MODERN TATTOOING

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 January 1925, Page 8

MODERN TATTOOING

. CHANGED WaYS OF SAILORS. ■ ’- . .

xultooing is an art on the wane. Things that have. happened to the life of the deep have swept away most of the characteristics of the old-time sailor. And tattooing is going with the rest, declares the “New York Times.” “The life of the seafaring man has been changed,” said a grisly veteran of" many battles with the wind ’and waves. He sat in a swivel chair in an office.of the Seaman’s Institute where he worked on a part-time job when not driving piles at a near-by pier. In his gray business suit he seemed a far cry from the old sea life of which he had been a part, the passing of which he regretted with a bit of moisture in his eye. He, too, had changed, but his sentiment for the sea remained 1 . “The old sailor was an ignorant fel" low. Think what it meant to go. for months without hearing a thing that was happening in the world. All that time, too, he would not see a woman, except, ’ maybe, the captain’s wife. No wonder he was a bashful fellow, ill at ease with ladies. He was just a simple honest, hard-working, man, ready to grapple hand-to-hand with Nature, weathering the worst blasts and sail-

ing the strangest seas. But that man is dead.” He toyed with a dull, blurred, blue anchor on the back of his hand and rolled up a Sleeve to present a ship in full sail, flying the coloured flags of Erin and the United States. “In the old days every man of the sea was tattooed, even the captain. That’s the way they entertained themselves on board ship. The boys jised to prick the marks on their skin and fill them with ink. Some of them had regular : tattooing sets. There was plenty of time in those days.” Most of the tattooing* business, though, the veteran explained, has al- 1 ways been done on shore ; and ho took his interviewer for a walk along South street. The sailor had not thought of tattooers ox tattooing for many years but he had memories South street gay with the signs of skin decorators. He doubted not that lie could find a few signs still remaining. They walked far and looked in-

tently. No sign of tattooing was seen until a glass case with some , crude figures in colour offered the informmation that a tat’tooer might be found round the corner in the barber shop. That meant a turn into an alley and a steep climb up wooden steps. There Professor Jack holds forth in a booth bright with dancing ladies, waving flags and monstrous animals, the patterns of his craft. Professor Jack, twenty years in the business, is less pessimistic than the sailor as to the status of the tattooing trade. “All sorts of people still come to be tattooed,” he declared. “There are plenty of sailors and a few men from the shore. There are women, too. Some are quite young—l won’t do anything under 16. Others are up to 60. Sometimes there are twenty patrons a day. Of course there may be none at all the next day, but business continues, on the wjiole, pretty good.” Mo/>t of the tattooed explained Proessor Jack, select a little flag or some other simple emblem costing them two or three dollars. Prices range from a quarter to fifty dollars. There is often a call for the vast dragon rampant which commands the top price, and for the prancing steed with banners unfurled, a design that costs 35 dollars Though Professor Jack has a wall covered with designs many persons want special orders. He held up a stencil made from the portrait of some one’s

sweetheart to be reproduced in colour on her admirer’s arm. Occasionally sailors have themselves tattooed from neck to heel. Such decorations require many sittings, for the process, though not painful, is nerve-racking. Most of the present day tattooing, though, is a simple affair, done in a single sitting with painless effects aftei- the application of hot towels. Professor Jack recalled the time v/hen tattooing was done with an ordinary needle.

Now the apparatus is elaborate. The tattooer must make it himself. He makes his points by welding together fine needles, three for plain India ink and more for applying colors