2014-06-09



1001 TATTOO FACTS: NUMBERS 361-380

By Paul Sayce

www.tattoo.co.uk

360. The Times newspaper of the 4th of September 2005, had in The “Funday Times” segment a cartoon of the very popular TV show “The Simpson’s,” where in the piece entitled “Laugh Free Or Die” saw Bart getting a tattoo in the hope of making him the toughest kid in school. And after getting his tattoo he goes about showing his arm off to the impressed girls and frightened teachers and boys. That is, of course, until we find out that the tattoo is only a fake and Bart only had it done to get some respect from his father, Homer. Apart from this, the tattoo also has the name Freddy on it, which shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Still, I bet the kids loved this little bit of fun from the (film) guys at Twentieth Century Fox.

361. The great British model with film star looks Nell McAndrew (1973-) sports a wolf’s head tattoo on her lower back. She had the tattoo done at Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, during a short visit after returning from a photo shoot in Bora Bora; the very same photo shoot that saw Nell get the cover of Playboy magazine. Nell told me (via a letter) that this is the only tattoo she has, and does not plan to have any more in the future. She is also the British forces sweetheart and appeared on the first series of “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here” on British television, and was voted the 20th sexiest women in the world, by the News Of The World Sunday newspaper, in the 1990s, appearing on the cover of the magazine (accompanying the paper) that honored her. The tattoo Nell also seen at the charity fashion show put on by the underwear company Agent Provocateur, held in London’s Royal Exchange, on the 20th October, 2005, where Nell modelled a very cute little outfit.

362. Rebecca Loos, who seems to have gained her celebrity status in Great Britain because of an alleged affair with football player David Beckham, also wears a Labrys tattoo symbol on her lower back. The doubled-headed axed design means Mother Goddess and represents the lesbian movement. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as Miss Loos, who also has a starburst-type tattoo on her lower stomach, has told all who wanted to know (as well as all the tabloids newspapers in the U.K.) that she also bats for the other side, when the mood and fancy takes her.

363. In 1850, Chief Sunia spoke of tattooing, when he addressed the Samoan Council , stating that a pe’a is permanent, death alone erases it.  It is man’s enduring pride, his possession. It is visible, it proclaims courage and is fa’a Samoa or Samoan custom.

364. Women in Samoa are tattooed in the same way as their men, but do not have as much tattooing put upon their bodies. Small amounts of tattooing on their hands and legs are about as much as they have done, although it was written in early Samoan custom that females cannot get tattooed or assist in the practice of the art. When I was in Samoa in 1999, I did visit the only tattoo shop in the capital of Apia, and there was a young female in the waiting area of the studio, but whether or not she did any tattooing herself I don’t know. She was probably more of a receptionist and I’ve never seen or ever heard of a Samoan female tattoo artist.

365. On the front cover of GEO, Australia’s geographical magazine, Vol. 6, Number 4, of December 84/February ’85, pictured a heavily tattooed man on its cover, with the tattooing having been done by Australian tattoo artist Frank Thompson.

366. Bev Robinson, who went by the stage name Cindy Ray, did wonderful work in promoting tattooing in Australia and New Zealand, in the 1960s, making her first appearance as a tattooed lady at the Sydney showgrounds, in 1962, before appearing in many agricultural shows, where she was described as the “classy lassie with the tattooed chassis,” and “the woman who put the oo into tattoo.” She was also at one time known as Miss Technicolor, and she appeared in the book “The Story Of a Tattooed Girl,” in 1960, as well as being associated with an Australian tattoo supply company before going on to become an accomplished tattoo artist in her own right. Bev started tattooing after marrying Danny Robinson Sr., after his divorce from his first wife, in 1964. And after Bev and Danny divorced, in 1978, Bev went to tattoo with Vaughn Griffiths and Kevin Coppin at Sailor Bill’s Grotto, 490 Flinders Street studio, in Melbourne. 1981 once again saw Bev teaming up with her ex-husband Danny , but, this time, only in a business partnership, where the pair tattooed out of a studio, at 50 St. Kilda Road, before Bev moved on to her own tattoo studio in Williamstown, Melbourne, where she still works today (2007).

367. A tall story made the papers in the 1960s, when Ulysses Films made the movie “Paris Secret,” starring the beautiful actress Mlle. Claudine Perrot. The story went (in the papers) that she (Miss Perrot) was paid to have a tattoo of the Eiffel Tower’ covered in roses on her left buttock, where, after the shoot finished,– the film company claimed the rights to the tattoo, as they had paid for it and had the tattoo removed and sold to an art dealer. Later, the French beauty sued Ulysses to the tune of £170,000 pounds, but after much argument, an out-of-court settlement for her physical hurt for £2,500 was accepted and the skin was returned to her and the (tattoo) sequence in the film was cut from its final edit. True or not, who knows, but this did indeed make big news in the ’60 and was reported in the “Daily Telegraph,” the 4th of June, 1969. There was also another report in a British tabloid, but, this time, the report described her as the pretty Paris model Claudine Perot (one - r – in Perot - not two, as above) and told of how the twenty-year-old Miss Perot was paid £40 pounds for getting the tattoo of the Eiffel Tower, and that it took five hours to put it on, and, after the filming of “Secret Paris” (called “Paris Secret” above) was complete, Miss Perot had the piece of artistic skin removed by a beauty surgeon, and it was sold to a collector for £850 pounds. It was also claimed that the model did not realize that her piece of tattooed skin would be worth so much and was suing Ulysses productions director Jean Louis Van Del and producer Rene Marjac for the return of it, or the £850 pounds paid for it, as well as claiming £17,000 pounds damages for having been disfigured, stating that she had suffered a great deal and could no longer model bikinis or underwear. This newspaper report did not say whether she won her case or even if the skin was ever returned to her, but, like I said,  this was from two newspapers of the day and, in both, different tales were told, especially the money side of it. In hindsight, this was probably one of what is termed in the U.K. as a “silly seasons” or “no news day” story, in regards to appeasing the great British public. And we all know what the papers  are about don’t we?

368. In 1946, the Thoroughbred Racing Protection Bureau (TRPB) was set up in the USA to prevent the switching of poorer performing horses with better racing stock. One way the Bureau dealt with this problem was to have the inside of the horse’s lips tattooed and, by 1961, the T.R.P.B. had over 80,000 thoroughbred race horses on record.

369.  The same sort of thing happens (as above) in Greyhound racing, with the tattooing (usually) done on the inside of the dogs ear.

370. On the 6th of November 1938, the headline on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer read: THE BARBARIC CUSTOM OF TATTOOING IS SPREAD BY BRITISH WAR HYSTERIA.

371. After escaping from a German P.O.W. camp during the Second World War, Bob Masters was captured by the Russians, who believing him to be a spy . They were just about to be shoot him, when Bob opened his shirt to prove that he was a British Tommy by revealing the portrait tattoos of George the Fifth and Queen Mary that he had tattooed on his chest and of which undoubtedly saved his life. This was reported in the long-gone British newspaper The Sunday Pictorial, in its “I Was There” column.

372. In the days when sex before marriage was rare, it was reported in Titbits magazine, of the 10th of June, 1961, that a bride on her wedding night found out that her new husband had the names of five girlfriends tattooed on his chest, and that later the young lady divorced him.

373. In England, two medical students by the names of John Callan and John Godwin were fined five shillings each, for forcibly tattooing the face of twelve-year-old boy George Weale by London magistrates, in 1829. In court, it was told that Godwin and Callan had decided to tattoo the face of the boy after reading the accounts of John Rutherford of 1828 (see fact 383) . Young George, who was working taking orders for bottles of alcoholic drinks, came across his two tormentors and was held down by Callan and tattooed on the cheeks, nose and brow with stars, dots and lines. It was said that Godwin and Callan wanted to tell their friends that the boy was indeed a Maori savage. The pair were also drunk at the time of the assault—the did the tattooing with a lancet and caustic. George received five pounds in compensation from the pair.

374. Australian Post magazine, of September the 18th, 1969, reported that tattooing is busier than ever in Australia. In 1965, there were said to be twenty-two studios in the whole of Australia. Tattooing was made illegal for under-eighteens, in 1966 (three years before the tattooing of minors act came into force in Great Britain), with similar action being taken, in 1968, among Australia naval trainees.

375. In 1964, the Tattoo Club Of America published in its club newsletter their top twenty tattoo artists in the world. In no particular order, it read: Ron Ackers, U.K.; Bruno Coccioli, Italy; Sailor Jerry Collins, USA; Amund Dietzel, USA; Doc Forbes, Canada; Bert Grimm, USA; (Tattoo) Peter de Haan, Holland; Ole Hansen, Denmark; Herbret Hoffman, Germany; Alf Mingins, Australia; Rich Mingins, U.K.—Rich and Alf were brothers, born in England); Smokey Nightingale, USA; Cliff Raven, USA; Paul Rogers, USA; Les Skuse, U.K.;  Phil Sparrow, USA; Huck Spaulding, USA;  Lyle Tuttle, USA; Doc Webb, USA; and Pinky Yun Hong Kong.

376. Ashton Taylor was another fine tattooist at the turn of the 20th century. Although only a part-time tattoo artist, he excelled in his work and his splendid designs were used to tattoo kings and noblemen alike. Taylor was also a fine metal worker and indeed had his own silver hallmark at one time. There are still many of his design flash sheets around, which can be seen in tattoo museums throughout the world. Ashton’s son revealed in an interview that his mother sometimes painted the designs in his father’s books and design sheet. Indeed, the dragon tattoo on the arm of King George the Fifth was an Ashton Taylor design, as was the winged dragon that was tattooed on the King Of Greece.

377. Isobel Varley was presented to Queen Elizabeth II, when Varley worked as a silver service waitress. In a taped interview I did with her at a tattoo convention up in Newcastle, England, back in the 1990s, I asked her about the meeting, and this is what Isobel said: “Yes, I met the Queen of Great Britain twice, and it was in the days before I got my tattoos, which wouldn’t have mattered much anyway, as the uniforms we wore at the Buckingham Palace garden parties (where I met her) were long black dresses and black stockings, and I doubt if anybody would have seen the tattoos anyway.”

378. Hanky Panky (Schiffmacher) had his first tattoo from “Tattoo Peter” (de Haan), in Amsterdam in Holland. And he opened his first tattoo studio there himself in 1979, before he became a tattoo artist. Henk served in the Dutch army and later moved on to become a photographer, as was his first wife Patricia Steur. Hanky, who for many years tattooed out of one the world’s most famous tattooing studios under The Other Place bar in the Red Light District of Amsterdam, at Oudezijds Voorburgwal 141, later married Louise and in 2008 he opened a new studio (on the 29th of September, 2007) for his daughter Morrison, at 416 Ceinluurbaan. Henk Schiffmacher (Hanky Panky) is one of tattooing’s most famous sons, writing many books on the history of tattooing, with appearances on television shows, in DVDs and videos, as well as appearing in many magazines and book publications. He even published his own tattoo magazine, Tattoo World, and tattooed some of the world’s most popular rock ‘n’ roll stars. And if you add the fact that he has had his autobiography published and owned the Amsterdam Tattoo Museum and Library, as well as tattooing in the fun Dutch city, it really shouldn’t be that hard to see why Schiffmacher is held in such high regard.

The author, along with Ron Ackers, visited Hanky’s studio in the Red Light District of Amsterdam many times in the late 1990s, as well as spending quite a bit of time at Hanky’s and his wife’s home, where Hanky also paints (he is a prolific oil painter). The home itself like an art museum, with hundreds of books, paintings and many other artefacts displayed for one to admire. It was also at his home, where Hanky once told me that a true artist never throws anything away, which is more than evident at the couple’s beautiful house situated in an affluent part of Amsterdam.

 379. On the popular BBC 1 TV show “Holby City,” of the 17th of January, 2006, there was a story line where a young lady had passed out in a tattoo studio and was rushed was to a hospital to find that the poor girl had a hole in her heart, hence her condition in this top medical drama. She also explained to the doctor that she was going to get a pentagram design tattooed on but hit the deck beforehand. There was only bit of info about tattooing in the program, but it’s good to know that the script writer didn’t take any cheap shots and blame the tattoo for her flake out, which could well have been easily done to add a bit of spice.

380. American tattoo legend Bob Shaw, who passed away on the 17th of March, 1993, was, at the time, the President of the National Tattoo Club, so Don Eaker moved on up to President, with Jack Rudy taking over as vice president, until the new term began on the 1st of July 1993, a term of which new officers are voted in by the club’s membership every five years.

381. George Bone, born in 1945, first became interested in tattoos when, as a boy, he saw some tattoos on a member of his family. George was fifteen when got his first tattoo from Cash Cooper of Piccadilly Circus, London, in 1960, and went onto opening his own tattoo studio in the early 1970s. George also continued to get tattooed himself, with Rich Mingins and Jack Zeek doing quite a bit of George’s early tattoo work. In fact, Jack Zeek tattooed George’s chest, back, arms and hands. But it wasn’t until he met Billy Skuse at Bill’s Aldershot tattoo shop that he really started to get his body covered, with Bill becoming one of George’s big influences in the tattoo profession at the time. George, who once called himself “Baron Von Bone,” is one of tattooing’s top tattoo artists and is one of the very best in regards to getting good strong color into the skin. His style of work boarders on the macabre and his studio in Boston Road, Hanwell, London, sports many skulls which George calls “his friends.” An award-winning artist, who has featured in everything from books to magazines, TV and videos, as well as appearing (for many years) in the “Guinness Book Of Records” as Britain’s most tattooed man, was married to Pat (in 1967) and sells skull-related items (mirrors, ashtrays, skulls ,etc.), which he makes himself. Several of the items have been used as prizes at many of the U.K.’s tattoo conventions over the years. George has also been tattooed by the likes of Don Ed Hardy, who did his neck, but much of his work that got him into the Guinness book was done by Rusty and the late Bill Skuse.

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