The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-11-22
Tattooing a Woman.

New York special Fhe active
competition between the tatooeo
women aWakens interest. Two IN
New York have voluntarily sub
mitted themselves to the process Of
puncturing and poisoning necessary
to produce the emblaZonment which
makes Captain Costentenus as pic
turesque as his name; and now a
third is undergoing few months OF
torture in order that she may be SO
disfgured that curiosity-seekers
may cape at her. This last young
female says of another woman
anybody can be tattooed like her,
but it takes the nerve to have a solid
picture pricked in
"And are you really illustrated
with cuts all over?" asked a re-
porter.
'Not yet" was the reply, "but
I'm going to be"
An engagement was made for
the reporter to be present when the
next operation was performed. The
reporter was startled, not to say
shocked by the promptness with
which she displayed her anatomical
structure when he called at her
room, 1t seemed a trifie immodest
for her to show in private what she
proposes to exhibit IN public for a
living; but after a brief struggle
with his sense of propriety, he
looked with great interest at GER
tainly the most remarkable collec-
tion of pictures ever exhibited.
The gentleman who deyotes his
days to the puncturing of his
Wife's epidermis is sailor, or has
been one, and has imbibed fo'-
castle notions of art, together with
his knowledge of tattooing. Ac-
cordingly, his wife's arms, legs and
body looked as if she had had a VIC
lent eruption Of flags, tombstones,
allegorical figures and moral and
patriotic notices.
God bless our homes" "Procras-
tination is the thief of time and
The Union forever" fill up the in
terstices between Melpomene,
Calypso and the grave Of Thomas
Jefferson, while large tri-color
adOrns the right thigh, and a free
hand sketch of a man-o'-war is
pricked into the left. Scores of de-
signs, no two of which are alike,
have been engraved $50 to speak, in
the flesh, and the vacant spaces are
being filled in day by day by others.
Can see you put on new pic
ture?" asked the reporter.
The tattoer carefully wetted a
small camel's-hair brush in some
India ink, commonly so called. but
which he explained was really Chi
nese ink, and began TO examine his
subject to see where he should Le-
gin. After turning her around two
or three times he selected a small
white spot on her left shoulder
blade, and rapidly sketched a heart
punctured by a Cupid's arrow. Then
he chose one of several punches OF
needles and began to prick the ink
in.
81 go Just deep enough to draw
blood" said he; "When that comes ]
stop. Then it Immediately swells
up like this" and he put his finger
on a raw sore on her arm. "Aftel
three or four days the scab comes
off, and it looks like this" and he
put his finger on her left knee
where there was an angry-looking
blotch of the shape of a bird. "Then
the skin peels off twice, and in
about week or more it is all DONE
The woman undergoing the tat.
tooing is the daughter of a well-to.
do farmer in Pennsylvania, and is
supported by remittances from
home, while her husband is devot
ing himself to garnishing her fol
her debut. AS soon as she shall.
have been sufficiently bedizened
which he thinks will be in a few
weeks, she is to fulfill an engage
ment of one year at twenty dollar;
week. Something like the frs
years receipts have been used VI
while she has been undergoing the
torture Of preparation, but she cal
culates, unless the fashions in tat
too change, to be an attraction il
any "shoW" the rest of her life.