ART OF TATTOOING

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 29, 4 February 1925, Page 7

ART OF TATTOOING

THE WORK OF A CRAFTSMAN

EMBLEMS OF LOVE AND WAR,

'Love and war are the mainsprings pf the tattpoer's curious trade-^or art 1, as" he prefers to call it. There was a big boom'at the time of the Boer War, when ha was besieged by warriors, many f of them officers, who wanted/ regimental crests and mottoes worked pn their chests as f means of identification 1 should they fall in action. He had another wave of prosperity early in the World War, declares p.p., in the "Manchester Guardian." Now it is Cupid's bow that provides his bread and cheese and pickles. ' V, ,

Curious zones of fashion exist here and there in the .poorer parts of London, i where tattooim; is- the vogue among fac- ! Tory girls, anf their swains. It is among these folk more than the young sailprnien that the tattpoer works" his queer fowl designs—dragons 3111} eagles lor the youth, horses' heads and cats for the girls.. The girls incline, too, to swastikas" and mystifyiyng talismanic emblems that pr6miae good luck to the superstitious, And why not? Woman's life is so largely a matter- of luck. Liz realises that the turn of fortune's wheel j may bring her a drunken husband who beats her or a sturdy greengrocer with a nice little horse' and trap, or a lonely old age as a shawled, crone hawking I matches, without her having had any I say at all in the matter. Why not proI pitiate the gods of luck, indeed! It is. a common praotioe for young men and maidens, while courting, to have each other's initials tattooed on the arm. As not every love affair avoids the rocks in its path an awkward situation appears when an engagement is broken off. Off with the old love and on wjth the new is not so simple when Bessie is bound to 'discover- Nellie's name written indelibly over two overlapping hearts the very first hot day, when, every real fellow in the "sharrybeng 1 ' takes off his coat and rolls up his-sleeves. Timorous and unenterprising swains' might well be excused for" renouncing any further thoughts of matrimqny rather than face the awful day of doom .when the existence of a former flame -would be inexorably proven—unless, of course, another Nellie ..can be found to fill the bill. But the tattooer, stout fellow, is equal to the occasion. Blighted troths no less than plighted troths .bring grist to his mill: Indeed, he leaves his client in no suspense. He announces ap he picks up his little electric needy that if her "bloke" (or his "young-"lady*—observe the difference; there are, one fathers rio female "blokes") gives her "the chuck, I ajter a rar," he is able and* willing to cjeleto his despicable name. " •' How are these engaged couples thus surgically divorced? It is most interestut«t to watch. the operation. The name or initials are deftly touched up here and there until, lo and behold! they have become a writhing dragon, a bouquet of flowers,'or even—a favourite and unconsciously appropriate emblem for blotting out the fickle swain—a butterfly perched,on a sprig of may.. Sometimes a girl from the pickle factory comes back again and again for scenic alteratiqns, acquiring j n the course of a busy winter an arm like a Maori chieftainess, and, oddly enough, groat kudos among the "blokes." Diatiis I the-Huntress finds conquests easy until, lulled into a false security by the number of his' predecessors who have escaped, the victim finds his head in the halter—and the tattooev loses two clients. • '"■'■"

lattqoers,and'their conversation amuse mo. I have the honour of an acquaintanceship with several.. Their outlook is. ;i <(veer blend of sincerity and humbug. They have the understanding,-sympathy/ and toleration of the elderly chemist, combined with the half-conscious "bajlvQoism" of the showman at the fair You would be surprised at the variety of ecqentrics, often from bourgeois and fashionable quarters of town, who ferret out their abode in the mean streets to gratify >i whim. One of my friends was visited by 9, tradnsman • who insisted on having, a, povtrait of the late King Edward tattooed on his bald head as-, a bold expression of the esteem in which he held that monarch. A series of photographs shows the operation at different stages. In vain, however, was he importuned by another man who demanded—in all sobriety and proffering spot cash—to be tattooed all" over, from face to toes. He feared a subsequent recatation and a suit for heavy damages. Another craftsman of the needle did the job, though, A steady demand exists for thistles among Scottish soldiers, apparently. Many "of them, I am assured, have it worked at theback of the knee. .■■

Numbers of persons exist in our unsuspecting midst who cannot be liyppy until they have had coiled snakes tattooed writhing round their arms. ' Tlie first young woman tq apply for a taxuejriver's license in London—this was many years' ago^-had spakea round her arms and a. tjerce tiger v^orbed on her left shoulder, barely a timk rather than a taxi would be a safer sphere of activity fpr young persons like that.

The dragon is the tattooer's niain standby when the client has no equal special design in mind. There is the stock dragon for the' shallow of purse, hut if you have the time, the money, and the fortitude, lire-belching iguanabacked, sabre-fanged, bear-clawed dragons "outdragoning the most hair-raisin" chefs-d -oeuvre of Pekin's heriditary dragoners can be punctured across your chest and shoulders. .