Caveat Emptor

Hey, no experts here... but we have been collecting and looking at junk for over 30 years. So this current eBay listing got our interest. Cool dragons, old lightning bolts and lettering on a trunk full of tattoo artifacts. Sign us up.

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Then, something just didn't feel right. So we checked with other collectors and antique guys who know about old paint and age.Top dealers, collectors in other fields and tattooists who know what they are doing. Not so fast! They all cried. Step back and take another look. The first 'tell' being that clean black line painted over a beat to shit old white hinge in the top left corner. Why is that black line so crisp?

And where's the ink mess? Black Ink spots should be around the holes that were drilled into that folding piece of wood supposedly used for the upright machines to rest in while the guy was tattooing.

Next, stylistically, the outlined wings on the eagle don't trap the paint. Never seen this type of loose line and wobbly paint on a tattoo sign or folk art item before. It's like bad crayon book coloring. Maybe works for wonky modern drawings, but not seen in the 1920's. Logically a tattooist would want to completely fill in outlined areas. Always finish coloring and shading up to the black outline. A sign serves as a portfolio for the tattooists work.

The machines inside are unidentified. One even employs the classic Mud Flap Girl as a cut out frame. This does not seem like the 1920's. If it ever was a machine frame, it was probably made later like in the sixties or seventies.

Then there's this half dollar sized blotch in the green painted lid. So why does the nice dragon painting go right over the dashed out area? Wouldn't the douse on the lid have also taken a chunk out of the dragon? Looks more like new paint over an old box. Same methods as the decorative Electric Tattoo painted box, that at this typing, is still suffering along on eBay. These are both nice looking items. Obviously created by a very skilled artist/craftsman. They probably started out being sold as out as very cool, nice looking decorative items. Problem is, once into the marketplace, they move up the bs ladder until somebody swears they are real. As in "found in my grandfathers dusty old attic" real.

Now the box maybe have been a tattooists box. But the paint probably has been improved, embellished or added on recently. Then you have to wonder, just how did Mr. Tattooist carry this here box? Like a dead goat or a bag of concrete? Where are the attachments for handles or rope straps?

Important note: We are talking about the item, here not the seller. Nobody is blaming the seller. He probably doesn't know. And he made the right move running it by Chuck Eldridge. Who we all know is reputable and would never betray the Paul Rogers Trust.

Problem is that the eventual buyer will someday figure it out. Feel 'took' and likely give up on a cool field of collecting. It's a time bomb waiting to go off. A rather expensive one.

Picture Information courtesy eBay

True or False

This is from the book  "Pierced hearts and True Love.  A Century of Drawing for Tattoos" The Drawing Center, 1995. They label it as "Unidentified tattooer, c. 1950" A most excellent book.

There are lots of 3d tattooed arms supposed to be old and supposed to have been employed in tattoo shops.

Here's a pair that sold on eBay. 

We have seen these pop up at local swap meets for about $200. That's okey as maybe a decoration for those stupid "man caves." Rooms which, like a New Year's Eve party, reek of false promise.  

Here's an arm sign currently on eBay. The lady looks sceptical but the listing swears it is genuine. http://ebay.to/15Phu9x

Can't tell from the photos but as one collector said " After looking  again, something about the paint doesn't look right.  It has that distressed painting technique look. That's a red flag." 

You be the judge. For us there is nothing more dispiriting than, down the road, realizing your item is a phony.  

Fake, We Cry!

A reader sent us this e-Bay listing, http://ebay.to/1tf0Kwt, asking our opinion. Just like on the popular tv shows!

It looks like an itinerant tattoo artist case. These are rare and quite beautiful. Let's look at this one.

The box is indeed quite old. The dry white paint is great, the wood, clasp and hinges are turn of century or older. Unfortunately we don't believe it was ever employed by a tattoo artist. 

The interior shot gives it away.  Where are the partitions to separate drawings from the tattoo machines? There would be partitions to separate the tattoo flash, notebooks and stencils from the business end of tattooing. The inside of the box is just way too clean. Where are all the spilled ink blobs, splatters, drips and circle spots where the bottles would sit, the smudges from black chalk or graphite? We don't see any of the scrapes or nicks from the assorted crap flying around as stuff would when riding the rails, jumping from tramp steamers to port or just traveling from town to town on the carnival circuit.  Working the small town county fairs would rattle the insides of a tattoo artists box. 

Now, let's look at the lettering.  The word "Electric" in script looks like it's borrowed from a 1950's Eletrolux vacuum cleaner. An era at least 50 years newer than the actual box. The eagle is horribly drawn with a fat mutant bird head. It has no relation at all to the way a tattooist would render this traditional symbol.  The wear and distress marks on the lettering are clearly bogus. For example why is it worn somewhat in the center of the lettering and not over the eagle? Why are the wing tips not showing any wear from handling?

Where there is money, fakes will follow and the folk art field is boiling over with reproductions.  Tattoo art is now in the forgers cross hairs especially with high dollar ($28k) auction records like Coleman's Battleship Kate at Skinner's. Which was clearly the real McCoy. 

Looking at other listings from this dealer it turns out he's the same guy who scissored up a full sheet of Oklahoma Bob's tattoo flash into 10 small sheets framed up in a heartless money grab. More items equal more profit goes the thinking here. 

In the spirit of equal time and fairness we tried reaching the "olegolfguy" (eBay moniker) for his view.  His eBay listings are blocked and do not allow any questions.  We'd probably want to lay low also.