The Tattooed Lady: A History, 2nd Edition

161 Pages·2008·10.723 MB·English

by  Amelia Klem Osterud

SECOND
EDITION

AMELIA KLEM OSTERUD
TAYLOR TRADE PUBLISHING
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
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Published by Taylor Trade Publishing
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
16 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BT, United Kingdom
Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK
Text © 2009 by Amelia Klem Osterud
Images © 2009 by Amelia Klem Osterud, unless otherwise noted
First Taylor Trade edition 2014
Illustration and design by Margaret McCullough
Back cover photograph: Ringling Brothers, courtesy of Circus World Museum
Author photograph: Courtesy of Lois Bielefeld
Contents page photograph: Tattooed lady Miss Lulu, courtesy of Ronald G. Becker
Collection, Syracuse University Library
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic
or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written
permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
The first edition of this book was previously cataloged by the Library of Congress as follows:
Osterud, Amelia Klem.
The tattooed lady : a history / by Amelia Klem Osterud
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Tattooing—Social aspects—United States. 2. Tattooed people—United States—Social
conditions. 3. Working class women—United States—Social conditions. 4. Sideshows—
United States. I. Title.
GT2346.U6O87 2009
391.6'5—dc22
2009014350
ISBN: 978-1-58979-996-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN: 978-1-58979-997-4 (electronic)
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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T D o
o ann
a
cknowleDgmenTs
Special thanks to Erin Foley and Peter Shrake at Circus World in
Baraboo, whose vast knowledge of their collections made this book
possible. Thanks to Ward Hall, Charlene Pickle, Tom Palazzolo,
and the late Charlie Roark and Lorrett Fulkerson for sharing your
memories with me, and also to Thrill Kill Jill, Charon Henning, and
the late Sparkly Devil for taking the time to tell me about your careers.
Thanks to Merry Wiesner-Hanks for all your encouragement and
feedback, and also Genevieve McBride and Michael Gordon.
Thanks also to Sam Tracy, Max Yela, Holly Wilson, Brittany Larson,
Mark Jaeger, Luc Sante, Maureen Brunsdale, James Taylor,
Derek Lawrence, Susan Hill Newton, Jane DeBroux, Lelan McLemore,
Alice Snape, and Zsa Zsa Matteson. And of course, thank you to
my husband, DannO, for being my in-house editor, sounding board,
backup memory, and constant voice of encouragement.
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InTroDu cTIon...1

T P
heIr lace In

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he aTTooeD aDy 33

T D c
he ay The Ircus

c T ...
ame To own 69

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hoIces anD onTrol 99

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he egacy 125

s ...
ources 136

a a ...
bouT The uThor 149

I ...
nDex 150
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Early tattooed lady Emma de Burgh in a scandalously
revealing outfit, 1880s. Used with permission from Illinois
State University’s Special Collections, Milner Library
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Tattoos have been a lifelong fascination for
me; I grew up drawing on my body with
colored markers to create my own tattoos be-
fore getting my first real one at age eighteen.
My tattoos are a major part of my identity;
I am proud of the stories they tell about my
life. However, I didn’t know much about the
greater history of tattooing until a chance
discovery in graduate school, where I was
studying history and library science. I was
taking a class on Native American women’s
history and learned that many Native women
(and men) were tattooed or marked in some
manner. Even though I was more interested
in studying women’s labor history, I delved
into the subject of Native American women’s
tattooing and found that nineteenth-century
documents held a wealth of information about
Betty Broadbent in one of her stage tattooing.
costumes, 1920s. Courtesy of Circus I went deeper, looking for books about
World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin the history of Western women and tattooing,
and found, to both my horror and delight, al-
most nothing. Women are mentioned in general tattooing history only
in passing or as an aside. Sometimes, they just show up in books of his-
torical images of tattooing, mixed in with men with bad prison tattoos,
completely out of context. However, there were a few women who kept
popping up ever so briefly in my research; these were the tattooed ladies,
a group of interesting sideshow performers with unbelievable tales. Betty
Broadbent, La Belle Irene, Annie Howard. Their names were mentioned,
but little else. Tattooed ladies were a part of forgotten American history,
often dismissed in print as second-rate circus freaks or as monstrous, yet
sexy, anomalies. These women were left to languish in a past that didn’t
know what to do with them when they were alive, and a present that
wasn’t sure what to do with their memory—that is, until now. I’m here to
tell their stories and to celebrate their contributions to American history.
When asked in a 1934 interview why she got tattooed, Artoria the
Tattooed Girl admitted, “I got tattooed because I wanted to get tattooed;
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it’s a nice way to make a living. You
wouldn’t believe, though, how many
people come up an’ ask if I was born this
way.” Anna Mae Gibbons, who performed
as Artoria for more than fifty years with
various circus sideshows, dime museums,
and carnivals, always affirmatively an-
swered that question onstage: “The doctors
figure it was on account of my mother
must have gone to too many movies.”
Tattooed ladies graced sideshow
and carnival stages until 1995, when the
last performing tattooed lady, Lorett
2 Fulkerson, retired from the carnival
circuit at age eighty. For just over one
hundred years, women who were not
afraid of being different took advantage
Artoria Gibbons, tattooed lady, 1920s. of the weird perceptions that Americans
had about tattooing. The medieval idea
of “impression,” a mark left on a baby in the womb because of some-
thing the mother witnessed, which Artoria referred to in the afore-
mentioned 1934 interview, was clearly alive and well in the minds of
American circus audiences well into the twentieth century. Other ideas
about tattoos and those who had them were just as strange. Hospitals
quarantined patients with tattoos, regardless of the condition or age of
the tattoo, due to fear of disease and infection. Cities banned tattoo-
ing because they thought it spread cancer. To some, tattoos were the
mark of a “savage” or a sign of a criminal mind, and on a woman, it
clearly meant she was a prostitute. “Scientific” minds studied tattoos on
individuals and deemed these people unfit for civilization. Yet, despite,
or perhaps because of, the supposed danger, tattoos were considered
exotic and sexy—the gutsy tattooed women onstage wore short skirts
and skimpy tops to show off their body art. Then, like today, sex and
danger sold tickets.
These tattooed performers came of age when it was unseemly
for women to show their ankles in public, much less display their tattoo-
covered arms, legs, and chests for paying audiences. That they chose this
type of career is both remarkable and courageous, especially since many
came from impoverished backgrounds. Despite the myth of the American
dream, working-class women were born poor and stayed poor because
they had little education or options. Going to school, working their way
up the ladder—these were not alternatives available to them, and because
of these limitations they lacked the ability to make choices that would
help them break out of their class. The decision to get tattooed and go
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on the road allowed women to achieve things that few others, especially
working-class women, could even imagine.
Their histories, both real and faked for the sideshow audience, show
us exactly how important these women were to developing American cul-
ture. Their sideshow stories are, without a doubt, reflections of America’s
nightmares and dreams. Early tattooed lady Nora Hildebrandt’s story is
one of capture by “savage Indians” and torture by tattoo at the hands of
her father. Artoria’s famous story involves her running off as a teenager
to join the sideshow and become a tattooed muse. When you pair these
fabrications with what has been uncovered about their actual lives, the
differences are both telling and fascinating.
Their real biographies are obscure and have been pieced together
from work histories, photographs, newspaper articles, advertisements,
genealogical documents, and interviews. Putting tattooed ladies in their 3
proper context requires knowing where they fit in circus and sideshow
history, the history of tattooing, as well as nineteenth- and early-twen-
tieth-century women’s history. These were not women who left memoirs,
diaries, or letters. These were hardworking women who spent a majority
of their careers traveling, living life, getting by.
Ultimately, this book is about how a group of gutsy women found
a better way, for them, to survive and flourish, and how their decisions
impact us today.
Ringling Brothers sideshow bannerline and big top entrance,
1898. Courtesy of Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin
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