Charle "of Malta" Parnis

Compare these three head shots:

1. From Lift Trucks contributor.

2. Long sheet found in Dusty Rhodes’ studio.

3. Charlie “of Malta” Parnis, early 1900s. Collection of Hanky Panky, Amsterdam Tattoo Museum. From Pierced Hearts and True Love: A Century of Drawings for Tattoos, The Drawing Center.       

Lab staff sent packing along with our scientific laboratory of expensive machinery. We now trust in knowledge the passed down through generations, the good eyes and common sense of our friends in the tattoo world. Great analysis that has shed light on a previously unexplored subject regarding tattoo flash painted over 100 years ago. Difficult task indeed.

Clear out your desks.

Schools out forever for these Lift Trucks employees and their shoddy research.

Fill high the dumpster!

We now trust the eyes of our friends. Many thanks again to Messrs. Skuse & Shudehill.

We now must have any help with information regarding the mystery of Charlie,of Malta,Parnis.

First question: Did he live ever in Malta, or was he an Englishman with Malta as his calling card, much like "Brooklyn" Joe Leiber? A man who reportedly never set shoe leather down once in the good borough.

 

 

 

Of Dragons, a Cat, and a Woman in a Heart

Mr.Thomas Berg was an English tattooist who came to the United States at the turn of the century. He is known to have tattooed in San Francisco where he worked doing hand and electric tattooing. As with many tattooists of that era, Berg offered designs, stencils and color for sale.

His shop along with Capt. Jack Howard was in one of the roughest and toughest sections of old San Francisco – the so-called Barbary Coast area was lined with whorehouses, opium dens, shanghai bars, flop houses as well as the more up-scale "parlor houses." His flash designs were quite detailed for that era and he probably worked with a single needle set-up, which was not unusual in England at the turn of the century.

The fantasy drawing of a dragon is particularly compelling. A Japanese influence fish tail imparts the look of an angry eye.  Even more peculiar is ol’ sour puss in the corner, all too reminiscent of the internet-famous Grumpy Cat (8.6 million fans on Facebook.) Even the scroll under the skull and girl looks like the back bumper of a 1960s land-yacht. Thomas Berg, we hardly knew you, but your timeless artwork aged beautifully.


Pigtals no more when tattoos was tattoos: by Bob Crutch Crutchfield

Happy New Year , here are some pics from former crew members off my favorite Diesel Sub , these fellas sailed on her late 50s early 60s ,me late 60s early 70s....You can see Tats here in actual service at sea aboard,before Tats were considered K@@L haha,...one crewman with Swallows on chest another young crewman with name of boat/sub on his arm....and check out the Mohawk haircuts, the V8 one unique haha...you can`t do this stuff in modern Navy haha....even when I was in the Diesel Sub Force "Pigboat Navy " as they called us,45 yrs ago now, uniforms were lax at sea , some wore short pants,sandals and many of us sported beards...we were known as "Sewer Pipe" Sailors because we could take no baths aboard ,and we always smelled abit and alot like diesel (on leave once dancing slow with a gal she ask me what is that smell=it was the diesel you could not wash it out of your skin,it had to wear off ,..might add =she dealt with it haha).   I did one 40+ day patrol N.Atlantic no bath...man did that hot water feel good in Boston Navy Yard base when we finally got into Port......  the pictures of boat diving taken thru periscope is mine taken on that N Atlantic patrol, swim call off Jamaica (my crewtimes) down in Caribbean, last pic myself and some of my shipmates on dock by the Boat  ,and the newsclipping around 73 , the Amberjack was last of diesel boats to go down and our squadron SUBRON 12 was decommed = shutdown forever....  crutch

Sailor, Collector, Writer.

Bob Crutch Crutchfield

Yes Yes, And Furthermore...

Here's something we know. This sheet was done by Dusty Rhodes aka Professor Manley. 

It's signed. 

The dude's full name was Manley Raymond "Dusty" Rhodes (1890-1962.)  Our professional research team at LTP confirms: The hand that wrought this had nothing at all to do with the big framed panel that hung in his studio. 

Compare the knives and faces. 

But as a wise collector once said: Let's just sit back and dig these tattoo masters. They are the true and real artists of the last Century.

 

Snakes and High Heels

From exhaustive electroscopic comparison analysis at our very own International Institute for Tattoo Art Research, a division of Lift Trucks Project, our studies have led us to the following determination.  The large tattoo flash board from Dusty Rhodes studio is most certainly the handwork of Joseph Hartley.

One element of our research over the course of a couple of hours and in between other stuff, was to focus upon the written words. Lettering is, in itself, as telling and unique as a signature. No two people will pen a letter exactly the same way.

Selection from a book documenting Joseph Hartley work, by the esteemed expert, Mr. Hanky Panky.

A close up of the sheet found in Dusty Rhodes shop.

As we compare the individual letters in the word "NAME", note the outward curve on the right stroke of the “A" and the distinctive convex and concave lines on the "N". The way the center angle of the "M” does not descend as far as the other parts of the letter. Our research shows that in Hartley’s lettering most of the forms have the tops dramatically curving as if they’re leaning back and windswept.

   Hanky Panky's book (Left)                                       Dusty's sheet (Right)

 

 Joseph Hartley sheet kindly sent by a Lift Trucks contributor. (Above.)

Board from Dusty's studio

We encourage our readers to look for these points of similarity. Snakes with distinct red/white underbelly's and black and green backs. Unique little dots around hearts. The women have stylized bright eyes, arched eyebrows, rosebud lips and heavy jaw lines... The final tells being the ladies tiny size 2 shoes and the fact that Hartely was well known to have supplied the Rhodes brothers in the 1930's with supplies from his Tattoo business in Bristol, England.

Just as sure as a clean fingerprint on a newly cracked safe, we believe this conclusively connects the art to the artist.

We also think this sheet is his ultimate masterpiece.

This of course, has nothing to do with the fact that we own the item.

 

Hearts & Roses

From exhaustive comparison analysis at our very own institute for tattoo research, a division of LTP, we have determined the following... The large tattoo flash board from Dusty Rhodes studio is most certainly the artwork of Joseph Hartely. He was well known to have supplied the Rhodes brothers with supplies and flash samples for their shops.

Our research focused upon the lettering. As as unique as a handwriting analysis; no two people will letter exactly the same. 

Compare the individual letters in the word "NAME". Note the outward curve on the right stroke of the  "A" and the distinctive convex and concave lines on the "N". The way the center angle of the "M” does not descend as far as the other parts of the letter, however, is standard practice for English lettering.

Another tell, is to compare the word "LOVE" in known Hartleys and the long flash board.  Note the fatter horizontal line on the "L" and the slimmer vertical stem.

Again in comparing published and documented Hartley sheets with the long sheet, It helps to look at the way snakes are painted, the distinct red/white underbelly and the and black and green pattern of the backs. Another signature of the artists work are the unique dots around hearts. All the women have stylized bright eyes, arched eyebrows, rosebud lips and heavy jaw lines... Ladies shoes, tiny.. these are the final tell. The art boards seem to be the same also.

We rest our case. We believe the evidence connects the artist to the artwork sure as a fingerprint on a newly cracked safe.

 

Dusty Rhodes

The old tea china gently rattled as he walked down hand hewn wood stairs, fire cold dead now but for smoky remains. As he latched the door and walked the cobbled streets to work early morning sunlight streamed over mermaid shaped clouds. Shades of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Prof. Manley slowly became Dusty the Tattooist. Consumed with his near to waking dreams from the night before of Indian chiefs and red mesas, the most un-Brit women clad scantily whirling around with exotic snakes, fans and feathers, the ground littered with heads of evil marauders impaled with a Scotsman's Sgian Dubh knife. The fantasies ran another beautiful day in Grimsby, which, once fueled by fishing and maritime, was now headed into steep decline.

The town was not yet fully awake as Dusty lit his first cigarette outside the neat as a pin shop.  A retired sea captain allowed a greeting as he stumped by. Neptune, God & Country and the Girl at port-side home were all a-waiting to be memorialized in tattoos.  Children peering in the tattooists window were scooted down the road by overburdened mums. 

Manley "Dusty Rhodes" (1860-1962) was listed as a tattooist in Chatham, England 1911 although he spent most of his career in Grimsby. The designs above found in Dusty's shop, are most certainly by Joseph Hartley who sold flash samples and materials from his famous Bristol tattoo shop. This anonymous sheet below was found on the back of the Ladies Cheeks Tinted sign seen in window.

Hi Oh Silver

Back when the West was the West. A topless Indian pole dancer. Excellent choice for a full back piece tattoo. I'll get it if you get it. You go first, heh. This one's a variation signed Trader Bob of the famous Bert Grimm design. Grimm sold velox production copies to tattoo parlors in the late 40's and 50's.


Our friend said it looks like a lounge act at the Silver Spur in Palm Springs. They had a 14 foot red metal arrow sticking out of the ground surrounded by painted white rocks.  Hey, another Rob Roy over here!

This is the Bert Grimm Production velox

Tales of the Sea by Crutch

This is the first in a series of recollections and stories by a gentleman named Crutch. He was kind enough to sell us an illustrated man.

It looks like it might have been used in the window of a tattoo shop in the 1920's. It's a circus carving though.

"I am an older fellow. I bought it from a Circus fellow who had it from another circus fellow who had passed away. It's a powerful figure...I use to collect real tribal oceanic items and the real ones just had that same sort of aura about them."

He told us old stories about diving and living in the South Pacific and Malaysia for years. Knew all about the hand poke tattoo method from the old days.Told us about "drown-proofing" tattoos of a pig and rooster as they are the only animals that can't swim. On sailors feet they bring reverse good luck like the theater greeting of  "Break a leg."

"....there was an old merchant marine engineer i knew as a kid around the docks here he was too old then to sail deepsea ,but he was handy and the dock owner kept him around, he always still wore khaki shirt and trousers like his seagoing officer days but saturated with so much oil on them you could hardly tell the color..his wife an elderly immaculatey clean lady would in the evenings walk down to dock with her spotless little miniature white poodle ..she was opposite ends of the poles in that respect...i use to always wonder about that match....well he was known alot to talk too HIMSELF    ...the dock owner one day caught him doing this as he was working on some piece of equip. and he said "Hey, why do you talk to yourself"  ,  he looked up and replied " Mr. T, sometimes I just have to have an intelligent conversation " then he went back to his conversation and what he was working on...    on those cellphones...i grew up in the days ,when we had, where i lived,= no tv ,no ac, and my house no hot water inside ...my grandmother would heat water in winter on her woodburning stove and put water in a big zinc washtub to bathe in...1st real running hotwater i got was the usn ...i though that pretty darn good...here see how she goes= i am rambling off on another tangent ...i stop for now....."

Here's some of Crutch's other wonderful items we admired.

"i like old sailor carved coconuts and scrimmed seashells ,the 1 small nuts were part of the sailing ship Peruvians cargo that went aground 1880s in a storm off England beach...the nuts were to make buttons from, well to try and lighten ship to refloat they tossed this cargo overside and a local artist gathered and did ship silhoettes of the event...the coco is dated 1878 i think it is cant remember ether 1876 or 8."

 

 

How lucky can one guy be?

What floats our boat about this flash sheet by the master tattooer, Earl Brown? Maybe it's about the good life. A girl in the bunny suit. Catch a wink and a nod from a lass in a pirate outfit. What's not to like?  Five seductive pin ups all waiting to add their name with yours on a hearts or roses banner. The elongated "X" compositional symmetry is brilliant. Dead center, a demure raven-haired beauty in a black Wonderwoman bikini. She's bookended by two girls each sitting with a hand up. Look. They are waving. At ME! Are we biggie (Biggie Smalls) enough for the swinging brunette with hairstyle flowing down over one eye? Yes, we nod. Yes, we are.

As Dean Martin once sang: I got to get a tattoo at 12:30, don't want to be late. I hugged her and she hugged back. Like a sailor said quote "Ain't that a hole in a boat?"

Biznes is Good

Out of place like a land-bound ghost in the fog, yellow street lights, the low growl of the trolley underground electric hum. Another low hummed transformer buzz from the Jesus Saves sign at the mission, snap up your collar, quicken your pace. I can see it all coming back dream-like now, one more for the road: Capt Jack Howard and Thomas Berg inkin' 'em up at the Midway down the street from the Mission, the Thalia. Barbary Coast alright. Sometimes even the swells would drop in with one of Madame Lil's free gold coins Hey, I thought this was free, What do you mean 5 cents for a beer? The Jesus Saves sign flickered, only salvation was promised for free.

 

Tattoo Auction

Many of our followers are diehard tattoo aficionados and collectors, and it’s easy to understand why. They know it’s rare to find the good tattoo stuff out in the wild, but we’ve got good news. We’ve gotten reports of an online tattoo auction to be held on the 13th & 14th - 1PM & 6PM each day, Eastern Time. It takes place at Guernsey’s in NYC’s Meat Packing District.



This collection was assembled by a Mr. Peter Mui, an actor, fashion designer, and musician. He traveled the globe collecting and learning about tattoo art, antiques and flash. His collection contains classic Japanese works such as Horiyoshi III to vintage tribal and biker tattoos, present day biomechanical creations and just about every other style you can imagine. Some of the items are a bit newer, for example there are plenty of comic book influenced designs, but diversifying the lot of over 1,000 items are things like a Victorian era English foot pedal operated tattoo machine.



Lucky for Mui’s family, he left them an incredible and massive archive of tattoo art, which they’re selling it at one of Mui’s favorite auctions. A lot of the works in this collection are incredibly unique; from depictions of psychedelic Himalayan gods to 200+ year old Burmese tattoo books. I especially like the Himalayan stuff, reminds us of why we like Rosie Camenga, he was cool and weird.



Even if you’re not buying, you should keep an eye on the auction. For collectors, you wouldn’t want to miss this for the world.
You can learn more and register bid on the Guernsey’s website.

http://www.guernseys.com/v2/tattoo_art.html

Check out the collection.
Day 1: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/79955_tattoo-art-collection-day1-nov13/

Day 2: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/79957_tattoo-art-collection-day2-nov14/

Written by Scott Everett, student and project manager at Lift Trucks.

Tattoos on the Barbary Coast: Part II

Everything hidden creeps up through the sidewalks oozes through the cracks, crimes crying to be solved.  Shanghaied, rolling out under the Golden Gate.

 Fog horns freight train whistles odd night noises music or.... tattoo signs, an old jackknife and some papers, a bottle of ink dried up now, somehow the big sheets made it by, floating mermaids and lovesick sailors, a bowling ball in the corner of the old pine floor, flash sheets with dragons, a fish, many little birds and a mystery of the bejeweled twins who, with a wink and a smile, live eternally young from these pages.

Captain Jack Howard, SF 1920's

Ernest Hemingway: Between Two Wars

The Morgan Library/9/25/15-1/31/16

By Pamela Hart

If you like sentences, which I do, and you’re interested in how one important American writer played with them, creating what a critic called “an esthetic of simplicity,” then head to the Morgan Library & Museum to view Ernest Hemingway: Between Two Wars.


This tightly focused exhibition features notebooks and drafts of short stories and novels, letters from well-known friends like Stein and Fitzgerald as well as other memorabilia like Hemingway’s passport from 1923. But it’s the behind-the-scenes look at his writing process that really is captivating. There are terrific treats if you’re an archive junkie like me. From a list of possible short story titles: That Was Before I Knew You, I am Not Interested in Artists, Unwritten Stories are Better. An inventory of his daily word count. Hemingway’s dog tags from his time as a war correspondent during World War II, when he was 45 years old. Here’s a bit of editorial advice from Fitzgerald to Hemingway after reading the manuscript of A Farewell to Arms. “On page 209 and 219,” Fitzgerald wrote in a letter, “I think if you use the word cocksucker here the book will be suppressed and confiscated within two days of publication.”

Hemingway’s terse, journalistic style was the result of deep revision that often involved eliminating adjectives and adverbs. You see this in a draft manuscript of the opening paragraph of A Farewell to Arms. There are his sentences in pencil moving from margin to margin, some crossed out, others on top of each other, as he shaped their flow. In an earlier letter, on display, to his father, who worried about his son’s career choice, Hemingway wrote, “I’m trying in all my stories to get the feeling of the actual life across.”

Take time with this exhibition. It’s small but well thought out. The work on the bright blue walls as well as in the cases is supplemented by fun facts. Who knew the term ‘lost generation’ was appropriated by Gertrude Stein from a French garage mechanic lamenting the lack of skilled workers after the First World War. And then borrowed by Hemingway as an epigraph for his novel, The Sun Also Rises.

Other highlights include a Western Union telegram from Dorothy Parker to Hemingway, congratulating him on that novel, which was published in 1926. “BABY,” she wrote, “YOUR BOOK IS KNOCKING THEM COLD HERE ISNT IT SWELL LOVE DOTTY.”

Pamela Hart curates for Lift Trucks Project and is an NEA Grant award winning author. 

All images courtest of The Morgan Library and Museum

 

Don't Buy That, Buy This!

The best jeans ever! Wear with a sports coat or a tee shirt, the feel and the look is fab. Details, stitching, indigo fabric from Japan, color and comfort are incredible and well worth the price. What we like is that you wear them for six months before washing. Then they become tailored to you, the creases show up in the right places after washing. Our advice is to buy one pair of jeans that last ten years, not crap you have to replace every six months.

Got to look sharp.

From Glenn Mance the designer and CEO.

- fabric is made in Japan by a mill called Kuroki that uses production methods that have minimal effect on the environment, its pure indigo 3x1 twill, 12.3 ox per yd/2
- buttons & rivets are made in the best metal button producer in Italy using low impact methods as well & no toxic chemicals for achieving the finish
- leather patch is made in Italy using eco-firendly tanning & finishing processes
- pocketing is made in Italy & is yarn dyed versus printed cotton/nlyon for extra strength & softness
- hang tag & joker tags are made in Spain using recycled material
- button has twill reinforcement for better strength so it won’t wear out the waist band or tear out if accidentally pulled or snagged
- hems are chain stitched for extra strength & authentic look
- inseam are double needle felled construction for extra strength
- belt loops are longer to accommodate wider belts
- the button hole is a signature detail that uses the selvage to form the besom button holes - before the button hole machine was invented besoms were on of the wads button holes were made (the other being hand stitched button holes)

http://www.curatedusa.com/

Sailor Jerry Master Draughtsman

These old tattoo guys were good. Try this at home. Copy freehand (no cheating by tracing) a Sailor Jerry dragon. Or anything else by one of the great masters like him. Not so easy.

Now, try to get it down on somebody's back at midnight in tight quarters with a large group of servicemen watching on a Saturday night in Honolulu's Chinatown. Rubber gloves on, buzzing tattoo machine, trying to get the right ink balance, light touch but the right touch. Ouch, the victim sez.   

Just trying to copy the original drawing's enough for me. And doing a mediocre job at that, thank you very much.  Really doesn't look that bad. That is, until you look at the original.

Sailor Jerry, soft pencil on tracing paper, 11 by 14 inches, date unknown.  From the esteemed Sailor Jerry Swallow collection by way of Mike Malone from the original China Seas, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Here There Be Dragons.

Like an inscription written in the turbulent sea-ed corner of an antique map of the old world these dragons speak of horrors in unchartered seas. Rolling in and out of waves. Think of these guys and you'll be sure to crush your collarbone body surfing the Wedge in Newport. Not to be trifled with matey, watch for these two coming up through a swell.



Born Yoshihito Nakano, Horiyoshi III (b. 1946) received his current title from the late tebori master Yoshitsugu Muramatsu, also known as Shodai Horiyoshi of Yokohama. Beginning at age sixteen, Horiyoshi III served as Shodai Horiyoshi’s apprentice for ten years. By age twenty-eight Horiyoshi III’s bodysuit was complete, hand-tattooed by Shodai Horiyoshi.

Though ukiyo-e officially ended in 1868, Horiyoshi III carries on the spirit of Edo’s “pictures of the floating world” in his work, all the while incorporating his own style and a contemporary perspective. This sensitivity to tradition extends beyond his tebori. In recent years, Horiyoshi has concentrated on traditional kakejiku (scroll paintings). Rendering Japanese folktales, calligraphy and religious subjects in sumi (black ink) and traditional mineral pigments, Horiyoshi III interweaves past, present and future.  

In addition to painting and drawing, Horiyoshi III tattoos full time, publishes books of his drawings and is the founder of Japan’s only tattoo museum with his wife, Mayumi, in Yokohama. With over forty years of experience, Horiyoshi III is the foremost authority on traditional Japanese tattooing.

Luck of The Irish

Tattoo artists often employed popular characters for sample art boards hanging in their atelier.  In this drawing by Thomas Berg, this pair from the comics are tossed in the mix with traditional sailors imagery of flags, dragons and, of course, mom.

Jiggs and Maggie

The humor centers on an immigrant Irishman named Jiggs, a former hod carrier who came into wealth in the United States by winning a million dollars in a sweepstakes. Now nouveau-riche, he still longs to revert to his former working class habits and lifestyle. His constant attempts to sneak out with his old gang of boisterous, rough-edged pals, eat corned beef and cabbage (known regionally as "Jiggs dinner") and hang out at the local tavern were often thwarted by his formidable, social-climbing (and rolling-pin wielding) harridan of a wife, Maggie, their lovely young daughter, Nora and infrequently their lazy son Ethelbert later known as just Sonny.

The strip deals with "lace-curtain Irish", with Maggie as the middle-class Irish American desiring assimilation into mainstream society in counterpoint to an older, more raffish "shanty Irish" sensibility represented by Jiggs. Her lofty goal—frustrated in nearly every strip—is to bring father (the lowbrow Jiggs) "up" to upper class standards, hence the title, Bringing Up Father. The occasional malapropisms and left-footed social blunders of these upward mobiles were gleefully lampooned in vaudeville, popular song, and formed the basis for Bringing Up Father. The strip presented multiple perceptions of Irish Catholic ethnics during the early 20th century. Through the character Jiggs, McManus gave voice to their anxieties and aspirations. Varied interpretations of McManus's work often highlight difficult issues of ethnicity and class, such as the conflicts over assimilation and social mobility that second- and third-generation immigrants confronted. McManus took a middle position, which aided ethnic readers in becoming accepted in American society without losing their identity. A cross-country tour that the characters took in September 1939 into 1940 gave the strip a big promotional boost and raised its profile in the cities they visited.

Courtesy Wikipedia.

The Caribbean in Texas

We went to see the Francisco Oller (1883 1917) show at the Blanton in Austin,Texas. Great museum and this is a very cool art exhibit. Oller and the other regional painters are very good painters and capture what life was like in the day. He revolutionized the approach to painting in his native Puerto Rico. But they are limited. Regionalism is just that.

Francisco Oller. The School of Master Rafael Cordero, 1890

Then you turn the corner in the exhibit and there's a Cezanne. Not fair!  The reason he's considered the Father of Modern Art (or what ever he is considered) is because of paintings like this. In this piece he left a chalk drawing on the canvas. Even if Cezanne thought it was unfinished, it's perfectly in balance.


Would the painting 'say' anything differently if this area were painted in? No. There's really no particular compelling reason to color it in. It's by far the strongest painting in the show. Tells every painter to be aware of what you are saying as you work.  It's fun to keep pushing paint around but sometimes leave a little for the rest of us.  Put you hand in a bucket of ice and stop. Cezanne paved the way, set a precedent for future artists.

You could also make a case calling this Process Art. He shows us how it's done. Always the most fun about a theater production, a magic act or seeing how a film is made. Behind the scenes.

Thank you Mr. Cezanne!

Impressionism and the Caribbean Francisco Oller and his Transatlantic World.  Blanton Museum of Art, Austin Texas.  June 14 to Sept 6. 2015