bookkeeper: Gus Wagner’s Triumphant Return to Ohio

Researched and written by Derin Bray

On a sunny day in 1902, Edward Miller settled himself in an old Windsor chair beneath a tree, rolled up his shirt sleeve and submitted his arm to the painful process of being tattooed by hand. The repeated sting of needles was probably unfamiliar to the twenty-one year-old bookkeeper, but the man wielding them was not. Miller received his freshly-inked design from none other than Gus Wagner, a self-proclaimed “World’s Champion Hand Tattoo Artist” and a good friend.

Edward J. Miller, Tattooed by Gus Wagner, cabinet photo by Fowler, hand-painted by Gus Wagner, Marietta, Ohio, ca. 1902. Derin Bray Collection

The son of a police officer, Edward J. Miller (1881-1957) lived on the banks of the Muskingum River in Marietta, Ohio, just a stone’s throw from the house of Charlotte Wagner. Over the years he forged a special bond with the Wagner children, so when Charlotte’s son Gus returned home from nearly half a decade at sea, Ed was among the close friends and family who welcomed him back`. Fortunately for historians, at least one of their gatherings —replete with backyard boxing and tattooing— is documented by a series of candid photographs.

Henry Wagner (left), Ed Miller (middle) and Gus Wagner (right) in Marietta, Ohio in 1902. Private Collection. This photograph, and several others from the same gathering, were likely taken in Charlotte Wagner’s backyard at 615 Front Street, where Gus stayed during his visit home.

Wagner’s Marietta tattoo sessions marked the first time he plied needle-and-ink on American soil. He had spent the previous four years crisscrossing the globe as a fireman for commercial steamships, never staying in the same place for longer than six months. At every port he sought out tattoo artists to decorate his hide; he undoubtedly bent their ears for precious trade secrets too. So by the time Wagner returned home to Ohio in the spring of 1902, he had transformed himself into a walking picture gallery —boasting over 260 designs in eight colors— and had become a skilled practitioner in the mysterious art of tattooing.

Edward J. Miller, tattooed by Gus Wagner, cabinet photo by Riel, Chicago, ca. 1903. Derin Bray Collection

Progress on Ed Miller’s body suit came to a standstill in the winter of 1902 when Wagner shuttered his Marietta shop and moved an hour-and-a-half north to Newark. He tattooed on the Square downtown and, according to multiple newspaper articles, improved the appearances of a fair number of soldiers at the encampment of the Ohio National Guard. But Wagner grew restless, as he always did, and soon pushed west to open new shops in Delaware and then Terre Haute, Indiana. Along the way he booked performances with the Wonderland show, Queen Carlotta’s Gypsy Camp and even as window dressing for a Cleveland cigar store —evidently he stimulated quite a bit of trade!

Edward J. Miller, cabinet photo by Hartley Studio, Chicago, ca. 1903. Derin Bray Collection

Marietta’s illustrated men finally reunited in Chicago in December 1903. Miller had relocated there to further his career as a bookkeeper, and Wagner’s girlfriend Maud and her sister Dora —actresses and acrobats known as the The Stevens Sisters— had booked a sketch act in George Middleton’s famed Clark Street Museum and Theater. The appointment gave Ed and Gus an opportunity to finish what they had started, possibly even in the curio hall of the Dime Museum. A photographer documented the occasion with a stunning portrait of Wagner hand-poking Miller’s back; his rendition of St. George and the Dragon is in full view.

Gus Wagner tattooing Ed Miller on Christmas Day, cabinet photo hand-painted by Gus Wagner, Chicago, 1903. Collection of Derin Bray

From Chicago Gus and Maud continued on to St. Louis, where they opened a shop in anticipation of the 1904 World’s Fair, also known as the St. Louis Exposition. Over the next few decades he continued to travel widely and create art of all manner, cementing his legacy as a globetrotter, champion hand tattoo artist, taxidermist, wood carver and showman extraordinaire. Today, the bulk of his personal tattoo equipment can be found at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City.

Miller, on the other hand, sought a quieter life. In 1913 he married Jeanette Carson, a beloved nurse in Chicago’s Eye and Ear infirmary. The couple relocated to Bloomington a few years later, where Miller kept the books for the Bloomington Glass Company until his retirement in 1952. Straight-laced and buttoned-up, his co-workers were probably unaware of the veritable menageries of crabs, turtles, dogs, birds and slithering snakes that hid beneath his tailored suit.

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Notes:

1. Full citations available upon request.

2. Several candid photographs of Gus Wagner and Ed Miller at a 1902 gathering in Marietta show Miller getting tattooed beneath the shade of a tree; these are now in a private collection. Several more photographs from the same event are in “Souvenirs of the Travels and Experiences of the Original Gus Wagner Globe Trotter & Tattoo Artist” scrapbook in the The Alan Govenar and Kaleta Doolin Tattoo Collection at South Street Seaport Museum.

3. In a 1904 newspaper article, Wagner claimed his first tattoos in America were done in Marietta.

4. It is possible, if not likely, that Ed Miller was tattooed by Wagner in the Clark Street Museum in December of 1903. Gus and Maud had a contract to appear there together the following year.

Like many young Chicagoans, Edward Joseph Spousta (1883-1971) was drawn to the flashy arcades and tattoo shops that lined South State Street in the early twentieth century. By 1915 —and probably several years earlier— he received a full suit of beautiful tattoos there, including a rendition of Archibald Willard’s Spirit of ’76 on his stomach and the Statue of Liberty on his back. Thus transformed, the former salesman for a biscuit company became Prof. S. J. Edwards, “The Liberty Tattooed Man.”

Prof. S. J. Edwards (real name Edward Joseph Spousta), The Liberty Tattooed Man, Real Photo Postcard, ca. 1920.

Spirit of ‘76, by Archibald Willard, ca. 1875. Abbot Hall, Marblehead, MA

Spousta immediately hit the sawdust trail, traveling with carnivals as a tattoo artist and tattooed attraction. He often shared the stage with his wife Helen, who performed as Madam Melba, the snake enchantress, and later worked as a rag paper cartoonist.

But it was during WWI that Spousta got his fifteen minutes of fame. In 1918 he enlisted in the Navy, quite possibly as a publicity stunt. A widely circulated newspaper article chronicled the event, describing Spousta’s many patriotic tattoos and his talent for showing them off. He even volunteered to exhibit himself during the next Liberty Loan Drive.

Great Lakes Bulletin, August 8, 1918

At the close of the war, just a few months later, Spousta was discharged and back on the carnival circuit. He continued to tattoo, but also added a glass-blowing act to his repertoire and began managing his own sideshow, “S. J. Edwards’ Congress of Living Wonders”. By the early 1930s he and Helen retired from the road, opting for a quieter life in Chicago.

Advertisement for Prof. S. J. Edwards’ Palace of Living Wonders. Billboard, June 5, 1920

S. J. Edwards’ Congress of Living Wonders. Billboard, Apr. 23, 1921

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A tattoo timeline. If you have anything to add, please let me know!

1883 Nov 29   Edward Spousta is born in Chicago to Joseph Spousta and Anna Periona 

1915 Dec 6     “Latest Style of designs tattooed in the Human Skin by the latest and painless process. by Prof. S. J. Edwards.” The Sheboygan Press

1915 Dec 7      “Tattoo Marks of all kinds removed by Prof. S. J. Edwards, 812 N. 8thSt.”  The Sheboygan Press

1916 Jul 22   “Tattooed Wonder – at Liberty; wife can work electric chair or snakes; state best salary, with tattooing privilege; tickets. Prof. S. J. Edwards, 508 Mulberry St., Rockford, Illinois.” Billboard

1918 Jul 17     “Sheboygan Girl is Snake Charmer with Wortham-Rice Troupe / A member of the Wortham & Rice carnival troupe, now playing a week’s engagement at the ball park, is a native of Sheboygan. She is Madam Melba, who charms snakes in “Wonderland”. In private life she is Mrs. Helen Edwards, the wife of Prof. S. J. Edwards, the electric tattoo artist who is also connected with the carnival. Her maiden name was Helen Draeger. She formerly lived with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Herman Draeger, at 323 Superior Ave. This is her fifth year of professional life, she having left Sheboygan to join a circus troupe in 1913. Madam Melba is very enthusiastic about her work, and says she prefers it to anything else she has ever done. She claims that she is the only girl in the country showing professionally, who handles snakes with their poison fangs in; the three rattle snakes now with her have their full equipment of death dealing fangs, as she demonstrated to a Press representative last night. The usual number of snakes in her outfit is about 150, although this spring she had in training 300. At present only a few reptiles are with her here, but she expects the others to be shipped here in a day or two.” The Sheboygan Press

1918 Aug 5       Spousta enlisted in the Navy

1918 Aug 8     “With Liberty Tattooed Man in Navy, Patriotism is at Least Skin Deep, By Frank L. Lyons. The Liberty Tattooed Man, who is believed to have more tattoo marks on his body than any other man in the world, is now a Great Lakes bluejacket. Edward Spousta, known in circus life as the human moving picture enlisted at the Great Lakes Recruiting office Monday and will report for duty today. Spousta has 365 separate designs on his body, ranging from enormous designs nearly a foot square to some that are about an inch square. There is hardly an inch of epidermis on the new recruit which has not some design indelibly stamped on it in brilliant blue, red, yellow and green inks. / “Spirit of ’76 on Chest. The Liberty tattooed man gets his name from the fact that most of his designs are of a patriotic nature. A huge reproduction of the “Spirit of 1776” is tattooed across his chest. The Statue of Liberty…Spousta said that the majority of the designs had been placed on his body by himself or reworked from other artists’ designs. The remainder of the work not done by himself and cost him nearly $500. He said that it was not very painful to have the big designs placed on his body. The only time it hurt a great deal was in having the Statue of Liberty made,” he said. When I was being tattooed along the spinal column, where all the nerves are, it made me wince….” 

1918 Dec 4      Discharged from the Navy 

1920 Jan 8      Living with Helen at 2119 Gladys Avenue in Chicago.

1920 Jun 5      “Wanted – Freaks—Wanted for Prof. S. J. Edward’s Palace of Living Wonders, with Harry E. Billick’s Gold Medal Shows…Freaks..or anything suitable for a real live and best-framed Pit Show. You know how Edwards, the Liberty Tattooed Man, can frame up an outfit. This is a 20-car show…” Billboard

1920 Jul 31      “Wanted For Prof. S. J. Edwards’ Congress of Living Wonders one good Freak to be featured; also Glass Blowers and good working attractions. Want to buy Una-Fon, Levitation, Magic, Ventriloquist, Mind Reading, Banners. This week Chillicothe, Mo.; next week Hannibal, Mo. Wire Prof. J. E. Edwards.” Billboard

1920 Oct 2       “Pit Show Attractions Wanted for Prof. S. J. Edwards’ Congress of Living Wonders, with Harry E. Billick’s Gold Medal Shows. / Fat Girl, Midget, Armless Wonder, Magician, Glass Blower or good Freak that can be featured. Also =Working Acts. This is a 20-car show. Stays out all winter. State your salary in the first wire. No time for correspondence. Wire Prof. S. J. Edwards, care Gold Medal                         Shows, week of Sept. 27, Fayetteville, Ark.; week of Oct. 4, Mena, Ark.” Billboard

1921 Apr 16     “Gold Medal Shows / First of the Season To play Immediate Vicinity of Kansas City / …S. J. Edwards’ Congress of Living Wonders…Helen Edwards, cartoonist…S. J. Edwards, tattooed man…” Billboard

1921 Apr 23    “S. J. Edwards” Congress of Living Wonders / A big 20-in-1 show with Harry E. Billick’s Gold Medal Shows. Those in the picture are, left to right: Harry E. Billick, S. J. Edwards and Doc George Hammond, talker (first row); Ed Bledsoe, tall boy, 8 feet, 2 inches, and 19 years old; Lucy, fat girl; Mr. Gowler, glass blower; Mrs. Gowler, to left of Ed, and then Mrs. Helen Edwards, wife of S. J. Edwards.” Billboard

1922 Apr 29     “Hansher Bros.’ Attractions Ready for Start at Milwaukee…Mr. and Mrs. B. H. Lockman and Mme. Melba, illusionists and magicians, and Mr. and Mrs. S. J. Edwards, he being a tattooed man and glass blower and she a chalk-talk cartoonist…” Billboard

1923 Apr 14     “Call / Great White Way Shows / Show Opens Hammond, Ind., April 23…Pit Show Attractions for 15-1, write to S. J. Edwards…” Billboard.

1924 Jun 7        “Great Middle West Shows…”The shows; Circus side-show, S. J. Edwards, manager and announcer…Mrs. Helen Edwards, comic cartoon and chalk talk… Sailor Jack Edwards, tattooed man…” Billboard

1926 Jun 5        “Michigan Greater Shows, R. T. Wade, O. A. Baker….S. J. Edwards, can use you…” Billboard

1927 Apr 30     “Lou Delmore in Chicago / Chicago, April 20 – Lou Delmore, side-show manager, is in Chicago with the Sells-Floto Circus, acting as an announcer…Jack Orr, Tattooed Man…Princess Melba with her collection of snakes…” Billboard

1927 May 7      “Snapp Bros.’ Shows…”Mrs. Edwards the wife of our midway artist, S. J. Edwards, has arrived. She is a rag picture worker and a cartoonist appearing under the name of Artista…” Billboard

1931 Jan 17      “Among Showfolks in Chicago busily preparing for the new season are S. J. Edwards, tattooed man, and his wife, Helen, who bills herself as Artista. S. J. is making everything new, including flash, and the missus, in conjunctions with her chalk talks and rag pictures, will have a glass-blowing outfit, and is now busy making up stock for that attraction.” Billboard

1971 Jul 16   Edward J Spousta dies

1971 Jul 17       “Spousta / Edward J. Spousta, age 88, beloved husband of Helen. Services Monday, 1 p.m., at Krauspe Chapel, 3905-07 N. Lincoln Av., Interment Acacia Park. Member of Paul Revere Lodge, No. 998, A. F. & A. M., ILL Commandery, NO. 72, K. T., Columbia Chapter, NO. 202, R. A. M., Legion of Merit of Medinah Temple and Trowel Post, No. 160, A. L., 525-0529.”  Chicago Tribune

Researched and written by Derin Bray

In the heyday of New York’s rough-and-tumble Bowery, tattoo shops stood shoulder to shoulder with flop houses, strip joints, dime museums, and, quite notably, photo studios. Few people navigated this motley landscape and its colorful cast of characters better than photographer William Ettlin. Long overlooked by scholars of tattoo history, Ettlin operated a bustling business at 17 Chatham Square, just footsteps from pioneering tattooers Prof. Samuel O’Reilly, “Electric” Elmer Getchell, Charlie Wagner and Lew “The Jew” Alberts. Because of his proximity to their shops —and no doubt his prowess behind the camera— he often found himself at their service, and he didn’t disappoint. Ettlin’s portraits of tattoo artists and their human canvases document, in spectacular detail, the height of New York tattoo culture in the early twentieth century.

William Partridge, Tattooed by Lew Alberts. “Tattooed by Alberts, N. Y.,” Cabinet Card Photograph by William Ettlin, Ettlin’s Portraits, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1905. Derin Bray Collection

The son of a Swiss-German tailor, William Ettlin (1859-1911) was reared in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the sprawling immigrant neighborhood known as Little Germany. At various times in his youth he lived on the edge of the Bowery and sometimes smack dab in the heart of the city’s cheap entertainment district. It was likely here, in his own backyard, that he received instruction in the mysterious art and science of photography.

By 1884, at age 25, Ettlin began identifying himself as an artist and photographer. His place of employment at this time isn’t yet known, but several clues suggest he worked at a prominent studio. After honing his skills for several years, he struck out on his own and, by 1892, established himself professionally at 17 Chatham Square.

An advertisement for W. A. Ettlin, 17 Chatham Square, New York. The Photographic Times, 1892.

Ettlin worked on the top floor of the massive brick hardware store of White, Van Glahn & Co., one of the Bowery’s landmark buildings. And he wasn’t alone. He shared the space, which stretched from 17 Chatham Square to 8 Catherine Street, with the Schultze Photo Equipment Co., founded by his former employer, veteran photographer Carl Schultze (1830-1891).

William Ettlin’s photo studio was located on the top floor of the White, Van Glahn & Co. hardware store. The building (and Ettlin’s studio) stretched from 17 Chatham Square to 8 Catherine Street. White, Van Glahn & Co. Illustrated Catalogue and Price List, 1902.

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William Ettlin worked on the top floor of the highly-visible White, Van Glahn & Co. hardware store at 17 Chatham Square. Schultze Photo Equipment Co. was also located at this address. Detroit Publishing Co., Publisher. "L" Station, Chatham Square, New York. New York New York State New York. United States, 1905. [?] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016805354/.

Studio portraits were Ettlin’s bread and butter. Most of his clients consisted of local New Yorkers looking for a handsome picture to share with friends and family. But he also captured the likenesses of musicians, actors and all manner of performers who —when they passed through the Bowery— sought photographs to promote their acts and to sell as souvenirs. Ettlin worked this way for nearly two decades until he fell ill in 1911. He died that year at the Fordham Hospital in the Bronx and was buried in St. Michael’s cemetery. His studio, however, lived on. Brooklyn-based photographer Ralph Tarsy ran the place until 1915. He capitalized on Ettlin’s good name by continuing to print “The Ettlin Studio” on his mounts.

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Ettlin's Photographic Studio, photographer. Civil War veteran Abraham G. Demarest / Ettlin's Studio, 17 Chatham Sq., N.Y. ; Ettlin's Photographic Art Studio, 17 Chatham Sq., N.Y. United States, None. [New york: ettlin's photographic art studio, 17 chatham sq., between 1889 and 1900] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017659663/.

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Performer in Native American Costume. Cabinet Card Photograph by W. A. Ettlin, Ettlin’s Portraits, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1905. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions

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The Lee Family, Cabinet Card Photograph by Tarsy / The Ettlin Studio, 17 Chatham Square / 8 Catherine Street, New York, ca. 1915. Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History

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The Intersection of Photography & Tattoo History

William Ettlin’s lofty studio at 17 Chatham Square stood conveniently across the street from tattoo luminaries Samuel O’Reilly and Elmer Getchell. In fact, O’Reilly’s shop at 5 Chatham Square may have been a point of introduction for the three men. By 1887, when O’Reilly first wielded an electric needle at No. 5, Schultz’s photo equipment company and photo gallery was already a fixture on the top floor. Schultze, of course, eventually moved his headquarters to No. 17, where William Ettlin also hung his shingle. Presumably Schultze, O’Reilly and Ettlin were well acquainted. Getchell too; he joined O’Reilly at No. 5 for two years, but relocated to 11 Chatham Square following a legal dispute over patent infringement for tattoo machines. 

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Detroit Publishing Co., Publisher. "L" Station, Chatham Square, New York. United States, 1905. [?] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016805354/.

Elmer E. Getchell business card from “Souvenirs of the Travels and Experiences of the Original Gus. Wagner Globe Trotter & Tattoo Artist” scrapbook, ca.1897-1941. The Alan Govenar and Kaleta Doolin Tattoo Collection at South Street Seaport Museum, New York. (2001.039.0023)

William Ettlin & Elmer Getchell

We don’t know if O’Reilly ever set foot in Ettlin’s studio, but his rival, “Electric” Elmer Getchell, certainly did. In 1902, Getchell ventured across the street beneath the elevated train tracks and climbed to the top of 17 Chatham Square. There, Ettlin photographed him in the staged act of tattooing Otto Schmidt, a German nurse finely adorned with snakes, dragons, frogs, fish and the like. Copies of this image —duplicated later by other photographers— no longer bear Ettlin’s mark or mount, but the distinct furniture and studio props are tell-tale signs of his studio (more on this below).

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Elmer Getchell Tattooing Otto Schmidt, Photograph by William Ettlin, 17 Chatham Square, New York. (L) New York Tribune Illustrated Supplement, October 26, 1902. (R) The Shreveport Times, May 28, 1902.

Getchell probably returned to the portrait gallery in 1904, when Ettlin photographed a second human canvas decorated by the veteran tattooer. Images of this striking, yet-unidentified man are boldly inscribed “Tattooed by Prof. Getchell, Norfolk, Va.” This bit of shrewd marketing and self-promotion signalled Getchell’s departure from New York City —and his shop at 11 Chatham Square— for a fresh start in Norfolk, Virginia.

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“Tattooed by Prof. Getchell, Norfolk, Va.,” Photograph Duplicated from a Cabinet Card by William Ettlin, 17 Chatham Square, ca. 1904. Courtesy of Doc Don Lucas

William Ettlin & Lew Alberts

A curious shuffling of shops occurred after Getchell exited the New York tattoo scene. His exact reason for leaving is unknown, but he may have been fed up with the heavy excavation in the center of Chatham Square. That spring the city began building an undergound public comfort station beneath the elevated train. The project dragged on for nearly a year and must have hampered local businesses. O’Reilly, in particular, may have been feeling the squeeze. Several photographs show his shop directly fronting the construction; his building is partially boarded up and tattoo flash appears to be hanging in the windows. Shortly after this photo was taken, O’Reilly packed up his belongings and moved a few doors down to Getchell’s newly-vacant 11 Chatham Square, where he remained until his death in 1909.

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View of the Excavation Fronting 5 Chatham Square. Manhattan, Chatham Square excavation, looking west, June 21, 1904. Courtesy of New-York Historical Society.

Unfazed by the construction, tattoo newcomer Lew “The Jew” Alberts seized the opportunity and took over O’Reilly’s old spot. His graphic business card from this period confirms his Chatham Square address, though his time there was fleeting.

Prof. Alberts Business Card, 5 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1904. Collection of Derin Bray

By the following winter Alberts was already searching for a neighborhood with less competition. Before leaving Chatham Square —or more likely upon a return visit— he and a heavily-inked man made their way to Ettlin’s studio to be photographed. Ettlin didn’t disappoint. He captured Alberts and his friend (possibly a young Harry Lawson) in a series of stunning images, one of which shows a fresh-faced Alberts holding an electric tattoo machine. Each photograph is inscribed “Tattooed by Lew Alberts, Pittsburg[h} Pa.” The distinct handwriting —etched in the negative by Ettlin or one of his assistants— is another hallmark of Ettlin’s studio.

Lew Alberts and One of His Tattooed Attractions, Possibly Harry Lawson. L) “Tattooed by Lew Alberts, Pittsburg[h] Pa.,” Detail of a Real Photo Postcard (RPPC) Duplicated From a Cabinet Card Photograph by William Ettlin. R) Tattooed by Lew Alberts, Pittsburg[h] PA,” Detail of a Cabinet Card Photograph by William Ettlin, Ettlin’s Portraits, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1906. Collection of Derin Bray

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In a 1905 interview, Alberts took credit for tattooing Otto Schmidt, raising the possibility that he had some association with Elmer Getchell at 11 Chatham Square. Alberts also stated that he tattooed Ed Greenwood, whose work is often attributed to Charlie Wagner. Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette, March 15, 1905.

Charlie Wagner & William Ettlin

The Bowery’s brash and ambitious Charlie Wagner also found occasion to visit 17 Chatham Square. Between 1903 and 1907, when Wagner tattooed at 223 1/2 Bowery (one mile from Getchell and O’Reilly), Ettlin photographed the young tattooer and several of his clients, including a portly Ed Greenwood. Lew Alberts —Wagner’s sometimes-partner and associate— had a hand in Greenwood’s elaborate covering, but Ettlin’s photographs fail to attribute the work to either man. This was partially corrected when Wagner commissioned the studio of Obermuller & Son to produce additional cabinet cards with the inscription “Tat[t]ooed by Prof. Wagner, 223 1/2 Bowery, N.Y.” A comparison of the cards confirms that Obermuller copied at least one of Ettlin’s portraits. During this period it was common for photographers to duplicate photographs from negatives or positive images.

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Ed Greenwood, Tattooed by Charlie Wagner and Lew Alberts, Cabinet Card Photograph by William Ettlin, Ettlin’s Portraits, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1903. Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

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Ed Greenwood, Tattooed by Charlie Wagner and Lew Alberts, Cabinet Card Photograph by William Ettlin, Ettlin’s Portraits, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1903. Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

L) Ed Greenwood, Tattooed by Charlie Wagner and Lew Alberts, Cabinet Card Photograph by William Ettlin, Ettlin’s Portraits, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1903. Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. R) “Tat[t]ooed by Prof. Wagner, 223 1/2 Bowery, N.Y.,” Cabinet Card Photograph of Ed Greenwood by William Ettlin, Duplicated by Obermuller and Son, 28 Cooper Square, Opposite 5th St, New York, ca. 1905. Collection of Prof. York

Tattooed marvels Henry Kiegal and Ed Gilbert also found themselves in front of Ettlin’s camera, often with the help of a cast-iron posing stand. In 1904/5, Ettlin produced stunning portraits of each man showing their beautifully etched fronts and backs in half-length and full-length views. Never one to shy away from the limelight or an opportunity to advance his business interests, Wagner joined in the fun. Ettlin photographed the charismatic tattoo master showcasing his creations and the tools of his trade —electric tattoo machines, rheostat boards, clip cords, hand-painted flash and signs promoting his location at 223 1/2 Bowery.

Ed Gilbert, Tattooed by Charlie Wagner, Real Photo Postcard (RPPC) Duplicated From a Cabinet Card Photograph by William Ettlin, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1905. Collection of Harry Sorensen

Ettlin’s most recognized images, however, depict a shockingly young Andy Stuertz. Around 1907, Ettlin created no fewer than six different portraits of the 13/14 year-old tattooed marvel. And yet, examples of these photos are often embossed with the mark of Luther S. White, a photographer located at 105 4th Avenue. The personal scrapbook of famed circus performer Jim “The Texas Giant” Tarver helps put this in context. For several years Tarver and Stuertz worked together beneath the sideshow tent for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. Both men did a brisk business selling souvenir photographs and, evidently, struck up a friendship. Stuertz gifted (or possibly sold) the giant one of his pictures, which Tarver dutifully inscribed with the year 1915. Nearly a decade after the image was first taken, Stuertz was still handing out photographs of himself as a “tattooed boy.” Indeed, it was likely Stuertz himself who ordered the duplicated photographs from White so he could continue to sell them.

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Andy Stuertz, Tattooed by Charlie Wagner, Photograph by White’s Studio, 105 4th Avenue, New York, Duplicated From a Cabinet Card Photograph by William Ettlin, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1907. Private Collection

Andy Stuertz, Jim Tarver and Harry Morris, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, ca. 1915. Private Collection

Charlie Wagner Tattooing Andy Stuertz, Photograph by White’s Studio, 105 4th Avenue, New York, Duplicated From a Cabinet Card Photograph by William Ettlin, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1907. Collection of Derin Bray

Charlie Wagner, Lew Alberts & William Ettlin

The careers of Charlie Wagner, Lew Alberts and William Ettlin converged, quite spectacularly, around 1909. Samuel O’Reilly died that spring and Wagner took over his shop at 11 Chatham Square, where he was joined with his long-time associate Lew Alberts. It was here, in the house that Getchell and O’Reilly built, that the duo created one of the crowning achievements of tattoo history —the suit of otherworldly tattoos belonging to Jack Tryon, later known as “Painless Jack.”

Jack Tryon, Tattooed by Charlie Wagner and Lew Alberts. “Tattooed by Wagner and Alberts, Chatham Sq., N.Y.,” Cabinet Card Photograph (trimmed), by William Ettlin, Ettlin’s Portraits, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1909. Derin Bray Collection

Ettlin not only captured Tryon in his full glory, but he also documented —to great effect— the ascent of Wagner and Alberts to the top of the tattoo food chain. In what might be his greatest tattoo portrait, he photographed the well-dressed duo as they pretended to decorate their canvas. The sign resting on the white fur rug confirmed their authorship of the tattoos and, more importantly, announced to the public their new location in the hallowed ground of Chatham Square.

Charlie Wagner and Lew Alberts Tattooing Jack Tryon. “Tattooed by Wagner and Alberts, Chatham Sq, N.Y.,” Cabinet Card Photograph by William Ettlin, Ettlin’s Portraits, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1910. Derin Bray Collection

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Identifying Ettlin’s Portraits

During his lifetime William Ettlin’s photos of tattooed attractions and tattoo artists were duplicated by other photographers, including several contemporaries who pasted them to their own mounts or embossed them with their own studio marks. This can make it difficult to identify Ettlin’s work. To make matters worse, from the 1910s through the 1940s, long after Ettlin had died, his images were copied over and over again and printed as real photo postcards (RPPCs). The duplicated images are so far removed from the originals that they no longer contain printed information about Ettlin. But like all great artists, his work is embedded with several characteristics —some unique— that are helpful in identifying his studio.

Hallmarks:

1. Ettlin used a few hand-painted backdrops that appear in most of his known cabinet cards. Scroll down to the gallery to see several examples.

2. Ettlin used faux grass to disguise the unsightly area between the bottom of his backdrops and the studio floor.

3. The same chairs, stools, tables and plant stands appear in many of Ettin’s photographs. For example, the stool with twisted metal legs in which tattoo artist Elmer Getchell sits can also be seen in a photograph of musicians (see gallery below). Likewise, the stool on which Otto Schmidt is sitting appears in other photos as a plant stand (see gallery below).

4. Several photographs of Ettlin are inscribed in the negative with information about Getchell, Wagner or Alberts. The writing style is distinct and represents the work of the same hand, possibly Ettlin or a studio assistant.

5. The fur rug! Ettlin’s subjects often stood or rested on a fur rug. See above photographs of Stuertz and Tryon.

6. Ettlin’s bust-length portraits often include fuzzy white circles on the left side; these are probably the white flower on his back drop, which have become distorted.

Tattooed Attractions Photographed by Ettlin:

• Otto Schmidt

• Harry Lawson (possibly)

• Jack Tryon

• William Partridge

• Ed Gilbert

• Henry Kiegal, aka Harry Karsey

• Ed Greenwood

• Andy Stuertz/Sturtz

Tattoo Artists Photographed by William Ettlin:

• Elmer Getchell

• Charlie Wagner

• Lew Alberts

Gallery of Cabinet Cards by William Ettlin

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Cabinet Card Photographs, by William Ettlin, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1905. Private Collection

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L) Cabinet Card Photographs, by William Ettlin, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1905. Private Collection. R) Cabinet Card Photographs, by William Ettlin, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1905. Courtesy of Worthpoint

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L) Cabinet Card Photograph, by William Ettlin, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1900. Coll. of Prof. York. R) Willie Butler, Cabinet Card Photograph, by William Ettlin, 17 Chatham Square, New York, ca. 1905. The Cabinet Card Gallery

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Notes:

1. Full citations are available upon request.

2. Following Ettlin’s marriage in 1884, he relocated his family home from the Bowery to Brooklyn. He made a series of moves north in the 1890s, until finally situating his family in the Bronx.

3. 1892 is the earliest documented instance of William Ettlin working at 17 Chatham Square. However, the backs of some of his cabinet card mounts include a copyright date of 1889 for the studio used on his mount; a special thank you to Nick York for pointing out that other photographers used the same logo.

4. Ettlin likely had a small staff to assist in the studio. In 1894, he advertised for a “negative retoucher” and “someone willing to make himself generally useful.”

5. Carl Schultz’s died in 1891. His son Theodore, a photographer based in Brooklyn, ran Schultze Photo Equipment Co. until the business went belly up in 1894.

6. Ralph Tarsy worked at 17 Chatham Square through at least 1931.

7. For a timeline and discussion of Getchell and O’Reilly’s shops, see “Tattoo Shops at 5 & 11 Chaham Square,” www.buzzworthytattoo.com

8. For a clearer image of Getchell tattooing Schmidt, see The Father of American Tattooing, Franklin Paul Rogers, Published by the Tattoo Archive, p. 89.

9. By the time Getchell began tattooing Schmidt in early April, construction on the underground comfort station was already underway. A photograph of the excavation dated March 11, 1904, is in the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

Researched and written by Derin Bray

Joseph Bernard Harkin, aka Barney Kruntz, Cabinet Card by J. S. Johnson, Johnson’s photo studio, 193 Wabash Ave., Chicago, IL, ca. 1905. Derin Bray Collection

Before transforming himself into a tattooed marvel, Joseph “Barney” Harkin was better known as a plucky young tailor from Toronto, Canada. And like many performers who climbed to the top of their profession, his life story reads like a work of sensational fiction, replete with magicians, train wrecks, and even the mummified body of John Wilkes Booth –or so he claimed! 

Joseph and Agnes Harkin. Private Collection

By the time he was eighteen years old, Joseph “Barney” Harkin (1883-1943) had already set his sights on a career in show business. He moved to Chicago around 1902 and quickly found himself on South State Street, one of the country’s busiest and bawdiest entertainment districts. While there he became acquainted with old-time tattooer and tattooed attraction Albert “Dutch” Herman, aka “New York Dutch.” The exact circumstances of their meeting are unknown, but Herman would soon hand-poke hundreds of designs on Harkin’s body, including an elaborate backpiece depicting the Crucifixion of Jesus. 

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Joseph Harkin, aka Barney Kruntz, with Campbell Bros. Circus, 1909, by Frank Carney. Courtesy of Circus World Museum

For the next fifteen years Harkin exhibited himself –sometimes as Professor Barney Kruntz— at Chicago dime museums and with sideshows that crisscrossed the country, notably Sells-Floto, Al. G. Barnes and Barnum & Bailey. His wife Agnes (1884-1974) joined in too. She performed a popular “Den of Snakes” act, often under the stage name Viola. 

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The London Dime Museum, Chicago, ca. 1907. Barney Harkin performed here in 1903.

Barney Harkin, Tattooed Man, exhibited himself at the London Dime Museum in Chicago. New York Clipper, April 18, 1903. Albert Herman was also a frequent exhibitor at the London Dime Museum.

Like many illustrated men and women, Harkin padded his income by tattooing. He even dabbled in the supply business. Throughout 1909, he and his father-in-law, James Black, advertised tattoo machines, design books, and inks from their home base in Chicago. Black, a former worker at a forge in Toronto, may have brought his metalworking skills to bear on the craft-side of the operation.

Harkin & Black Advertisement for Tattoo Machines and Supplies, 200 S. Halsted, Chicago, IL, Billboard, Apr. 10, 1909.

Hagenbeck-Wallace was the last circus the Harkins traveled with as performers, and for good reason. Life on the road was grueling, especially with young children. And travel could be quite dangerous. On June 22, 1918 near Hammond, Indiana, an empty train piloted by a sleeping engineer plowed into the idle train carrying Hagenbeck-Wallace’s 400 performers and personnel. It was one of the deadliest crashes in U.S. history. Barney was aboard the vehicle. He managed to walkaway from the crash, but many weren’t so fortunate —86 people died and more than 127 were injured (learn more about it here). 

Aftermath of the Hagenbeck-Wallace train wreck near Hammond, Indiana, 1918. Courtesy of the Hammond Public Library

The wreck undoubtedly shook the Harkins. Whether it motivated their next move is unclear, but they retired their acts the following year and purchased an arcade on South State Street. Evidently business was good. By 1921 Barney had pulled together enough money to purchase one of two theaters owned by famed magician Howard Thurston. Located just a few blocks away at 518 South State Street, the Trocadero, as it would become known, offered burlesque shows on the first floor and a museum of oddities on the second. 

Billboard, October 29, 1921

But the theater business presented its own set of challenges. Local reform organizations determined to run Harkins out of town for promoting immoral exhibitions. As one investigator reported, for a mere nickel, lewd girly shows could be watched through a peep hole. The police and health department followed up on such tips with raids, often arresting some of the women and their male customers. Harkin himself was hauled away on a few occasions. Things quickly came to a head in the the spring of 1923. The state attorney general filed a bill for injunction against the veteran showman, alleging that the Trocadero was operating as a brothel “in which women solicit patronage and…obscene performances are staged.”  

Not surprisingly, Harkin made a swift break from the museum and theater business. And before long he was back on the road —this time traveling by truck— with a minstrel show and later a war exhibit that boasted a vast display of ancient military artifacts. During an especially memorable appearance with the S. W. Brundage Carnival in 1924, chaos broke out in Harkin’s tent:

The monkey speedway was spotted next to Barney’s war show, and one of the simian daredevils escaped, and got in among the war relics. When finally caught, he was reported attired in German, French, and Irish military paraphernalia. But Barney, so front-line reports stated, retrieved his w. k. Scotch pea cap.

At the outset of the 1930 season, the Harkins interrupted their engagement with Brundage show to seize a rare opportunity. Barney had been in the market for a flashy new attraction and found just thing on a potato farm in Declo, Idaho: “The real embalmed body of John Wilkes Booth.”

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Advertisement for the embalmed body of John Wilkes Booth, Billboard, May 10. 1930.

Indeed, for more than two decades the leathery remains of a man known as John St. Helen (aka David E. George) had been exhibited throughout the country as the body of John Wilkes Booth, notorious assassin of President Abraham Lincoln (read more about it here and here). As the story goes, St. Helen had confessed his identity to his lawyer, Finis L. Bates, who later promoted the conspiracy through the popular book The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth (1907). Shortly after he came into possession of the corpse, Bates began leasing it to showmen, who added to the spurious story with affidavits and medical examinations. Interestingly, reports substantiating the claim never mention whether the mummy featured the tattooed initials “J. W. B.,” which Booth had crudely pricked on the back of his hand as a boy.

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“The True Emblamed Body of John Wilkes Booth.” Photo courtesy of Sideshow World.

The Harkins purchased the controversial attraction for a purported $5,000 and toured with it throughout the 1930s. A spread in Life magazine captured the exhibit in its full glory. Barney can be seen collecting the 25 cent admission, while Agnes provides the crowd with x-rays intended to corroborate the story of Booth’s escape and his subsequent life on the run. Behind the podium painted sign boldly declares “$1,000 reward if proven not genuine.”

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“Twenty-five cents admission is charged to see the mummy. ‘Barney’ Harkin tends gate. His wife does the explaining,” LIFE, July 11, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

“An X-ray of mummy’s stomach, exhibited by Mrs. Harkin, shows signet ring with “B,” supposedly swallowed by Booth,” LIFE, July 11, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Barney and Agnes Harkin were true show people. By virtue of grit, talent, and force of personality, they blazed their own trail through the rough-and-tumble world of sideshows, arcades, dime museums, and carnivals in early twenty-century America. Barney passed away in 1943 at the age of 60. Agnes continued to live in Chicago until her death thirty years later. They are buried in Acacia Park Cemetery in Chicago.

Obituary for Joseph Bernard Harkin, Arlington Heights Herald, December 31, 1943.

Notes: 

1. Citations for this article are available upon request. 

2. Joseph Harkin was born in Duluth, Minnesota, but moved to Toronto at an early age. He was working in Toronto in 1901, moved to Chicago at an unknown date, and returned to Toronto in 1902 to marry Agnes Black.

3. It’s possible that Harkin had existing ties to the amusement world. His father-in-law, James Black, was described as a veteran showman in his 1922 obituary in Billboard magazine. At the very least Black played an important role Harkin’s career. He partnered with him in a tattoo supply business in 1909 and later sold tickets, most likely at Harkin’s arcade.

4. Harkin’s old friend, Albert “Dutch” Herman, aka “New York Dutch,” may have worked in the museum. By 1925, after Harkin had exited the museum business, Hermann set-up shop at Thurston’s other dime museum at 526 South State Street.

Researched and written by Derin Bray

Charlie, did big Ted Liberty come down there and set up shop? He’s out of Boston. I saw “Dad” [Liberty] a while back and he said Ted had gone to Baltimore.

Fred Day to “Tattoo Charlie” Geizer, Jan. 2, 1951

Trade Sign for Ted Liberty’s Tattoo Studio, painted by Eddie Levin, Baltimore, ca. 1950

In 1950, veteran tattoo artist Edward “Ted” Liberty packed up his shop in Boston’s Scollay Square and made his way to Baltimore. His final destination was The Block, the notorious stretch of East Baltimore Street crowded with strip joints, dive bars, and shooting galleries. And like many other business owners in the city’s gritty entertainment district, he turned to local painter and cartoonist Eddie Levin for flashy show cards to decorate his new studio. Levin did not disappoint. He furnished Liberty with a bold and brightly-painted sign loaded with patriotic imagery and a banner that declared “Ted’s Tattoo Studio” was open for business.

Born in Lutsk, Russia in 1889, Edward “Eddie” Levin (real name Leifer) emigrated to the United States with his family in 1891. His father was a tailor, but Eddie and his younger brother Albert pursued careers as commercial artists. By 1910 the Levin brothers had landed jobs as card writers for a department store. It was the first of many gigs for Eddie. He would go on to paint for Baltimore Show Card Works, the Clover theater, and many other local businesses and sign companies.

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The GayetyTheatre’s Impressario in Action, by Eddie Levin, Baltimore, 1957. Private Collection

In the late 1930s, he struck out on his own and opened a studio above the Playland penny arcade at 420 East Baltimore Street. Incidentally, Ted’s tattoo shop was located just a few steps away above Mardi-Gras Novelty Amusements, an arcade and lunch counter at no. 424. Those who knew Levin during this period remember him as a talented, but penniless artist. He lodged in the Armitstead Hotel.

Eddie Levin’s WWII Draft Card Showing his Studio Address at 420 E. Baltimore Street. *Note: Victor Herfel operated a photography studio at the same address.

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Eddie Levin and Victor Herfel both had studios at 420 East Baltimore Street. Around 1953, Mardi-Gras Amusements at no. 424 became Polock Johnny’s; Ted Liberty tattooed upstairs.

Photo postcard of Victor Herfel (R), probably taken in a Baltimore arcade. Both he and Eddie Levin worked at 420 East Baltimore Street, home to Playland penny arcade. The man on the left is unidentified, but appears to be holding paint brushes. Private Collection

Levin painted thousands of show cards and signs over the course of his lengthy career, but he is best-known for his witty cartoons of dancers, gamblers, night club owners, and the other colorful characters who inhabited The Block during its heyday. These precise and often comical sketches offer a rare glimpse at life in one of Baltimore’s seediest neighborhoods.

“The Prodigy of The Block,” by Eddie Levin, Baltimore, 1959. Jewish Museum of Maryland

While several examples of Eddie Levin’s work survive in public and private collections, the details of his life and career still remain a mystery. He died in 1968 and is buried in the Chizuk Amuno Congregation Arlington Cemetery in Baltimore. 

Eddie Levin Timeline

***If you have information about Eddie or know of other examples of his work, I would love to hear from you!***

1889 - Edward "Eddie” Louis Levin (real name Edward Leifer) was born in Lutsk, Russia

1891 - Edward’s father immigrates to the United States and establishes himself in Baltimore

1910 - Edward and his younger brother Abraham worked as card writers for a local department store

1911 - Listed as a cartoonist in the city directory

1917 - Card writer for Baltimore Show Card Works

1922 - Card writer for Acme Show Card Works at 412 East Baltimore Street

1926 - Manager of the Art-Ad Sign Co. at 325 North Eutaw Street

1936 - Sign painter for the Clover theater at 414 East Baltimore Street

1940 - Operated a painting studio above the Playland arcade (later Penny Land) at 424 East Baltimore Street

1968 - Edward Levin is Buried in Chizuk Amuno Congregation Arlington Cemetery in Baltimore.

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Notes:

Full citations for this article are available upon request

1. Letter from Newport, RI tattoo artist Fred Day to Baltimore tattoo artist Charlie Geizer, January 2, 1950. Private Collection

2. Ted Liberty tattooed on The Block until 1953, when he moved to Canada.

3. Asher Levin (Eddie’s father) immigrated to the United States in 1891. Presumably Eddie and his mother came to the United States in the same year, though immigration records for them have not yet been located.

4. Mardi-Gras would later become Polock Johnny’s.

5. For insights into Levin and other characters from The Block, see Jacques Kelly’s 1994 articles in The Baltimore Sun (click here and here)

Researched and written by Derin Bray

Lots of broken carnies and no money and I are one of them.  

~Egbertus Jan “Dutch” Berghege, 1939

The steely-eyed tattooed marvel known as “Dutch” has long captured the imaginations of tattoo history enthusiasts.  His impressive body suit –comprised of circus elephants, butterflies, and a full-rigged sailing ship, among other designs— is documented by a series of photo postcards created in the 1920s for Percy Waters, the renowned Detroit tattoo artist and supplier.  These striking images were sold to tattooers around the world, ensuring Dutch would be a familiar figure for generations to come.  And yet, despite such an ample visual record, the identity of this hardened showman has remained a mystery –until now. 

Egbertus Jan "Dutch" Berghege, photo postcard, Detroit, ca. 1921. Ronald G. Becker Collection of Charles Eisenmann Photographs, Syracuse University Libraries, Special Collections.

Before transforming himself into a human picture gallery, Egbertus Jan Berghege (1882-1942) toiled as a farmer in the small village of Renkum, Netherlands.  At the age of twenty-nine, in pursuit of a better life, he trekked to the bustling seaport of Rotterdam and boarded a steamship destined for London.  It was the first leg of a grueling journey to North America.  By crowded trains, boats, and no-doubt foot Berghege pressed on to Bristol, Halifax, and eventually Toronto. But the real journey was still ahead. 

Percy Waters tattooing Egbertus Jan "Dutch" Berghege, photo postcard, Detroit ca. 1921. Derin Bray Collection

Ultimately, he had eyes for Michigan, and for good reason.  The western part of the state was home to the largest community of Dutch immigrants in the U.S.  It boasted lush farmland, good factory jobs, and friendly faces; his cousins had settled there a decade earlier.  And so, in the winter of 1914, with twelve dollars in his pocket, Berghege crossed the Canadian border and made his way to Grand Rapids. 

Fellow Dutchman and exuberant carnival owner Henry J. Pollie may have influenced Berghege during this period.  His popular Zeidman and Pollie Shows (co-owned with William Zeidman) was headquartered in Grand Rapids and opened there every spring to large audiences.  The show employed upwards of 400 people, including dozens of colorful attractions like pioneering tattooers William Grimshaw and Eddie “Hap” Hazzard. Whether Berghege interacted with Pollie at this time is unclear, but he certainly knew about him.  And the two would correspond in later years. 

Prof. William Grimshaw from a Pollie & Zeidman advertisement, The Billboard, July 29, 1916.

Prof. Eddie Hazzard from a Pollie & Zeidman advertisement, The Billboard, June 9, 1917.

By 1918, Berghege had relocated to Detroit, where he cobbled together work as a handyman, fireman, and truck driver.  Along the way he encountered another bright light in the amusement world, Percy Waters (1888-1952).  Waters had moved to the city just a year earlier and was busy establishing the country’s preeminent tattoo supply business.  On his path to success, he covered a slew of Detroit characters to spectacular effect.  Among his human canvases were local autoworker Shelby Kemp and machinist Thomas Edward “Van” Vanderwerger, best-known for the spider web tattooed on his head.  Incidentally, Waters probably also instructed Van in the mysterious art and craft of tattooing.  He worked in one of Waters' arcade shops in the early 1920s and the two occasionally appeared together in promotional material.  

Percy Waters tattooing Ed Van, photo postcard, Detroit, ca. 1925. Derin Bray Collection

Business card for Ed Van and Percy Waters, Detroit, ca. 1925. Derin Bray Collection

Berghege took the plunge around 1920 and submitted to the painful process of being tattooed for exhibition.  Waters covered him from neck-to-ankle with eye-catching designs ranging from Buffalo Bill Cody to Saint George and The Dragon.  His back was decorated with the iconic Pharaoh’s Horses and his belly with a harrowing scene of an angel rescuing a drowning man.  As a small tribute to Berghege’s Dutch roots, Waters also put The Crown of Netherlands just beneath his neck.  

Promotional Flyer for tattoo artist and supplier Percy Waters, Detroit, ca. 1922. Derin Bray Collection

Old photographs of Waters' masterpiece occasionally bear the nickname “Dutch."  Although Berghege would respond to this moniker for the rest of his life, he chose to perform, instead, under the anglicized name Bert Berger.  This may have been to avoid confusion with veteran Chicago tattooer, Albert "Dutch" Herman, also known as "New York Dutch."  

For the next decade Professor Bert Berger grinded out a living as a tattooed attraction and tattoo artist with ten-in-one shows, including a stint at Granada Park in Detroit and later with Heller’s Acme Shows.  In 1932, amidst the Great Depression, he signed on with familiar concessionaire Henry Pollie and his son John.  Berghege filled a number of roles for the Pollie Shows beyond that of a tattooed person.  In fact, as the season progressed, he gained more attention for his prowess as a carnival grunt –always ready to light a show or poster a town— than for his act.  The writing was on the wall. 

That winter, after hopping freight trains back to Detroit, Berghege struck up a disheartening correspondence with the Pollies.  These remarkable letters –now housed in the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University— describe the hardships he encountered back home and on the road.  He wrote to Henry in late December:  

Well how are things with you, with me it is not nothing…[but]…eat, sleep and tramp the streets looking for work, but things are here as elsewhere. I am going deeper in a hole every day, people where I are staying don’t say nothing, I can say I are home here, but debts have to be paid. After I left Cincinnati on Monday noon I arrived in Detroit Wednesday at 1 o’clock. Well that was not so bad in two days, but my feet are sore from walking and highball. So far so good

A couple of months later, with a new season on the horizon, Pollie invited Berghege to rejoin the show.  His letter fails to mention anything about tattooing, but alludes to his abilities as an electrician and suggests that he could work the kitchen: “We all liked your cooking, so maybe you’d like to try some chops, etc...”  Indeed, Berghege's act seems to have fizzled by this time.  The tattooed man for the show that year was, once again, Eddie Hazzard. 

This was Berghege's course from here on out.  He continued to troupe with shows up and down the east coast, but slogged away as a carpenter, electrician, and chef.  Never as a tattooed attraction.  He built panels and lighting strings, wired show fronts and rides, and cooked for cast and crew.  It was a hardscrabble existence.  He echoed this sentiment in a 1939 postcard to John Pollie.  Berhgege had landed in sunny Vero Beach, Florida, home to the Johnny J. Jones Exposition, but lamented that there were, "lots of broken carnie’s and no money and I are one of them."

Postcard from Egbertus Jan Berghege, AKA Bert Berger, to John Pollie, January 1939. Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University

Berghege struggled until the very end.  In 1942,  alone and nearly destitute, he spent the offseason at the Carr Hotel in Pittsburgh.  It was a favorite stopping place for show folks and he managed to find work there as a clerk.  Sadly, on December 19, a hotel employee discovered him keeled over from a heart attack.  Berghege's death went unnoticed by local newspapers, but was reported by the only publication that would have mattered to him.  On January 2, Billboard entertainment magazine printed his short obituary:

Barglege [sic] – Egburtes [sic] Jan (Dutch), veteran tattoo artist formerly with carnivals, in Carr Hotel, Pittsburgh, December 20 [sic]. He was employed as an electrician in recent years.

The Billboard, January 2, 1943

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Acknowledgements:  A special thank you to Marian Matin, Archivist and Assistant Professor at the Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, for her help with this article.  In 2006, Marian undertook the monumental task of cataloging the John C. Pollie Papers, a remarkably intact and breathtaking account of carnival life and business from the 1910s through the 1960s.  The Pollie Papers are a wonderful resource for anyone studying popular entertainment, sideshow, and carnival history in America. 

Notes: 

1. Citations for this article are available upon request. 

2. For more information on Percy Waters, be sure to check out the below publications (listed in no particular order).

• "The Life and Times: Percy Waters," by Tattoo Archive (2010)

• Designed by Percy Waters, Blue Letter Books (2014)

• Percy Waters Catalog, by Royal Arts Books (2017)

3. For great insight into the lives and careers of William Grimshaw and Eddie Hazzard, see Jon Reiter's, These Old Blue Arms: The Life and Work of Amund Dietzel, Vols. 1 & 2. 

Ward Clark Hallings (1895-1990) got his first tattoo in Detroit around 1916. Within a few years he received a full suit of classic designs from veteran tattooer Richard L. Beck. Although Beck operated a shop in Newport, Rhode Island, he probably completed the work at his main studio and residence in Rochester, New York, where Hallings and his family called home. Hallings trouped with some of the eras largest carnivals and sideshows, but spent most of his career tattooing in Seattle, WA, Charleston, SC, and Watertown, NY.  For more information on his life and career, check out my article in the third issue of the Bristol Tattoo Club Newsletter. 

Photo Postcard of Ward Hallings, Tattooed Man, Tattooed by R. L. Beck, Newport, RI, ca. 1920

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The design for this business card was first used by Boston tattooer Edward W. Liberty (1883-1957), aka "Dad" Liberty, in the early 1920s. His son Frank (1902-1956) used the same card, but added a dirty joke on the reverse. For more information on the Liberty family and the tattoo artists of  Scollay Square, check out www.tattooedboston.com

Frank Liberty Tattoo Business Card, 16 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA, ca. 1930

Elias C. Kidd first appears in San Francisco street directories in 1924, when he's listed as a tattooist residing on Sutter Street. His clever chromolithographic trade card directed customers to a shop at 4 Embarcadero in the heart of the city's entertainment district. 

Elias Kidd, Tattoo Artist Trade Card, 4 Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA, ca. 1925

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Karl Martin Bumpus (1905-1982) was born in Howland, Ohio in 1905. He was employed as a brakemen for The Baltimore & Ohio Rail Road, but when worked dried up during the Great Depression, he looked for other ways to make ends meet. Bumpus drifted until eventually landing in St. Louis, where he received a beautiuful body suit from Bert Grimm and, evidently, instruction in the mysterious art & craft of tattooing. During the 1930s, he scraped together a living as a tattooed attraction and tattoo artist at carnivals throughout the southwest, operating under the professional name Karl Lark. Bumpus eventually resumed work as a brakeman, but continued to moonlight as a tattoo artist from his house in Garrettsville, Ohio until he retired from the trade in 1976. 

Karl Bumpus, Tattoo Artist and Tattooed Man, Photo Postcard, ca. 1935

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Artoria Gibbons (1893-1985) was tattooed in the Los Angeles studio of her husband Charles "Red" Gibbons from 1919 to 1920. According to a 1968 interview, the work should have taken two months to complete, but Red tattooed Artoria intermittently, one hour at a time. 

Artoria Gibbons, Tattooed Lady, Real Photo Postcard, ca. 1920. 

By Derin Bray

For more than fifty years Professor Charlie Wagner (1875-1953) plied needle-and-ink on the  Bowery in New York's gritty Lower East Side.[1] Images of his famous tattoo shop at 11 Chatham Square capture in striking detail the hand-painted flash, photos, and ephemera he accumulated over the course of his illustrious career. And yet, despite this tantalizing visual record, almost none of these items are known to have survived. 

Charlie Wagner, ca. 1925

The recent discovery of a painted trade figure, however, offers renewed hope to collectors and enthusiasts of tattoo history. The figure first crossed my path in the summer of 2012 when it came up for sale at Northeast Auctions in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.[2] It was identified as English, though the patriotic tattoo designs and elaborate angel back piece looked distinctly American.

Courtesy of Northeast Auctions

Courtesy of Northeast Auctions

Further sleuthing confirmed an American origin. A photograph taken by Cecil Beaton around 1938 shows the figure displayed prominently in the window of 11 Chatham Square. 

Charlie Wagner's Tattoo and Barber Shop at 11 Chatham Square, by Cecil Beaton, ca. 1938

Wagner owned at least three other tattooed trade figures meant to entice customers and passersby. In 1931, one newspaper referred to them as “replicas of sideshow artists.[4]" Two years later journalist and historian Albert Parry described Wagner's shop window as having “a manikin…of a semi-nude tattooed lady…” that Wagner “occasionally hired out for freak millionaire playboy parties.[5]” 

Still, Wagner’s tattooed figure presents more questions than answers. Who made it? Who painted it? How did it survive? No names, dates, initials, or other clues are inscribed on the papier-mâché surface. The wooden base, however, provides evidence of another kind. A hole and channel cut into the underside once accommodated electrical wiring, an indication that the figure had served as a lamp. 

A folded letter nailed to the underside of the base offers another possible clue. Postmarked 1912, the letter contains a list of recently elected officers for a fraternal lodge in Portland, Oregon.  The reverse is inscribed in green grease pencil; although mostly illegible, one of the words appears to be “Theater.” Curiously, the president of the lodge, George L. Baker, was a local mover-and-shaker and owner of the Baker Theater in downtown Portland. Perhaps Baker used the figure as a stage prop or decoration for his theater. How it acquired its tattoos and traveled to New York City is still a mystery. Several Portland tattooers from that era include Charles “Red” Gibbons, Hugo Spitzer, George Fosdick, Sailor Gus Franso.

[1] For more information on Wagner, see Michael McCabe, New York City Tattoo: The Oral History of an Urban Art and The Life & Times: Charlie Wagner, published by the Tattoo Archive.

[2] The figure first sold at Northeast Auctions, August 20, 2005, lot 957; it was catalogued as English and had once belonged to the esteemed militaria dealer E. Norman Flayderman. It sold again at Northeast Auctions, August 11, 2012, lot 670. 

[3] See Cecil Beaton, Cecil Beaton’s New York (J. B. Lippincott Co; New York, 1938).

[4] “In New York” by Gilbert Swan, The Olean Evening Times (May 11, 1931): 13.

[5] Albert Parry, Tattoo: Secrets of a Strange Art (1933).

Artoria Gibbons (1893-1985) was tattooed in the Los Angeles studio of her husband Charles "Red" Gibbons and first took the stage with the Kortes Shows in 1919. Her chest is adorned with a portrait of George Washington and her back features a beautifully rendered version of The Last Supper. 

Red Gibbons tattooed at several locations on Main Street in Los Angeles, all of which were a short distance from the Empire Studio (427 Main), where this photo postcard was produced. 

Artoria Gibbons, Tattooed Lady, Real Photo Postcard, by Empire, Los Angeles, CA,  ca. 1920.