TATT O O by the SAME AUTHOR GARRETS and PRETENDERS a History of Bohemianism in A?Nerica Covici-Friede, New York: 1933 F2 a 45 ALBERT PARRT TAT T O O
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TATT O O BY THE SAME AUTHOR GARRETS AND PRETENDERS A History of Bohemianism in A?nerica Covici-Friede, New York: 1933 F2 A 45 ALBERT PARRT TAT T O O Secrets of a Strange Art as Practised among the Natives of the United States NEW YORK SIMON AND SCHUSTER 1933 contents ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COPYRIGHT, 1933, BY ALBERT PARRY Foreword ................................................................page xi PUBLISHED BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER, INC. 386 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CHAPTER I: WOMEN AND LOVE.............................. PAGE 1 MANUFACTURED IN THE U. S. A. Primitive dreams—Erotic basis of tattooing—Samoan legend and Boston court decision— Tattoos as marks for the married—The sense of guilt—Tattoo-exhibitionism among some American girls and women—Abbreviated bathing suits as help to tattooers— Improvement of complexions as pseudo-reason for women’s tat- tooing—Mole-and-blush tattooing and permanent ruby lips-Sun- tattoos, paint-tattoos, and other substitutes—Clothing and tattoo, their erotic-artistic similarities. Chapter II: Men and Love...............................page 15 When he loves her and when he hâtes her—From lover’s knot to “Traitress”—Tattoo in a Bronx divorce case—The déniai of homosexuality—Forced retreat from tattooed nudes in the Amer ican navy—Sad fate of a Gloucester fsherman— Tattooed nudes moved by men’s muscles—When man is afraid of woman—Tattoo as a substitute for woman. Chapter III: Prostitutes and Perversion . page 24 Masochist-exhibitionist drives among tattooed prostitutes and v contents contents pederasts—Self-pity twisted into liumorous inscriptions-The Chapter VII: Sailors.......................................... page 79 profit motive and striving toward physical protection—Lovers Gratuitous tattoo-exhibitionism—Sailors as extroverts—Sailors as names and likenesses-Sacrificial Pain-“Death Before Dishonor” homosexuals—Patriotic thèmes in sailors’ tattoos, or magic sym- -Tattoos camouflaging or admitting pederasty-Tattoos as ex bols of the tribe’s invincibility in American patterns—Some sta- citants for the novices—Auto-eroticism through tattoo-Tattoomg tistics—Where tattooed—Rôle of the face—Herman Melville— as passive homosexuality. Kearsarge legend— Tattoos as commémoration of events—“Dude” pictures in lieu of the old occupational sea-symbols—Décliné of Chapter IV: The Youth................................... PAGE 29 tattooing among American sailors. Herd-motive and inferiority-motive—Identification of a weak Chapter VIII: Low Herd—High Society, .page 90 youngster with a strong adult—Mass tattoo-psychosis among East, Side children—Tattoo as symbol of sexnal dawn-Laws and régu Keeping up with the herd through tattoo—Europe an royalty lations governing tattooing of minors—Tattooing as séduction— imitâtes sailors; American Smart set imitâtes European royalty The castration complex—Jealousy of the fathers—Certain Amer and society—Borrowing the primitive strength of the masses ican tattooers and their technique in regard to young boys-Guilt- through tattoo—Detailed history of tattooing fads in America’s complex of the tattooed youths. high society—Excitement in the exclusive Racquet Club—Judge Crocker’s daughter and her tattoo-adventures—Tattoo among the Chapter V: The Art and Its Masters----- page 39 Vanderbilts— Tattoos of the middle-class American—The Amer Crudeness and charm-Whence corne these motifsf-Tattooers in ican criminal and his “anti-social” tattoos. America-Their jealousy, pride, isolation-The earliest tattooers- Chapter IX: Identification.......................... page 111 O’Reilly and his electric tools—Tattoo-operation of today as im- proved by the electric tools—Lew-the-Jew and his designs—Swanliy Identification as true- and pseudo-reason—True identification: Harry Lawson—New York’s masters of today: Charité Wagner, subconscious, with anotlier person, or with oneself—Narcissism the Bowery’s dean; Bob Wicks, of Greenwich Village and the in tattooing for identification against emergency—Misleading waterfront; Frank Graf, of Pqrk Row and Coney Island; Pro- support of actual cases of identification in emergency—Roger fessor Ted, tattooer and sign-painter; and others. Tichborne case—Guldensuppe murder case—Tattoo as a means of identification in cashing a check—ldentifying lost or stolen Chapter VI: The Circus.................................page 58 animais, poultry, and children through tattoos—True reasons for Tattoo-exhibitionism exploited for profit—From the South Seas such “identification”-tattoos: sadism, sodomy, incest. to France—The first tattooed men in the American sideshow— Chapter X: Faith, Magic, and Disease. .page 122 P. T. Barnum’s Greek Constantine—His history, famé, appear- ance in America—Far-reaching influence of Constantine s tattoos Totemic tattoos of the American Indians—Puritanic counter- in America—Women, girls, and Indians as tattooed exhibits influence of early New Englanders-Magic-protective designs of Songs and politics-Increasing prédominance of woman-“Were early English pilgrims to the Holy Land—American sailors and y ou sorry, Mrs. StevensT’-A circus love tragedy-Change in their contribution—Religions tattoos in the sideshow—Italiens and Jews—Priests, pastors and monks, and their tattoos—Magic designs. vi vii contents symbols of animais and flowers—Magic wills—Tattoos to combat disease—Disease as resuit of tattooing: syphilis, blood-poisoning, etc.—Sanitary régulation of tattooing in America. Chapter XI: Removal....................................page 143 list of illustrations Widespread fallacy that tattoo is irremovable—Old popular at- tempts at removal through stale urine, mother’s milk, garlic, etc. —Modem scientific metliods: Chemical, surgical, electrolytic-Tat- tooers in America adopting modem Chemicals—Skin condition and tattoo pigments as important considérations—Surcharge in- stead of removal—Reasons for removal—Outside pressure and inner change—Again the guilt-complex, also the martyr complex. BlBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................... PAGE 152 Colored Plates Index PAGE 165 page A Sailor and His Lasses Frontispiece Motifs Melancholy, Erotic, Humorous, Macabre 39 Narcissus; or, The Man Who Was Mashed on Himself 72 Black and White Plates “What a Jolly Life a Corpse Must Live” 4 A Few Popular Numbers 15 A Cartoon - 18 “Ya Kin Hâve Yer Divorce Jist As Soon As Ya Git Yer Lousy Alma Mater Off’n Me Bach” 21 Sample Tattooers’ Show-Cards 37 Tattoo by Electricity 46 A Magnificent Example of the Work of Harry V. Lawson 49 The Famous Tattooed Cow 49 More Sample Charts 52 A Typical Tattoo Shop Interior 55 Business Cards 57 list of illustrations Constantine, Top-Section 63 “Miss Stella ” The Tattooed Lady 68 Some Typical Patterns Popular with Sailors 79 More Sailors’ Tattoos 85 Front and Back View of the Patriotic Motive 89 foreword The 18pi Tattoo Mania Among High Society 98 Tattooingin Japan 101 Conventional Love-and-Patriotism Designs 112 Samuel O’Reilly Tattooee’s Progress 125 Tiuo of the Most Universally Popular Religions Tattoos 133 A Curiously Arresting Illustration of the Religious Motive ^6 Some Intimate Views of Professor Charles Wagner 148 This book, though the first of its kind, does not prétend to be an exhaustive study of tattooing in America. I shall be satisfied if it is recognized as a pioneer study, open- ing the way for further volumes by other researchers. For one thing, the medical aspects of tattooing in America await their own authoritative and lengthy studies by qualified ex perts. Tattooing among the so-called criminals of America also deserves a treatise ail to itself. My book is not a strictly chronologie history of tattooing in this country. This history unfolds itself through the length of the book in rather irregular steps. I often retrace dates and entire periods or go ahead to more recent times when the nature of individual chapters demands it. Tattooing of primitive races, or among the so-called civi- lized peoples other than American, is brought into the narra tive insofar as it influenced American tattooing or was influenced by it, or contains some salient features of simi- larity. Cases cited in this book, when not otherwise stated, are American. Cases of British tattooing are cited rather fre- quently because of the natural proximity of motives and x historical development to those of American tattooing. xi foreword The chapter on Faith and Magic, in a condensed version, has appeared as an article in the American Mercury, to whose editors I am indebted for their continued interest in I my work. By-products of my research work on tattooing hâve appeared as two articles in the Halcleman-Julius Quarterly women and love (now extinct) and the New Yorker, but of these I hâve used in this book no more than a few paragraphs, considerably rewritten. I appreciate the several talks on the subject of tattooing in America which I had with Mr. Lincoln Kirstein of the Hound and Horn, which helped to crystallize certain of the ideas underlying this book. I wish to thank Dr. Walter Bromberg, Assistant Psychia- 1 trist of Bellevue Hospital, New York, for permission to exam ine and quote his most valuable unpublished observations Why do people get tattooed? Very seldom are the on the psychology of tattooing. Thanks are also due to Mr. tattooed aware of the true motives responsible for their visits Frederick C. Helbing, Superintendent of the House of to the tattooers. Some say: “So that they’ll know me if I’m Refuge on Randall’s Island, New York, for his co-operation killed or struck unconscious.” Others