TATTOOED MAN IN KHAKI.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1401, 1 March 1917, Page 5

TATTOOED MAN IN KHAKI.

Staff-Sergeant-Major A. E. Newton, who had been engaged for two years on the A. and I. Staff, and who enlisted recently at the Melbourne Town Hall Recruiting Depot as a private, is the most tattooed man in the Australian Imperial Force, if not in the Commonwealth. He is well-developed, and his chest expansion is 48 inches. He is tattooed practically over the whole of his body from his feet to his neck. On his back is a battle royal in midair, five eagles being portrayed fighting over a rabbit. The scene is a realistic one, the birds from tip to tip of wings oeing from 6in. to Sin. Covering his chest is a full-rigged ship, worked out in the minutest detail as to rigging. The space occupied on his chest by the ship is a foot by a foot and a-half. On bis thigh appears a basket of fruit of every variety, eight colours being worked into the scheme. On his feet peacocks have been worked, and on other parts of his body appear a fine specimen of the British lion, a good piece of work being a bird battling with a snake, which is on the calf of his leg. Extending down the left thigh from the hip to the knee is a cobra about 4in. thick. Other tattoo marks include roses and birds in flight. Staff-Sergeant-Major Newton saw 11 years’ service with the British Army in India, being attached to the Scottish Rifles, and he has also seen

service at Aidershot and Portsmouth, and is an expert in bayonet work. He was presented with a wristlet watch from a bayonet instruction class of staff-sergeant-majors at Royal Park on Ist December, 1916. Chatting at the recruiting depot with the medical staff, Staff-Sergeant-Major Newton said that while in India a friendly rivalry arose among the men as to who could bear the most tattooing, and he won. He intimated that the ship design on his chest required eight sittings of five hours each, and with a most painful operation. The eight-colour work in connection with the fruit design was the most painful proceeding of all, and required many days to complete. Staffi-Sergeant-Major Newton said that he was glad to be going on active service, as he was anxious to use his special bayonet knowledge to more advantage than he had been able to do in the instruction schools in Victoria.