GIGANTIC PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE OF TATTOOED PEOPLE AND TATTOO-RELATED MEMORABILIA. A very large collection of images, being over 600 photographs of tattooed men and women, complemented by a collection of clippings, news stories, and ephemera related to tattooing and tattooed people. Primarily American and European in origin, spanning 1910s – 70s, being 8 × 10" and smaller (the majority 5 × 7"), the bulk being mid-century prints produced by Bernard Kobel and bearing his inventory numbers penciled on their versos.
Included are a mix of studio portraits and candid images, from full-length, half-length, and bust portraits, as well as many close-up images of designs on legs, thighs, breasts, tongues, hands, faces, ankles, and even on bald heads or shaved heads, with several full-face and full-body tattooed people also pictured. Many images show the interior of tattoo parlors with subjects going “under the needle,” the backgrounds filled with examples of flash of every description.
Among the artists and subjects represented in the archive are Prof. Waters of Detroit, Leo S. Kuse of Bristol, Tahiti Felix, William Gordon Davis (photographer, his images captioned in ink on their versos), F.S. Clark, Stephen Wagner (with Ringling Brothers and Hagenbeck and Wallace), Alex Linton Prince of Swords (swallowing three swords while bare chested to display his tattoos), a tattooed pain resister piercing his nipples with spikes, Rasmus Nielsen, J.D. Franklin, “Stoney” St. Clair, Captain Elvy, Jay Lester, Miss Cindy Ray (a quantity, with her rubber stamps to versos), “Deafy” & Stella (two RPPCs), Serpentina, Betty Broadbent, Waters, Leslie Burchett, and many more. Neatly organized in seven three-ring binders, five containing photographs of male subjects, two with images of female subjects, and sold together with a group of clipped magazine and newspaper articles, most pictorial, regarding tattooing, most dating to the 1960s and later.
Most images trimmed, some with evidence of scrapbook mounting to versos and faint acrid odor from improper storage. An enormous and impressive collection chronicling designs and art of many famous and little-known tattoo artists of the mid-twentieth century.