|
Outsider art becomes mainstream
Once confined to circus "freaks," tattoos are now considered a legitimate art form
Tattooing is more popular today than ever before, and tattooists are often regarded as "fine artists," a title weighted with the type of respect tattooists have not seen for over a century.
Respect, however, is not a word that was always associated with tattoos, or the people they adorned. At the turn of the century in London, tattooing had lost a lot of credibility and tattooists often worked in the sleazier sections of town. Heavily tattooed individuals usually traveled with circuses or "freak shows."
The American style tattoo, while unpopular across much of the nation, flourished in Chatham Square, N.Y. At this time, cosmetic tattooing was very popular for women: blush for cheeks, colored lips, and eyeliner. World War I brought tattoo trends such as images of bravery and wartime icons.
During Prohibition and the Great Depression of the 1930s, the tattoo center in Chatham started to disintegrate. Coney Island became the new home for tattoo art. Shortly after, tattoo artists started opening shops in other cities near military and naval bases where tattoos became a way of identifying where someone had traveled.
After World War II, the interest in tattooing again fell into a slump, and a hepatitis outbreak in 1961 made the future of tattooing even more uncertain. It wasn't until the late 1960s that the general public's attitude toward tattoos changed, largely because of a tattoo artist named Lyle Tuttle. Tuttle brought the art back to life in magazines and on television and was famous for tattooing celebrities.
Kristen J. Kubisiak can be reached at: [email protected]
|
|
|
|
|
|
