Waters – Just A Good Tattooer

By Dana Brunson

Hopefully, any tattooist worth his salt has heard of Percy Waters. But just in case, I offer a brief refresher. Waters was one of the founding fathers of the tattoo supply business. His Detroit location was the largest in the world in the 1920s. Waters worked as a foundry mold maker in his youth, which aided in his experimenting, designing and producing a multitude of machine frame designs and styles and, ultimately, a patent on his tattoo machine in 1929. So, as a collector, Waters is high on my list.

In the 1970s, D. C. Paul gave me a “Battle Royal” backpiece design painted and signed “By Percy Waters, 1923.” This is the very same design that was tattooed on D. C. Paul’s back by Spaulding and Rogers. Sadly, on my move from Indianapolis to Cincinnati in 1977, the design sheet disappeared, and, over the last thirty years, I occasionally tear apart every storage box in my basement searching for it. As of now, it is still MIA. Hopefully, one day it will be found and I will be at peace once again. That said, this article is about the Waters I own, not the one I lost.

The best part of collecting is when everything falls into place. One can search everywhere, year after year, with no results then, one day, it just happens, the stars align and the Tattoo God smiles on you.

I was tattooing in my studio when I got a call from a young guy saying he has an old tattoo machine that he is interested in selling (Sure he does, I think to myself ). Probably a Spaulding and Rogers from the 1990s, but what the heck, I’ll play along. I tell him to get back to me with some more information. In my years of looking for tattoo memorabilia and old motorcycles , I have learned not to get too excited, since most of the leads turn out to be a dead end.

Time passes and the stranger calls again saying the machine has “Waters” stamped on the coils and the frame. My excitement swells, only to be deflated by the next statement. He had checked out the Lyle Tuttle and Tattoo Archives websites and he said he thought he was going to shop it around. I tried to stay calm (while crying on the inside ), and told him to let me know. Months later, the phone rings. It’s the young man. He tells me that he still has the machine, and he’ll bring it to my shop to show it to me. Since I already had a Waters machine in my collection, I consigned myself to getting this over with and sending him on his way. So, the young fellow enters my shop as nicely as could be and starts to explain how he found the machine. Seems his grandfather had passed away recently and, while cleaning out his egg crates full of flea market items from the chicken coop, he had found this tattoo machine. Upon examination, it was indeed a Waters. In fact, a pristine Percy Waters animal marker in the original box with the original instructions. OH YEAHHHHH!!

This young guy had done his homework and had a pretty good idea of the machine’s value. So, after a little discussion, we struck a deal: Lots of cash and a large tribal tattoo―and the machine was mine.

Now, where did I out that Percy Waters back design?

See ya in the funny papers, and keep your hat on so I’ll know ya.