You should still rush right out and buy a copy of the Jan/Feb issue of Wisconsin Trails magazine (saw it at Barnes & Noble at Bayshore this weekend), but if you don't, you can now read my article Ink Artists: Making a Permanent Impression on Wisconsin online: http://www.wisconsintrails.com/content/297.php
01/24/2012
01/02/2012
Wisconsin Trails article on Wisconsin tattoo shops!
On newstands Jan. 10th, check out my article Ink Artists: Making a Permanent Impression on Wisconsin in Wisconsin Trails Magazine!
The article profiles 6 Wisconsin tattoo artists: Rick Harnowski (Skin Illustrations, Green Bay), Jon Reiter (Solid State, Milwaukee's Bayview neighborhood), Greg Foster (Custom Tattoo, Milwaukee's East Side), Adam Werther (Adambomb Gallerie, Milwaukee), Dana Withers (Blue Lotus Tattoo, Madison) and George Wang (Waukesha Tattoo Company, Waukesha).
11/23/2011
Black Friday Sale on Personalized Copies of The Tattooed Lady
Start your holiday shopping with with tattooed ladies by ordering personalized copies of The Tattooed Lady for all your friends and relatives! (Really, your Grandma needs a copy!!)
For a limited time, you can get personalized, signed copies of The Tattooed Lady for $23 and free shipping in the U.S.!!
--Sorry, international buyers, the free shipping is for United States customers only.
The sale starts bright and early on Friday, Nov. 25th, and ends at the end of the day on Thursday, Dec. 1st.
International customers- you still get the $23 price, just email me about shipping.
Happy shopping!
09/26/2011
Beer City Tattoo Convention
We had a great time talking to people about tattooed ladies at the 2011 Beer City Tattoo Convention on Sat. Sept. 24th, sold many books too! Those of you who wanted to know if you could order them online, look to your right ---> for ordering copies signed.
You can certainly get them from amazon.com or wherever, but if you'd like a signed copy, buy direct from me!
Anyway, it was great talking to all the nice people at the convention & seeing cool tattoos.
04/29/2011
04/04/2011
Tattooed Ladies on the West Coast
Next week, on Thursday, April 14th, I'll be doing a book talk at San Francisco's Green Apple Books at 7pm. Green Apple is at 506 Clement Street (@6th Avenue) & their number is (415) 387-2272.
Don't miss it!
Also coming up... a book signing on Saturday, May 7th at the Waukesha Tattoo Co. in downtown Waukesha, WI.
03/31/2011
02/16/2011
Want to come out and talk to me about tattooed ladies?
Of course you do!
I've done a number of book talks/presentations over the last year, and am still getting requests for them, which to me seems pretty cool.
Tuesday, March 29th at the Next Chapter Bookshop in Mequon, WI
Thursday, April 14th at 7pm at Green Apple Books in San Fransisco, CA
Saturday, May 7th at the Waukesha Tattoo Co. in downtown Waukesha, WI
12/16/2010
12/11/2010
EW Blogger: Things Left To Do
So, in the first post, I mentioned that I really wasn’t done with my research. I guess with research like mine, there’s always something left to do, some fact left to dig up. I sit at my desk, surrounded by pictures of tattooed women that I’ve collected, and think about what else out there I think I need to find.
One of the main things I need to get around to is sending off to the state of Florida for Betty Broadbent’s birth certificate, which was unavailable to me (or anyone other than a blood relative) until November 2009, coincidentally, the month my book came out. Betty was born in Zellwood, Florida as Susan Brown, Nov. 9, 1909, according to her 1940 Maryland marriage license to hubby number 2, Charlie Roark. The form is filled out and waiting, I just need to write the check and get it in the mail.
Why is this important? What value would Betty’s birth certificate have? Well, it would have her parents names on it, and maybe an address, or a grandparent’s name, maybe something about where her parents came from, if not Florida. Betty is interesting to me because the story she told as part of her act (like the stories earlier women told about being captured and tattooed by Native Americans) was the only one I’ve found that claimed that the tattooed lady was from a wealthy background. One version of Betty’s story has her going to Atlantic City with a girlfriend, getting a small tattoo, and returning to her home in Philadelphia to have her mother kick her out of the house and disinherit her. It’s probably completely fictional, but there are often kernels of truth in these stories. The tattooed women I can find background information on came from solidly working class backgrounds. Betty’s story is most likely a connection she was trying to make with audiences during the Great Depression, as she made her sideshow debut in the early 1930s.
Betty was indeed an interesting lady. She had three official husbands, and one unofficial, with whom she had a son. Her first marriage, to an Edwin Burbank, didn’t last long. Next came a rodeo cowboy name Joe Carter, who, according to Charlie Roark, died in a rodeo accident. Betty and Joe had a son, Joe Jr., and Betty even listed Joe Sr.’s mother as her emergency contact and home address on her Ringling Brother’s employment card when she started with them in 1937. Betty married Charlie in Maryland in 1940, and they stayed together for 13 years until things went bad. In the off seasons, they lived in Charlie’s hometown in Arkansas with her son Joe, with Charlie doing magic shows and Betty acting as the assistant, completely covered in a robe so as not to distract from the magic act. In 1969, she married her last husband, Winford Brewer, and they lived together on her land in Florida comfortably in retirement.
I’ve been unable to verify Charlie’s story about Joe Carter Sr., the cowboy killed in the rodeo accident, or the son, Joe Jr., despite finding Jennie Moore being listed on that work card as “Mother-in-Law.” What I did find was a Hannah Jennie Carter, with a second husband whose last name was Moore, living in Bucklin, Missouri in 1930, the same town and time frame as the Jennie Moore listed as the Mother-in-Law. This Hannah Jennie Carter/Moore had 5 children with her first husband, Carter, and two with her second husband, Moore. The eldest Carter son? Joseph, born in 1890, putting him 20 years older than Betty, but that’s not totally weird. But what happened to this Joseph Carter? Haven’t found that yet. Maybe when the 1940 census data comes out I’ll be able to find out more. Until then, I wait patiently.
Why on earth, with the book written and published, would I care about figuring out who Betty’s parents were or what happened to her son? Because I’m hopelessly curious. I want to know what made Betty make the choice she did, to get completely tattooed and perform as a sideshow lady, and I want to have the most information I can to make that observation. I want to know what happened to her in her life because she made that choice, and how that might be different than other ladies born in Florida in November 1909. It doesn’t matter that the book is “done,” my project isn’t. I admire these women. I admire that they made a choice that was radically different than most people’s. I admire that, despite negative reactions people must have had to them, they persevered. I admire that deep down inside, they were not afraid to be different and to show the world that difference can be beautiful.
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