The latest bulletin from the Bowery announces that the Fat Lady continues to swell and that the tattooed lady now has the Brooklyn Bridge across her back, airily suspended in Chinese vermillion from columns of blue ink upon her shoulder blades. The Bowery never stands still. It changes as all things change, the Tattooed Lady’s red and blue trimmings included. If you have a spare afternoon and wish to test the aphorism that half the world never knows how the other half lives, moves, and has its being, go to the Bowery, first filling your pocket, or your purse, with dimes.
The Bowery is the realm of the dime. For a dime, having first made your will, you can get one of Fred’s dinners consisting of soup, meat, potatoes, vegetables and coffee. You can get, after buying an accident policy, two un-clean shaves for 10 cents or one shave with bay rum and a clean towel. You can buy a lot of chestnuts, fresh roasted at the stands or old and mossgrown in the gaudy temples of Momus. You can buy shoestrings, suspenders, or a handkerchief from Samuels of Posen of all ages, colors, and previous conditions of servitude. You can get a milk punch with an egg in it, provided you do not exact cow’s milk and hen’s eggs in your purchase. You will be foolish if you exact them.
To enjoy the Bowery you must take it as it is, believe in all its shams, accept its mermaid, give credence to its living statue, gaze in wonder at its lobster man, and in awe at its fat ladies. There is no particular fun to be found in looking behind the cards in any walk of life, and this is truer of the Bowery than of most other places.”
The Bowery, located in lower Manhattan, was once a thriving and bustling area filled with a diverse array of shops and entertainment venues. By the late 1880s the Bowery had become known for its low brow concert halls, brothels, and dime museums. One notable feature of the Bowery during this time was its prevalence of tattoo shops. Until the 1960s, the Bowery was considered the center of American tattooing.
Bowery Street, the oldest street on Manhattan Island, was once a major thoroughfare that rivaled Broadway in popularity. However, by the late 1800s, the Bowery had transformed into a place known for its seedy and gritty atmosphere. The 1887 article from the New York Times provides a glimpse into the Bowery of that time.
The article failed to mention was the prevalence of cheap tattoos that could be found on the Bowery. One tattoo artist in particular, Charlie Wagner, was famous for his dime tattoos. In Michael McCabe’s 1997 book, New York City Tattoo: The Oral History of an Urban Art, tattooist Stanley Moskowitz stated that in the 1930s. “Charlie Wagner was offering tattoos 10 and 25 cents, while other shops in the area were charging a dollar or more for the same designs.”
Charlie Wagner, a pioneering Jewish tattoo artist, worked in Manhattan’s Bowery neighbourhood and made significant contributions to tattooing.
Charlie was born in 1875 in Presov, Slovakia and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1880, settling in the Lower East Side of New York City. He trained under the famous tattoo artist Samuel O’Reilly, who had invented the first electric tattoo machine in 1891. In 1899 Charlie opened his own tattoo shop on East Houston Street. He was only 24 when he became a part of the rich tattooing tradition in New York City.
The Bowery showcased tattoos in dime museums, creating a new market for tattoo artists. Charlie made a name for himself by tattooing teenage boys. He tattooed his entire body, except his face, to establish his reputation as a skilled artist.
One of Charlie’s most significant contributions to the field of tattooing was his invention of a new tattoo machine in 1904. The machine used vertical coils in a tube assembly, was the second such invention after that of his mentor, Samuel O’Reilly. Today, over 100 years after its invention, tattoo artists continue to use machines with the same alignment, making Charlie’s invention a lasting legacy in the field of tattooing. He also sold his machines to other tattoo artists, spreading the influence of his invention throughout New York and beyond.
Charlie continued to expand his practice over the next 50 years, taking over Samuel O’Reilly’s tattoo shop in Chatham Square after his mentor’s death in 1909. He became known as the “father of American tattooing” and his reputation and business continued to grow, even during the Great Depression. His clients went on to become some of America’s most famous sideshow acts and by the time of his death in 1953, Charlie had cemented his place in the annals of American tattooing history.
Even as late as Charlie Wagner’s era, a dime still had significant buying power on the Bowery. Despite the area’s reputation for seediness and its association with cheap tattoos, the Bowery was also a place where people could find a wide variety of goods and services at affordable prices. It was a place where the working class and the less fortunate could find a sense of community and belonging, and a place where people from all walks of life could come together.
No Comment! Be the first one.