Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1884-09-05
TATT00ING AS A FINE ART.
CURIOUS IUDELIBLE DECORATIONS
OF TIE HUMAN FORM.

OF TIE HUMAN FORM.
Men Who Wear Their Swesthenrts'
Names and Then W ant Them Eff
fnced-PrOfessiOnaI TattOOed Men.
Edwin Thomas, "Tattooing Artist"
sat in his studio In South street, one
flight up. A big sailor with beautiful
" Polly" freshly marked on the back of
his hand was going down the stairs, sur
rounded by admiring friends, and Mr..
Thomas was putting some money in his
pocket, and looked pleased with his
work.
"This," said he, "issmy downtown
studio, where 1 do all my sailor and
clerk business. I've got another place
up on the Bowery where l work on
ladies and professionals. Tattooing Is
my regular business, and has been for
twenty years. don't get rich at it, but
can make So or 81 day all the year
sV.-1 Nth an occasional job that
brings me in couple of hundred. The
most profitable part of the business is
doing small jobs, of one or two figures,
that take only two or three hours. i
do more of those than anything else,
and there is a regular schedule of
prices. 1 charge 50 or So for a motto
or monogram, or for any kind of Ma
sonic emblem. Free Masons and mem
bers of different lodges are my best
customers. l charge them reasonable
rates, and have all the business with
them that I can attend to. Here's
book full of different drawings, all made
by myself. Customers look them over
and choose the one they like best"
Mr.. Thomas exhibited a well-worn
book, full of highly colored pictures,
ranging from simple blue st1r marked
fifty cents to a group of several figures
costing So. Mr. Thomas said that he
could reproduce the most complicated
of them on any part of the body in three
hours at most. He drew special atten-
tion to the last picture in the book,
which represented two maidens with
brilliant cheeks and curly hair weeping
over tombstone, with the legend in red
and black ink:
...................... ...'........:
TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER. !:
:......... OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
"That," said he, ''is the design that l
am most often called upon to reproduce,
especially for sailors. Almost every one
of them that comes up here to be well
fixed up begins by having that on his
breast. Maybe his mother isn't dead yet,
but it's homelike, and makes him think
of his parents. That's pretty difficult
design, but 1 don't charge man as much
for that, because l think it shows good
feeling for him to want it"
''What instruments do you usem
Mr. Thomas exhibited in reply two
saucers, one with vermiliOn and the
other with black ink, and slender ivory
stick to which were lashed five fine nee
dies, with the points of each little
above the preceding one, so as to form a
slanting surface.
"That's all, " SAID he-''Indfa lux and
Chinese vermillion, and those five needles
to pick the ink in. Those are the only
kind of ink that will last and will not
infame the skin. Sometimes | get Amer
ican vermillion palmed off on me. It's
pretty dangerous, and | always try a
little of it on my own hand first so that
can tell the effect on my customers"
He held up his left arm, which served
him as a pen wiper. 1t was covered,
from the tips of the fingers almost to the
elbow, with indelible marks in black
and red ink, entirely hiding the skin. A
screaming eagle, with a baby in its talons,
that had been tattooed there thirty years
before, was just visible through the
stains.
''Are those inks expensive9 Well,
they are and they are not. One of those
little sticks of India ink cost me 1926
but then l can do 800 worth of work
with it, so you see it don't come to SC
much after all. Yes, they are the only
colors Iuse, red and blue The black
ink gets blue when 1 put it under the
skin. OF course, l can't give any par
ticular color to a girls eyes or cheeks,
but l come near enough to it to please
my customers, and you would be sur
prised to lea-n what different kinds ol
customers l have. Many is the time I've
had two sisters looking out of the win
dow, watching for their mother and
father, while l was busy tattooing
the third sister. | got at least {
dozen jobs of that kind in year, ano
sometimes more, and from ladies, too
that live up town on the avenues. What
they ask for most frequently is to have
some name tattooed where it can't be
seen in ball costume. Some of then
want necklace tattooed around theil
necks. But l always advise then
against it, because they are sure to wist
it were off some day, and, Of course
once on, it's got to stay there while the
skin does.
"Then, too, l have good many Gus
toners among the young clerks. Some
of them want design relating to theil
business. For instance, just last week
tattooed a ''ticker," with picture Of
Jay Gould looking at it, on the arm of {
! brokers' clerk in Pearl street. But mos
of the clerks Just want the name of theil
sweetheart entwined with their own i'll
the most flourishing letters | can find.
Then they show it to her and say it was
very painful, and she says Just think
how he has suffered on my account, and
that makes them better friends than they
were before. But they deceive theil
girls, because it don't hurt much at all
Let me show you" The artist took
up his needle, drew the skin tightly
across the reporters wrist, and in
moment had produced miniature
blue star without any greater pair
than a slight priclling sensation, fol
lowed by slight irritation and inaan
nation. "That's all the pain there
is in it," he continued, "and wher
l do big job, and have been working
on man for five or ten minutes th
skin gets numb, and he doesn't feel any
thing at all and wants me to keep on, be
cause as soon as stop he feels the irri
tation That's the good thing in thi