The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1884-08-27
THE ART OF TATTOOING.
AN EXPERT GIVES MUCH CURIOUS
INFORMATION.
rho Wen who Practice TattOOing and
Those who PatrOnize tt-The Art
OF " ScrimpsChOu.H


Tevis at his studio in Philadelphia.
81 am so regarded, replied the artist.
"The popularity OF tattooing as an
adornment of the body is on the increase.
The time is not far distant when every
man will have his name on his person
somewhere. IL is invaluable, don't you
see, in case of accident or for deaf and
dumb people"
"The art will need many artists" sug-
gested the reporter.
"True; but where are they to come
froml 1t is something that can't be
learned 1t is gift of nature. 1t came
SO to me"
"Why can't it be learnedw
"That's more than ! am able to say.
/ attempted to teach several ambitious
young fellows how to put the ink in. 1
gave them great deal of time and
patience, but it was useless. They
couldn't learn. One of these students
was an excellent man with the pencil.
He drew we'll enough, but when he began
to work the sketch in he failed utterly.
All large and complicated pictures are
outlined in pencil first, and on larger
scale than they are expected to appear,
for the cutice is stretched to the highest
possible tension during the entire
work"
as it painful operation2"
''Quite so at first. But the flesh be-
comes benumbed at the end of a quarter
of an hour. have sixteen pieces of work
on various parts of my body. The only
really interesting amateur that have ever
had work at me was the young lady who
ha ~ IF INV
arm" saving which Mr.. Tevis rolled up
acters of old English vermilion, colored
with blue shading, the word Mamie, "
''In what country are the best work.
men found2"
''Here in America no other country
furnishes such experts with the bodlin.
Englishmen do not belong to an artistic
race. They only tattoo flags, leaves or
flowers; they can't do a good figure.
The French don't do much A flag,
laid on fat, or liberty cap is about their
best. It is in the Sandwich Islands that
the best artists are found outside of
America. The Kanakas use indigo and
cinnabar, all vegetable matter. A sharks
tooth or fish bone is used. They &C
complish wonderful results. The bone is
set in a stick, and then the tension is put
on the flesh with their feet, as they beat
the picture in, bit by bit. Snakes, fish
and alligators are their strong points.
The japanese and Chinese are experts
after fashion. They draw only Chinese
or Japanese pictures and generally put
the name of the object under what they
portray. Turks and Russians know alb
solutely nothing about it, though I've
seen sailors of both nationalities whC
tice in Africa"
"How does the art migrate 2"
"The American sailors are the nomad
of the profession. They go from por
to port, and some of them are so wei
known that they have customers await
ing their arrival in nearly every harbo
they enter. Take the Spanish or Italia
cities for instance There is always
floating population in those seaports, an
Jack gathers In a good many peseta
and silver scudi. In the East Indi
ports, especially Bombay, he is in gres
demand among the Lascars and light
colored Hindoos. The latter are yer
partial to vermilion-which is red oxid
of mercury, and therefore makes til
flesh very sore. Often the subject
gets quite i'll from the effects on til
system. There are only two colors thG
can be worked into the fesh-black an
red. You don't know, perhaps, thi
black India ink turns blue There is L
blue ink. 1t is mystery which scienC
has never solved. The change in COLI
is due to some action of the blooC
doubtless. Another interesting fact
that no two sticks of India ink produC
the same color in the same flesh. 1t
equally true that one stick of ink pr
duces different shades of blue in differe
persons. If we take lampblack or 500
or charcoal, or black lead from the penC
you write with, and work it into Il
human body, it reappears a dark blu
not a black. Isn't it curious If IL
vermilion is worked in heavily it leav
q raised welt on the flesh. I use gre
caution about that, because it is an ev
dence of bad workmanship"
"Did you ever put a mans coat
arms on his body 2"
eyes, indeed. There is a young m
about here who has the seal of Virgin
on his breast. 1t covers his entire che
and required two and a half hours
work it under the skin. 1t is my mast,
piece There is nothing like it in Il
country"
"There are other branches of the a
are there not2"
'Yes, tattoo eggs for Easter. Co
the eggs, and then carve away part of
color on the shell, producing work Ii
canoes. have a great many regu
orders for this kind of work One fam
on West Walnut street gives me a co
mission regularly every year for thu
dozen eggs to be delivered on Eas
morning. boil the eggs very hard, co
them, engrave them and then heat tn
with dry steam just before delivery.
get one dollar each for the eggs, a
could sell several hundred But l
the only person | know who has ha
steady enough to carve an egg-sht
Even l break one out of every thr