1001 Tattoo Facts 161-180
By Paul Sayce
www.tattoo.co.uk
Fact #161
161. On the sixth of April 1969, Lyle Tuttle wrote to British Tattoo Artist Ron Ackers, asking him to compile his life story for Lyle’s publication “Tattoo 70.” Ron, during the ’50s and ’60s, was regarded as one of the very best tattoo artists around and indeed had a world-wide following.
162. It was once described as like a “Carry-on Spying” movie getting into Leslie Burchett’s tattoo parlour on the Waterloo Road, London, for, when Leslie was nearing the end of his long and historic tattooing career, he had a number of run-ins with a few young tearaways, who not only set about the old boy, they would also steal his takings. That is
Fact #162
where the reference to “Carry-On Spying” stems from. Leslie would have the front door of the studio locked at all times, so, when you rang the bell, Leslie would check you out via the curtains, and if he didn’t like the look of you, he would tell you to come back later. It’s been said that some customers visited Burchett’s two or three times but never got in, let alone get a tattoo. These who did, found premises that consisted of bare floorboards, a George the III writing desk and school benches for you to sit on while you waited, and designs kept in splendid old picture frames. Leslie was the son the famous tattoo artist of the rich and royalty, the late George Burchett.
Fact #163
163. Franklin Paul Rogers was born on the ninth of September 1905, in North Carolina. Paul got his first tattoo in 1926, and in 1927 bought a mail-order tattoo kit from the E.J. Miller supply company (circa 1920s) of Norfolk, Virginia, USA. During that time Paul worked in cotton mills and tattooed whenever he could. Later he joined the sideshow circuit, and at the John T. Rea Happyland show he met his future wife of forty-nine years, Helen Winter. The years that followed saw Paul work with some of the biggest names in American tattooing. For five years he worked with Norfolk, Virginia’s Captain Coleman (considered at that time to be the best tattoo artist in America) before working with Lathan Connelly, Sailor Eddie Evens, Eddie Carafa and Debbie and Eric Inksmith, to name just a few. Paul also tattooed and went into the tattoo supply business with Huck Spaulding, and together formed the mail-order firm, Spaulding and Rogers. Paul and Huck ended their partnership after a couple of years but Paul allowed Huck to use his name, and Huck went onto turning Spaulding and Rogers into a massive, world-wide company. Paul, of course, had just as much success, making his own tattooing machines. Paul and Helen bought their mobile home in Jacksonville, Florida in 1970, and it was there that Paul had a stroke, in 1988, of which he never fully recovered. Helen died in 1982 and Paul joined her in 1990. They are both buried in Portsmouth, Virginia, USA.
164. In June 1986, the PTAA (Professional Tattooing Association of Australia) published their first newsletter entitled “Aussie Bull,” put together by Patsy Farrow and Bev Robinson, with the aim of the newsletter being to inform members of what was going on in the tattoo world of Australia. Features included a look at the club’s president, cartoons, humour and
Fact #164
a business card section, plus the minutes of State members meetings. Today, the PTAA has a world-wide membership and the club magazine is now called “Tatchat.”
165. Pedro Carter, a tattoo artist who had, over the years, tattooed in Swindon, Bournemouth and Southend-on-Sea, died on Monday the 30th of October, 2000.
166. Benn Gunn, who tattooed in Clingford, Essex, England for over forty years, passed away on the third of December 2000. As well as being a highly respected tattoo artist, Benn also did a lot of work for Guide Dogs For The Blind during his very colourful life.
167. The day (December 4, 2000) after Benn’s passing, Barry Louvaine also passed away. Barry, who was a very successful tattoo artist and owned The House of Living Art in Garrett Lane, Earlsfield, London, England. A former sign writer and fairground worker, before taking up the needles, Barry also held a pilots licence and appeared in numerous newspaper articles and on TV shows. He was also the artist for the British feature film “Mark of the Devil,” about a tattooed man and murder.
168. The PTAA held its first tattoo convention on the May 10, 1986, at the Albert Banquet Centre in Melbourne and had 380 people in attendance.
169. At the first PTAA show (convention), Danny Robinson Sr. took out the most awards, with three first and three second-place awards from the eleven categories that were on offer.
Fact #172
170. When the PTAA started up, it had the grand total of fifty-seven members. With the state of Victoria having twenty-four members, thirteen from South Australia, eight from Western Australia, five from Queensland, two each from New South Wales, New Zealand and Tasmania and one from the Northern Territory.
171. The first annual fees for membership of the PTAA was twenty Australia dollars, and the first officers of the Association were President Danny “Devo” Galvin, Secretary/Treasurer Patsy Farrow and three committee members, Peter Backman and Bev and Danny Robinson.
172. Author John Danalis of Brisbane, Australia, was so delighted on the release of his first Children’s book, “Uncle Lou’s Tattoos,” that he went and had a sailing ship tattooed on his upper arm to celebrate the fact. “Uncle Lou’s Tattoos” is the story of two children listening to their favourite Uncle telling of his travels around the world and his tattoos.
173. On October 4, 2004 the Sunday Timesnewspaper had a CD-Rom give-away in their free magazine “The Month,” which had a feature about pop star Robbie Williams. To catch up with what was going on in Robbie’s life, one had to place
Fact #173
tattoos on different parts of his body to get into the site. The picture of Mr. Williams was of Robbie standing outside Hanky Panky’s tattoo studio in Amsterdam, Holland.
174. Shane Ritchie, the star of “Eastenders” TV fame, has a love-heart tattoo on his backsid, with the word Colin in it, which should have been spelled “Collen,” as in Nolane, the women he was married to at the time. The story goes that Shane asked the female Chinese tattoo artist three times whether she understood that the name is spelled C O L L E N and not Colin, to which the she replied, “Yes, yes, yes.” The tattoo was done in a studio in Venice Beach, California, and Shane was with British rocker Billy Idol at the time.
Fact #175
175. The Paul Rogers Tattoo Research Center, along with the documentary “Arts of Dallas,” held a tattoo flash exhibition during the months of May/November 1994, at the Hertzberg Circus Museum, San Antonio, USS and featured the flash art of historic tattooing designs. Flash is what tattoo artists call designs on the walls of a tattoo studio.
176. On April 29, 2000, the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London, England, held an exhibition entitled Tattoo—A Day Of Record, which saw over 1,500 people from all walks of life come and have their tattoos photographed for posterity. Television crews and several newspapers also covered this event held in what must be one of the world’s best-known museums. As well as having a multitude of photographers taking photographs
Fact #176
Fact #179
for many hours, there were lectures throughout the day, with Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, James Bradley, Mike McCabe, Simon Fraser and Alex Binnie giving talks on the history of tattooing. The show was such a success that the organizer of the exhibition, Sean Cole, planned to do more shows about tattooing at the Museum in the future.
177. The Huddersfield Examiner newspaper reported, in 2004, that a father of four was so impressed with his local take-away food outlet, that he had the restaurant’s name and phone number tattooed on his forehead.
178. In Staffordshire, England, in 2000, plans were afoot to make it compulsory for farmers to have their (healthy) sheep tattooed. It was thought to be crucial in securing the future of live exporting.
Fact #180
Fact #180
179. Dean Corrigan, who took over the running of the late Bill Cooke’s tattoo studio in Hitchin, England, was killed in a car crush on Friday the 5th of April, 1994. Dean ran Bill’s shop for just over two years before his death. Bill Cooke was the President of The Tattoo Guild Of East Anglia.
180. It is interesting to note that the writer James Cowan interviewed a handful of Maori men with the Moko in 1921. Cowan found that there is no evidence of traditional Ta Moko (tattooing) having been practised much on men after the year 1865, although it continued with Maori females right up until 1953, when Hehana Eru did the last chin (with chisel) Ta Moko on Aporonia Moses of the Nyapuna tribe.
