Jeff Koons: Jeffie Goes to Hollywood

“Life is too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.” –Vera, or The Nihilists

Frankie Goes to Hollywood(FGTH), is an 80’s British band that had a hit with their single “Relax”. They released a greatest hits album, “Bang! The Greatest Hits Album of Frankie Goes to Hollywood”. It has only one hit on it. It is called “Relax”. Which brings to mind Jeff Koons. He is the Frankie Goes to Hollywood of artists. A one-hit-wonder or at best a three-hit-wonder. He also has a greatest hits album. It’s now playing at the Whitney Museum of Art.

Koons is the ultimate Post Modernist. With sardonic references to art historical styles, appropriation and irony he subverts all that is dear to Modernism. One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Spalding DR. J 241 Series) has a basketball floating in a tank of water that is mounted on a steel table. The purity of modernism (Donald Judd) is undermined by pop imagery (Warhol). It makes an elegant simple statement while at the same time celebrating the banal. The ball isn't soldered to another piece of steel. Salt and distilled water hold it in suspension. No wires are used. It floats magically and motionlessly. You can't help but think of the late Frank Caro’s obsession with weightlessness as a sculptural end game. But unlike Caro this work isn't constructivist. Koons uses water as his medium to hold a readymade in place. Like an aquarium this piece has to be routinely cleaned and the water replaced. Damien Hirst couldn't have put a shark in a tank without first being inspired by Koons.

 

WIth Balloon Dog (1994-2000), Koons fixates on the transformative powers of material by the manipulation of surface. Warhol’s Brillo (1964) boxes are an obvious inspiration. But Koons doesn’t subvert Modernism by reconstructing advertising iconography. Instead he bases his work on a readymade interpretation of reality–the balloon abstraction of a dog. The use of scale creates a surprising disruption. The piece is massive and monumental while being as fragile as a Christmas tree ornament. It appears to be cast but it is actually over 30 pieces of metal that are attached.The yellow color, surface and subject make it feel like it could float away.

 

Play-Doh (1994-2014) took over 20 years to build. Koons felt he couldn't finish it until technology was sophisticated enough to pull it off. Play-Doh is enormous and just sits there all mashed up into one large piece. So much for composition! Once again color, surface and texture are transformative. This is a sculpture that you feel as well as look at. The work appears to be malleable and you just want to tear off a piece and make something with it. Using constructivism to create a sculpture whose subject is clay is about as ironic as it gets. I just hope Play-Doh doesn’t dry out with time.

The rest of the show is cannon fodder. You get the feeling Koons must maintain a large output to pay for La Cicciolina’s alimony. His paintings are slick knock-offs of Rosenquist. There is so much camp here it feels like you are in Yellowstone National Park.

His “Made in Heaven” series really nails it. Jeffie Goes to Hollywood.

 

 

Written by Tom McManus

This piece is just in at Lift Trucks Project. Penned on the back of the tattoo board, is this tally. What it looks like is a 9 hour day paid $30, 4 days a week comes out to $120 per week.  Awful, right?  Well , maybe not.  It comes out to $6,240 per year, if every week paid the same. Here's an indication of what things cost in 1942, the date on the sheet. Average cost of new house $3,770.00 Average wages per year $1,880.00 Cost of a gallon of gas 15 cents average cost for house rent $35.00 per month, a bottle of Coca Cola was 5 cents, average price for a new car $920.00.


How does this stack up to todays income for the tattooer? On the internet and according to a fellow with the moniker "Doomed" (Thanks in advance if this is your information) herewith his opinion on the matter:

 "...all tattoo artists get paid cash. there are no corporate tattoo headquarters sending out checks. you probably already knew this, but i was just refering to the guy who said "coming from a tattoo artist who gets paid under the table". we aren't washing dishes, that's just how it works, we get paid cash.

Like everyone else is saying, there is no standard. there are so many factors that go into it, like how busy the shop/artist is and how many tattoos (if any) they did that day. sometimes the weather affects the customer average, stuff like that. some artists charge by the hour, and some by the size and detail of each piece. but keep in mind that not all that money goes to the artist. and no, not every artist gets paid 60/40 like some other guy said. it all depends on how long the person has been working as an artist. i've seen people getting paid as low as 20% (which was really wrong anyway) and some people getting paid as high as 70, 80%. i would guess the only way you get 100% of the money you make is if you own the shop, however in that case you're responsible for paying all the bills of the shop so in a sense you don't get all your money. "

So, in short, there is no such thing as a tattoo artist "salary". good luck."

Tattoo Show Opens September 18th

Saira Hunjan | Jef Palumbo | Duke Riley | Noon | Nazareno Tubaro | Amanda Wachob | Jacqueline Spoerle | Colin Dale | Scott Campbell | Peter Aurisch | Chuey Quintanar | Horiren First | Alex Binnie | Minka Sicklinger | David Hale | Stephanie Tamez | Virginia Elwood | Yann Black

 

Bound to a limited visual lexicon for over a century, tattooing has sprung free in the new millennium, liberated by artists who combine fresh concepts, holistic design, and masterful technique in thrillingly original styles. They draw inspiration from historical genres spanning Pointillism, Expressionism, Pop Art, and Photorealism; from an array of timeless ethnographic traditions; from illustration and graphic design, comics and street art; from regional folk arts; and from the Japanese style that has informed Western tattooing for the past century. The artists presented in “Body Electric” confirm that tattooing has turned a corner into an entirely new realm of artistic possibility. They are auteurs of body art. 

“Body Electric” introduces a new generation of conceptual trailblazers. The visual art featured here reflects their tattoo sensibility—the next best thing to showcasing the living canvases that bear their designs. They hail from around the globe: In Lucerne, for example, Jacqueline Spoerle uses Swiss folk motifs in lyrical silhouettes perfectly suited to tattoo’s inherently graphical nature. In Los Angeles, Chuey Quintanar takes fine line black and grey portraiture to a new level of grace and power. New Yorker Duke Riley’s maritime narratives betray a blush of nostalgia through strong line work and meticulous cross-hatching. In Argentina, Nazareno Tubaro blends tribal, Op Art, and geometric patterns in flowing compositions that embrace and complement human musculature. And in Athens, Georgia, David Hale, a relative newcomer, folds the curvilinear lines of Haida art into his folk-inflected nature drawings.   

The exhibition includes a selection of flash art spanning the late 19th to mid-20th century. These pieces, many by titans of the trade--George Burchett and Sailor Jerry Collins among them--represent the keystone style of Western tattoo tradition and the semiotic conventions that define it, from hearts and anchors to pinups and crucifixes. Conveying both the charms and limits of these pioneers, they offer a baseline for understanding the evolution of tattooing over the course of the past century. 

By bringing visual sophistication and art historical engagement to their work, the new auteurs have freed tattooing from the subcultural parameters that both sustained and restricted it for over a century. They’ve opened the door to an exhilarating new pluralism, reimagining this art for the 21st century.


*Excerpted from “Visionary Tattoo,” an essay by Margot Mifflin, Guest Curator

See more here

Alex BinnieBert Grimm

Amanda Wachob Avital

Virginia Elwood

Ed SmithDuke Riley SwinburnJacqueline SpoerleHoriren First


The Holy Grail of Tattoo Art

Here's the scoop from tattoo enthusiast and professional researcher Mr. Carmen Forquer Nyssen. His excellent detective work uncovered this old postcard of Coleman's Place. Clear ok, maybe a trifle blurry, but evidence that Battleship Kate was indeed Coleman's creation. Thar ' she is matey!  Luckily not to have been reduced to a crispy cornflake by the sun streaming through the window.  We have the dragon from said window. It's like a fragment of ancient Egyptian parchmant. Archived now, but a few more years of relentless smoke and sun and it would have been burnt toast.  

Indeed. This figure might be the Holy Grail of tattoo artifacts.  Probably worth the bread as everything by the Ol' Man is considered the gold standard of the tattoo world.  

Caught flatfooted.   Were we the only one's who didn't know who the artist was? Probably. Catching the vapors, as they say, our auction paddles down flat as bidding jetted to $28k.  

"Don't forget to do your homework!"  Heard that before. But that's another story for those willing to gather round to hear the long tale of a hard sad life. That will be us;  in the woulda-coulda-shoulda seat down at the end of the Terminal Bar. Hey! Who's going to light this cigar for me anyway?  And what's this? Who put ice in my drink? I didn't ask for ice. 

Ink and Skinner

Record setting price was set at auction for tattooed figure. Hammer price for this two and 1/2 foot tall composition figure was $23,000. Add the 25% buy in commission, tax and other official sounding crap and you're up around $30,000! 
One famous Folk art dealer went as high as $2,500. "Well I guess I did not get it." he said, adding that  "... very little sculpture exists in that area from the 19th century."
Battleship Kate probably stood well protected, set back on a countertop. Not a sunburned window display as the condition is pretty good.We still don't know if she is chalk or paper mache statue, the catalog description of the item was awful.
The bids came quick and furious.  24k was retracted at the last second as 23k drove it home. 
This record sale makes it clear it's smart to get the best pieces available. We were stunned at prices the Wm Grant & Sons distillery layed out on their Sailor Jerry buying spree a few years ago. Stunned to see a $18,000.00 price tag on a Darpel at the Outsider Art Fair. Great piece, but 18k? Kind of leaves a few of us out. Like the entire tattoo collecting community. 
Tatooists, collectors and historians are not concerned. Most of us buy when we can and sell when we have to. 
But in the end what does this tell us? Perhaps the deep pocket collectors, the Wm. Edmondson and Bill Traylor folk art crowd have finally arrived at the tattoo parlor. Making room on the folk art high pedestal for tattoo flash.
It will be interesting to watch the next auctions. Also to see what pieces come out when word circulates about the high dollar numbers.   We will probably start to see more doctored items. Caveat Emptor. Where there is money, bogus items will follow. 

 

The Stoney Age

This is Stoney St Clair's third and final stage of tattooing. He started out doing the classic tattoo imagery, progressing along to a transitional drawing style like this cover up image seen below.

His style evolved into a wild, totally unique style of tattoo art wholly his own. 

Body Electric
Margot Mifflin, Curator  
The Body Electric exhibition features vintage tattoo flash of the late 19th to early 20th century and original art by the most influential tattooists today.
Opening reception Sept 18, 6-8pm.  Vintage tattoo flash on exhibit from Lift Trucks Project.

Ricco Maresca Gallery, 529 W 20th St, New York, NY 10011
  
Stoney St. Clair: Leonard L. St. Clair (1912-1980), nicknamed "Stoney," was a circus performer and tattoo artist born in West Virginia. As a child, Stoney was crippled by rheumatic fever and confined to a wheelchair. His father, a coal miner, used up the family savings, eventually even losing the family’s home, to keep Stoney at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. In the hospital, Stoney drew incessantly. He found his calling in the circus, and one day when the circus was in Norfolk, VA, some of his circus colleagues took him to a tattoo parlor. Stoney refused to get a tattoo, but when he saw the tattoo artist at work, he was convinced he could do the same thing, and better. Over the next several days, Stoney befriended the artist and watched him work. When the circus left town, the artist gave him some tattoo equipment and Stoney set up shop behind the elephant barn. The circus wintered in Tampa, FL and St. Clair eventually settled in the city, opening a tattoo parlor where he was a fixture for decades, and many older residents still bear his work. He then moved to New Orleans and eventually Columbus OH, where he passed away.
 

Best Circus Lady Ever

Prof Frank Howard  ran away at an early age and came back from being at sea literally covered in tattoos. Here is an old cabinet card from Barnum’s circus where he traveled for many years.

The following is from Bmezine.com  Encyclopedia:

“Annie Howard was a tattooed lady who exhibited with her husband, Frank Howard, in Barnum and Bailey's show in the early 1900s. They told the usual story of being captured by "savages" who forcibly tattooed them. In reality, many of Annie Howard's tattoos were done by her husband. Frank and Annie had a daughter together named Ivy, who became a snake charmer when she was 8. In 1987, the family moved to London with Barnum and Bailey's show.

Annie Howard became notorious in 1882 for being arrested on her way to an interview with Bunnell's Museum for assaulting a man who had insulted her for having tattoos. Bunnell was very happy with the publicity and hired her when she was released after spending 10 days in jail.

After the family returned to America in 1903, Annie and her daughter Ivy disappeared.”

Jerry

 

Once owned by Mike Malone, this was possibly Jerry's last piece. A classic blended with Japanese design elements. We've never seen the dragon used this way before, it's usually a damsel in distress.

Wonder what Jerry was saying? Lightning bolts, sky in turmoil, the sea thrashing with sharks. The Dragon's not giving up in this land, sea and air battle. Sailor Jerry looking the devil in the eye. Tell "em Jerry!

Jerry the Sailor

Norman Keith Collins known as ‘Sailor Jerry’ born in 1911 was a very popular, well-known American tattoo artist who focused his art on sailors. Before Collins became ‘Sailor Jerry’ he lived in Chicago in the 1920’s where he was taught to use a tattoo machine and would practice his art on drunks. Collins enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 19 where he would travel at sea and was exposed to Southeast Asian art. Collins continued sailing Asia and the Pacific sea and ended up sailing to Hawaii where he eventually opened up his own studio and spent the rest of his life.

Collins art stems from what he was exposed to, which was the typical ‘American Sailor’ religion and Asian designs. Some popular symbols Jerry used were bottles of booze, snakes, dragons, women, crosses, weapons and many more. Each symbol/ object had a meaning behind it. For example the anchors represent stability since they are the most secure object in a sailors life and journey. The anchor is a reminder of what keeps you stable. Sailor Jerry himself was covered in tattoos and wore white t-shirts to expose them.

Sailor Jerry helped change the tattoo industry completely. During these times there were only few colors available for tattooing so Sailor Jerry developed his own safe pigments that created much less trauma to the skin. Also he was the first to make use of single-use needles and hospital-quality sterilization.  

- Kamilla Tatka

The Girl with the Dead Man's Tattoo

Scottish artist Jessica Harrison has her own exhibition  FLASH.  Harrison uses porcelain figurines that represent 19th century women. Interestingly enough women during that time who were considered ‘classy’ and ‘elegant’ often had these intense tattoos. Later on women in carnivals began to get them and the social value and tradition of women getting tattooed decreased significantly. It became something ‘cheap and gaudy’. Until today, of course.

 

These were sculpted by Harrison to display classic tattoos painted on to these stylish ladies. The tattoos resemble (represent) sailor style tattoos covering the women’s chests, arms and necks. Some are displayed with funky furniture and surroundings in the gallery. Some of the tattoos consist of clipper ships, swallows, skulls, hearts and many more classic tattoo imagery. In context, many of the designs almost can seem to be borderline gruesome. That’s just a reflection of the classic sailor and carnival style. The artist's skill in juxtaposing these onto the elegant forms is remarkable. The results look just great!

The show began May 15 and continues through June 24, 2014. Galerie L.J. In Paris, France.

This particular back piece depicts a skull and the playing cards, aces and eights, that  "Wild' Bill" Hickock was holding when he was shot in the back of the head at a saloon card table.

Wikipedia: Dead Man's Hand 

 Written by new LTP Intern Kamilla Tatka

 

Baby Don't Cry

One dry hot day, in the California High Desert, we looked through table upon table of tattoo flash in the garage of a very neatly kept tract home.

The gentleman turned out to be the last man standing at the Nu-Pike in Long Beach. He ended up with flash sheets by Brooklyn Joe Leiber, Chris Nelson, Bob Cleveland and many others. Some signed, some not.

Here is one from that group, by the artist heralded as: The Unknown Master of the Crybabies. Said to have come to Long Beach by way of Oakland.  Maybe, just maybe, it's the work of the Legendary Duke.

Duke Kaufman used the core shading technique not employed by many in the Tattoo trade. You can see it here in the clouds, the heavy black shade area inside of the outside form lines. The black shaded core line on the inside of the legs of the Texas gal also. It's a classical drawing technique meant to round out the form. It works.

We have never seen an actual Duke tattoo but it must be really cool. Lots of them were in black and white only. There is a story about a bank robbery where the plot was supposedly hatched in the back room of Lyle Tuttles studio. Duke was collared at the scene and off he went to the big house. Perfected his black and white drawing skills then tattooed happily away upon release.

Could you imagine waking up one morning with Happy Baby on one arm and Sad Baby on the other? 

Metamorphoses

Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition Gauguin: Metamorphoses, shows Gauguin’s rare prints and how he developed them into his more famous paintings. Displayed were variations of his prints and sculptures. Gauguin frequently worked with other materials not just paint such as woodcarving, ceramics, monotypes and many more. The show presented his wooden sculptures, which he created while in Tahiti. These carved sculptures look very similar to African totems.

 

Gauguin used a range of mediums and techniques to create his pieces. His pieces capture a lot of movement also he embraced the finely textured surfaces, unintentional markings and use a lot of different colors in his paintings.  Gauguin created a dark and dreamy image of the South Pacific, where he spent the final 12 years of his life. A lot of his art was inspired by the environment and society. 

 

His art holds up well. For many artists today, Gauguin’s techniques inspire us to try his way of exaggerating and emphasizing color for dramatic effect.

March 8- June 8 2014 Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition Gauguin: Metamorphoses (http://www.moma.org/)

Let Us Now Praise Dainty Dotty and All Circus Women

 


 

We love Dainty Dotty and we feel she loved us. Just look at that smile.

Through exhaustive research we believe that Dotty was indeed the Fat Lady sitting next to Major Mite in this famous story about the Rubber Man and Mae, the Tattooed Lady.

Herewith and paraphrasing Albert Parry's, 1933 " Tattoo, Secrets of a Strange Art as Practised among the Natives of the United States."

While on tour with a circus in the summer of 1927, the India Rubber Man fell in love. Professor Henri, in real life Clarence H. Alexander of Ypsilanti, Michigan could stretch his neck seven inches, his arms and legs twelve inches, He was fourty three years old, a professional freak since he was twenty three. His object of attention was Mae, a tattooed gal just twenty, a trooper less than two years. Their associates called them "Tattooed Mae and Rubber November," sadly noting that Mae lacked a trooper's psychology. She was a spectator, the Rubber Man was to her, not a fellow player and possible life mate, but a freak. While Henri Alexander was in love with her tattooings she was repelled by his deformity. She was frightened when he used his elastic magic to pass love notes to her over the heads of the fat lady (Dotty?) and the midget (Major Mite?) sitting between them on the platform.

Could this be Dotty's first exposure to the magic allure of tattoos?  She soon after gave up the fat lady career path and took up electric tattooing. A seemingly more gentile profession. She started in Detroit where she met and subsequently married Owen Jensen. Together they moved west to Sunny California, famously establishing themselves as tattoo artists on the Pike in Long Beach.

 

Ed Smith Rocks


 

America's Tattoo Master, Mr. Samuel F. O'Reilly, trained Ed Smith along with Charles Wagner in the 20's and 30's on the Bowery in New York City. Bums, empty bottles and the elevated train ran the streets back then.

We have all seen photos of tattooed people but not too many self portraits of the tattoo artist sporting a tattoo. 

The imagery depicts a maiden in distress clinging to a cross shaped rock as the prow of a ship goes under, pummeled by crashing waves. 

The idea probably serves as a reminder for us to keep the faith, no matter what. Kind of the like that 'Hang in there Baby' cat poster you always see in dentists offices. A lot of us would rather have Rock of Ages tattooed on our backs than ever see that poster again.  

As a symbol    "...'Rock of Ages' which, as is well known, protects the tar from all general mishaps..." From Tattoo, Secrets of a Strange Art as Practiced Among the Natives of the United States, Albert Parry, 1933.

Looks like Ed had fun with this one.  His most cool version of the classic, almost pagan, symbol of non-drowning; a pig. Usually tattooed on a sailors instep of the left foot, because, as everyone knows, the rooster goes on the right. These are the two animals that can not swim. It's a form of reverse good luck, like Born to Lose for bikers or Break a Leg for the theater crowd. Wearing this symbol not only acknowledges the danger but controls the luck.

Ed Smith went into commercial production with designs of some of his most popular images. Many thanks to Cliff White's good eye as he spotted this correctly as an Ed Smith design even though it's signed "Millie." She may have colored and re-inked parts of it as they worked closely together on the Bowery. This sheet looks like it's been through the ringer but it's a survivor. Not many are still around actually signed by legendary Mildred Hull.

My Day in Court With Lee Marvin

This drawing was done in the courtroom while working on the Marvin vs Marvin "Palimony" case for NBC News.  Michelle Triola Marvin, his girlfriend for 6 years, described earning her keep; at one point she told us of her heroic efforts holding the 6'2" Lee Marvin by his ankles as he drunkenly flailed upside down from a 20th story window in Beverly Hills.  At the proceedings, when Lee Marvin finally noticed us drawing him, he gave the old-finger-scratching-the-forehead salute.  Then a cross-eyed stare.

Drawing courtesy NBC News, Los Angeles, California

Lee Marvin looked like a guy you did not want to be on the wrong side of. A marine war hero turned actor.  Probably the only guy who could kick Chuck Norris's butt with one hand while lighting up a Marlborough with the other.  Let's all hoist one for Lee Marvin. Coolest of the cool.
Some quick courtroom facts.
In 1979,Lee Marvin was sued by Michelle Triola Marvin, his live-in girlfriend, who legally changed her surname to "Marvin".  They never married but she went after the money like all real spouses do under California law. She said she suffered a lot. This was dubbed the first  "palimony" case, Marvin v. Marvin, 18 Cal. 3d 660 (1976). In 1979, Lee Marvin was ordered to pay $104,000 to Triola for "rehabilitation purposes" but the court denied her community property claim for one-half of the $3.6 million which Lee Marvin had earned during their six years of cohabitation.  So, in the end, he kind of won. Lee Marvin said that the trial was a "circus" and that "everyone was lying, even I lied."

Monsters Mean Business


Just in this cool " Monsters That Mean Business", business card! Received by our local postmaster Anthony, who complained "Get this package out of here." he said. "It's giving me a headache."

Ed Roth almost single handedly created the Kustom Kulture decade in Southern California.

Package from Jax Finkster, Austin TX

His star creation was Rat fink. A smelly, fat rodent surrounded by flies, embellished with a grotesque wrap around tail.  He never did anything. He never said anything. He had only one pose, he was never in a Saturday morning cartoon much less an animated children's attraction or action ride (aka Disneyland). But we loved him and drew him constantly on our notebook covers.

Big Daddy Roth's inventive cars like the Beatnik Bandit were made into 1/25th scale models by the prestigious Revell model company. They finally  got word of how Roth dressed. Shabby. His relationship with personal hygiene was at best, casual.

"You're a role model. You must dress up."  Said Revell to Big Daddy. So he did. He went to a Goodwill bought tux, tails and a high hat. Still slept in his car but did indeed "dress up" when airbrushing tee's and sweatshirts at the Irwindale National Speedway and local car swap meets. 

Big Daddy in his golden years

My Idea of Fun: 2014 March Pier Show

Great show with lots of interesting stuff in a walk about giant time capsule. The promoters, U.S. Antiques Shows, have hosted an excellent revival of mostly the 1960's era artifacts. Great escape from the stressed and crumbling world outside.

The Good: One stand was completely filled with lighters of all shapes like military tanks, cameras, baseballs, girls in pools, really cool items that crossed over with collectors from die hard Zippo fanatics to kids to the impulse buyer catagory's like baseball collectors and others like an elephant collector. Or owls. "Look, there's a lot of zany collectors out there."  said the proprietor Ira Pilossof. "I love them all."

A lot of "millenials" like ashtrays and lighters, not because they smoke, they don't much anymore, they just inhale those hookah-pipe mist tubes called e-cigs. But they like the total retro "Mad Men" look. A well placed lighter or ashtray will retro-cool a flat faster than Dwell magazine or a James Bond martini shaker.

Ira also sells at the Garage flea market on 26th street every week. But this is his big uptown outing. Booth was packed. In fact the entire show was elbow to elbow.

The Bad: Yep, stuffed bull frogs playing musical instruments.  They actually are kind of interesting in a morbid way but even Mexico said enough and banned this evil taxidermy in the 1950's.

Here was a whole jazz band of the guys nailed down to a board.  "I feel for them."  said the nice lady running the booth.  "I didn't do it." 

The Ugly: The Port of NY charging thirty five dollars to park at a pier on a Saturday.

The Life of a Twentieth Century Tattoo Artist: Charles ‘Red’ Gibbons

Most early tattoo artists were attracted to the ancient craft of tattoo artistry because of a burning desire to express their creative artistic ability. The appeal of freedom of an unencumbered profession.  They were their own boss, answering to no one.

DREW WINNER, Tattoo Artist at "Electric Tiger Tattoo" painted the picture of Charles Gibbons at work. 19972 Church Street, Rehoboth Beach, DE. 19971

They were like a close-knit family drawn together by an unorthodox and vagabond way of life.  They all seemed to work with each other at one time or another.  Making it hard to know who originated some of the most popular and established tattoo designs. Even though the designs may be attributed to one tattooist.  They were friends, adversaries, companions and sometimes worked alone, but never for long.  There was camaraderie, jealousy, solidarity and division but they stuck together against all odds, just like a family. The good outweighed the bad.  Rewards and returns were worth all the adversities and sacrifices.

In Charles Gibbons’ day, they opened their shops anywhere from eight to eleven in the morning.  Work didn’t stop until every customer was taken care of, sometimes without stopping for lunch or dinner.  There was little time for any social life.

Most tattoo artists in that era were what you would call white collar workers.  They wore two or three-piece suits pressed to the nines; starched white dress shirts; ties or bow-ties, stockings held up by garters,  polished patent leather shoes, and stylish Stetson dress hats.  Charles Gibbons considered himself a professional business man. He dressed like a professional business man.  Modern times have drastically changed the mode of dress in the tattoo community.

A twentieth century tattoo artist’s day consisted in taking care of customers, setting up needles and equipment, inventorying and ordering supplies and sterilizing equipment after each use.  The quality of a tattoo not only depended upon the artistic talent, knowledge and expertise of the tattoo artist, but it also depended upon the quality and precision of the tools of the trade he used.   A lull in customers provided an opportunity to draw and paint new flash.  Then cutting a celluloid stencil for each new design had to be carefully done with a phonograph needle embedded into a wooden dip ink pen handle making sure they didn’t cut too deep so the celluloid wouldn’t crack or etched too shallow. This was so the image transferred the charcoal dust onto the skin clearly and evenly.  Modern tattoo artists don’t have to be concerned with that tedious, time consuming task.  They also don’t have to be careful not to rub off portions of the black powder image before the entire tattoo is completed.  Now they have access to unimaginably sophisticated, life-like computerized images and renderings that were virtually unheard of in Charles Gibbons’ day.  Ultraviolet ink that virtually makes a tattoo glow in the dark is also currently available but it is basically frowned upon by reputable tattoo artists, because it has caused allergic reactions.  Before leaving in the evening, they sterilized the last equipment used, then cleaned and organized the shop readying it for the next day.  The most important and sometimes most difficult task of the entire day was to keep the customers happy. Sometimes an impossible task.  No tattoo artist is immune to having to deal with at least one trouble-making customer sometime during their long day. In the end there was nothing more fulfilling and rewarding than to have a satisfied customer and to know you accomplished a job well done.

Attributed to Red Gibbons

Apprenticeship was and still is, the only way to learn this ancient sacred artistry that required long grueling hours and total commitment.  Its secrets, techniques, and complexities is not easily learned. It is more difficult to precisely apply them while steadily holding a cumbersome, vibrating apparatus on moving skin with bone and nerve-endings beneath it. There is absolutely no room for mistakes.  No erasing here.  Armpits, backs, ribs, groin and feet can be extremely sensitive to tattooing.  That is probably why Betty Broadbent has no tattooing in any of these areas and very little on her upper back.  It didn’t stop Artoria Gibbons, however.

Charles, “Red” Gibbons was a master tattoo artist for over 40 years.  He lived from 1879 until1964.  A brutal robbery resulted in the loss of one eye.  An unfortunate construction accident resulted in the loss of his other eye leaving him totally blind.  Nothing else but death could have ended his beloved career as a tattoo artist.  He was devastated to the extent of no longer wanting to live.  However, with the love and care of his wife and daughter he lived for nearly twenty more years.

The ancient and revered craft of tattoo artistry is constantly evolving.  Innovative equipment, techniques, applications and designs are constantly being discovered.  Charles Gibbons would be utterly amazed if he could see all the changes in his profession today.  

Written by Charlene Anne Gibbons, February 2014

Daughter of Charles “Red” Gibbons, Master Tattoo Artist & “Artoria” Gibbons, one of the most renowned Tattooed Ladies of the twentieth century, tattooed by her husband, Charles Gibbons.

They were married in 1912 in Spokane, WA.  Charles was 33 years old & Anna Mae Huseland was 19 years old.  She was not tattooed until 1918 and 1919.

A book is presently being written by Charlene Anne Gibbons about the remarkable lives of Charles & Artoria Gibbons.