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.

The Greatful Crane

Cranes are common symbols and themes in the folklore of East Asia, including Japan. The Grateful Crane or the Crane Wife is a particularly well-known tale in Japan, see the resources below:
“The Grateful Crane” (Japanese fairy tale)

Thomas Berg, circa 1910 (Detail)

Cranes are an important motif in Chinese mythology. There are various myths involving cranes, and in Chinese mythology cranes are generally symbolically connected with the idea of immortality (Eberhard, 1983: 75-76). Chinese mythology refers to those myths found in the historical geographic area of China. The geographic area of "China" is of course a concept which has evolved of changed through history. Cranes in Chinese mythology include myths in Chinese and other languages, as transmitted by Han Chinese as well as other ethnic groups (of which fifty-six are officially recognized by the current administration of China). (Yang 2005:4) The motifs of cranes may vary in a range from reference to real cranes (such as the Red-crowned Crane) to referring to transformed Taoist immortals (xian), who sometimes were said to have magical abilities to transform into cranes in order to fly on various journeys.

Samuel F. O'Reilly, circa 1880s (detail)

Saving Thomas Berg

Tom Berg sheets previously laminated sometime in the recent decades but dating back to the earliest times of the 20th century find new life in harsh solvents and patient restoration.

Learn how to remove glue based laminate from water color and inked paper while removing glue or rubber cement without damage in the process.

This piece is just in at Lift Trucks Project. Penned on the back of the tattoo board, is this tally. What it looks like is a 9 hour day paid $30, 4 days a week comes out to $120 per week.  Awful, right?  Well , maybe not.  It comes out to $6,240 per year, if every week paid the same. Here's an indication of what things cost in 1942, the date on the sheet. Average cost of new house $3,770.00 Average wages per year $1,880.00 Cost of a gallon of gas 15 cents average cost for house rent $35.00 per month, a bottle of Coca Cola was 5 cents, average price for a new car $920.00.

How does this stack up to todays income for the tattooer? On the internet and according to a fellow with the moniker "Doomed" (Thanks in advance if this is your information) herewith his opinion on the matter:

 "...all tattoo artists get paid cash. there are no corporate tattoo headquarters sending out checks. you probably already knew this, but i was just refering to the guy who said "coming from a tattoo artist who gets paid under the table". we aren't washing dishes, that's just how it works, we get paid cash.

Like everyone else is saying, there is no standard. there are so many factors that go into it, like how busy the shop/artist is and how many tattoos (if any) they did that day. sometimes the weather affects the customer average, stuff like that. some artists charge by the hour, and some by the size and detail of each piece. but keep in mind that not all that money goes to the artist. and no, not every artist gets paid 60/40 like some other guy said. it all depends on how long the person has been working as an artist. i've seen people getting paid as low as 20% (which was really wrong anyway) and some people getting paid as high as 70, 80%. i would guess the only way you get 100% of the money you make is if you own the shop, however in that case you're responsible for paying all the bills of the shop so in a sense you don't get all your money. "

So, in short, there is no such thing as a tattoo artist "salary". good luck."

Baby Don't Cry

One dry hot day, in the California High Desert, we looked through table upon table of tattoo flash in the garage of a very neatly kept tract home.

The gentleman turned out to be the last man standing at the Nu-Pike in Long Beach. He ended up with flash sheets by Brooklyn Joe Leiber, Chris Nelson, Bob Cleveland and many others. Some signed, some not.

Here is one from that group, by the artist heralded as: The Unknown Master of the Crybabies. Said to have come to Long Beach by way of Oakland.  Maybe, just maybe, it's the work of the Legendary Duke.

Duke Kaufman used the core shading technique not employed by many in the Tattoo trade. You can see it here in the clouds, the heavy black shade area inside of the outside form lines. The black shaded core line on the inside of the legs of the Texas gal also. It's a classical drawing technique meant to round out the form. It works.

We have never seen an actual Duke tattoo but it must be really cool. Lots of them were in black and white only. There is a story about a bank robbery where the plot was supposedly hatched in the back room of Lyle Tuttles studio. Duke was collared at the scene and off he went to the big house. Perfected his black and white drawing skills then tattooed happily away upon release.

Could you imagine waking up one morning with Happy Baby on one arm and Sad Baby on the other? 

Ed Smith Rocks

 

America's Tattoo Master, Mr. Samuel F. O'Reilly, trained Ed Smith along with Charles Wagner in the 20's and 30's on the Bowery in New York City. Bums, empty bottles and the elevated train ran the streets back then.

We have all seen photos of tattooed people but not too many self portraits of the tattoo artist sporting a tattoo. 

The imagery depicts a maiden in distress clinging to a cross shaped rock as the prow of a ship goes under, pummeled by crashing waves. 

The idea probably serves as a reminder for us to keep the faith, no matter what. Kind of the like that 'Hang in there Baby' cat poster you always see in dentists offices. A lot of us would rather have Rock of Ages tattooed on our backs than ever see that poster again.  

As a symbol    "...'Rock of Ages' which, as is well known, protects the tar from all general mishaps..." From Tattoo, Secrets of a Strange Art as Practiced Among the Natives of the United States, Albert Parry, 1933.

Looks like Ed had fun with this one.  His most cool version of the classic, almost pagan, symbol of non-drowning; a pig. Usually tattooed on a sailors instep of the left foot, because, as everyone knows, the rooster goes on the right. These are the two animals that can not swim. It's a form of reverse good luck, like Born to Lose for bikers or Break a Leg for the theater crowd. Wearing this symbol not only acknowledges the danger but controls the luck.

Ed Smith went into commercial production with designs of some of his most popular images. Many thanks to Cliff White's good eye as he spotted this correctly as an Ed Smith design even though it's signed "Millie." She may have colored and re-inked parts of it as they worked closely together on the Bowery. This sheet looks like it's been through the ringer but it's a survivor. Not many are still around actually signed by legendary Mildred Hull.