Hello
everyone! Continuing today to learn about the badass women in history
, I bring you a pioneer of an industry in America! Maud Wagner was
the first female tattoo artist in the United States. I'm very excited
to tell you the little bit of her very interesting life that we know
about.
Maud
was born in Kansas in 1877. As an adult, she worked in several
traveling circuses. And during the St. Louis World's Fair while
performing as a contortionist, acrobat and aerialist, she met a man
named Gus Wagner. At the time they met, Gus was traveling in circuses
and billed as the “Tattooed Globetrotter”.
Gus
worked using the old stick and poke method of tattooing and he asked
Maud out on a date. She requested tattoo lessons in return. Maud
loved to be tattooed, she became an actual attraction in the circus
as an inked woman. At the time, seeing a woman in very little
clothing and covered in tattooes was quite shocking!
Maud
also used the poke and stick method of tattooing even though machines
were becoming more prevelant at the time. The two married and moved
circus to circus and sometimes in vaudeville houses. They had a
daughter named Lovetta who also learned to tattoo, although Maud
wouldn't let her daughter be inked by her father and Lovetta said if
her father couldn't, nobody could.
In
1961, Maud passed away. She had continued to be one of the most
interesting person, as one of few woman tattoists in America. She and
her husband were also two of the only well known stick and poke
artists. Lovetta passed away in 1983 but not before giving an
traditional stick and poke tattoo to Ed Hardy.
I
hope everyone enjoyed learning about this awesome woman, I'm sorry it
was a bit short today but I really got excited about this woman and I
didn't have it in me to write a long blog because I had company
today.
Sources:
Bell, Carly 2016 December 14 Biography: Maud Wagner -Tattooist
Howerton, Ross 2016 October 21 Maud Stevens Wagner - The First Female Tattooist in the US
Howard, Krissy 2017 November 20 Cloaked in Ink: The Stoy of Maud Wagner, America's First Known Female Tattoo Artist
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