The New York Historical Society, which hasn't nearly the budget of the city's major museums, makes do by regularly offering offbeat exhibits that are often quite fascinating. The current exhibit, Tattooed New York, is no exception.
The exhibit, which strives to be a comprehensive overview of the tattooing industry in New York, begins logically enough in colonial times as it notes the prevalence of primitively applied tattoos among Native American inhabitants. This part of the show consists primarily of paintings, such as John Simon's 1710 Four Kings of the New World, as well as several handwritten books into one of which a Native American chief had copied his tattoos as a form of signature.
Once past these, the show quickly turns to more modern examples of the tattooist's art as the visitor is introduced to a little known part of the city's history. As a major port, New York has always been a stopping off point for sailors and it was to cater to these that the tattoo industry set up shop in those areas of the city, almost entirely located in Manhattan and Brooklyn, nearest the waterfront. The business really took off when the electric tattooing pen was first introduced in the nineteenth century and there are a number of these pens from various periods on display, including an adaptation of one originally developed by Thomas Edison to perforate paper. Some of the most charming parts of the exhibit are the illustrations of tattoos that once adorned the early twentieth century shops and that were meant to provide customers an illustrated catalog of the designs available to them. There's a delightful naivete to many of these old tattoo designs, such as one of Betty Boop, that now seem rather simplistic compared to the elaborate artwork that later became fashionable.
In the first half of the twentieth century when tattoos (and their wearers) were generally looked down upon, tattoo parlors were confined to less prosperous neighborhoods. One of the highlights of the exhibit is a short excerpt from Lionel Rogosin's classic 1956 film On the Bowery. Although the documentary clip doesn't actually show any tattooists at work, it does provide a thrilling look at that Skid Row milieu at a time when it had hit bottom and become a port of last call for the most hopeless derelicts, many so far gone they weren't even able to stand up on their own.
As the exhibit moves toward the modern era, it discusses the 1961 ban that was imposed by New York City authorities on tattooists following an outbreak of hepatitis, even though there was never any proven link between the hepatitis cases and tattooing. It was much more likely that the ban was instituted as a means of "cleaning up" the city prior to the opening of the 1964 World's Fair. Astonishingly, the ban lasted all the way to 1997. There were many, however, who flouted it and continued to work clandestinely. Among these was Spider Webb whose ads I remember having seen years ago on the back page of The Village Voice.
In the last section of the exhibit, there are shown a large number of expertly done, large format color photographs of inked bodies, mostly seen from the back. It's these that form the heart of the show, and some of the illustrations tattoo artists have come up with are genuinely amazing. A touching special section shows photographs of women who have gotten tattoos to cover up, or perhaps celebrate, their mastectomies.
NYHS has gone to great lengths to give viewers a truly immersive experience. During the time I was there, a tattoo artist was busily employed giving a live demonstration of the inking procedure. The young man who was his subject already possessed several tattoos and was quite relaxed while having another added to his arm.
The exhibit continues through April 30, 2017.
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