MILITARY TATTOO

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 164, 14 August 1942, Page 10

MILITARY TATTOO

War Means More Work For The Specialist In éaterior Decoration

HE window is full of highly-col-oured pictures, of hearts and roses, of flags and bull-dogs, of swords and anchors, and, of course, of women, Underneath each picture a price. For 5/- a simple rose and scroll, or an anchor or a cross, for 7/6 a map of New Zealand or Australia, for 10/- a Union Jack, and .2 on up to £10’for a masterpiece ‘in’ six colours depicting an eagle attacking a coiled snake. "Artistic, decorative, fashionable," says a window placard, and there is a reassuring photograph of a young lady having a butterfly added to her already over-decorated back by a tattooist who is taking merely a professional interest in it. Inside the shop more designs are displayed. The long tables in what used to be a tailor’s workroom are covered with sheet after sheet of bright drawings, still more hang from the walls. As you get further into the privacy of the shop, the hearts, roses, and chaste tombstones of the window display give place more and more to mermaids, hula girls, and the masked ladies of the Folies Bergeres. And at the back of the shop, on the other side of a door marked "Fitting Room," sits the tattoo artist himself. A faint buzz of electricity shows that he is already at work. We push the door open quietly and perch ourselves on the table. The patient this time is a sturdy ‘young merchant seaman, who endures with equanimity the 2000-a-minute jabs of the’ electrically-driven needle. He’s having his forearm decorated with a rose and a scroll. Already the main outlines, including the "Margaret," have been traced in black, and the artist is now filling in with red the embellishing rose. "Does it hurt?" we ask the young seaman, sympathetically. But though the prick of the needle has no power to disturb him, our presence has. He murmurs "No," sheepishly, and fixes his eye upon the spreading scarlet. "That will do it," says the tattooist, and wipes off the surplus paint with a rag wrung out in disinfectant. The young man inspects the design critically, and nods. A thick smear of vaseline and a piece of waxed paper, and the shirt sleeve can then be pulled down. A note changes hands, and the true seaman departs. *That’s the best part of it," says the tattooist, as he pockets the note. Apprenticeship in the Navy "Does it hurt?" we ask again, this time confident of an answer. "Not much," says the artist, pushing back the shade he wears while working, "No worse than pricking your finger. See this." He reaches for one of the electric needles, and shows us the five tiny points darting adder-like in and ‘out. "Now when I first learnt the job 45 up

a hand needle, and demonstrates its slow pricking on the palm of his hand. "When did you first start?" "When I was a lad in the Royal Navy, before the last war. Sailors, of course, are the most tattooed people in the world, and in every ship you'll find one or two amateur tattooers. Well, I was a rather good hand at sketching, so I used to do the designs for my ‘cobbers when they wanted to do any tattooing. And then I thought, why shouldn't I learn to do it myself? And I did." "And do you still do your own designs?" "Yes, every one of them," he replied, proudly. "I get ideas from all over the place.» Look at this." He held up a Pop-Eye, a Snow-White. "Tattooing’s one of the oldest things there is, and yet it keeps up-to-date. It’s made great strides in the 25 years since the last war." : To-day’s Most Popular Designs "What are the most popular designs nowadays? Has the demand changed much in the last 25 years?" "Not so very much. A scroll or heart with a girl’s name in it is still the most popular. Yes, most of my work’s with names, either putting them on or taking them off. And then military or naval symbols are as popular as ever. That’s the one the allied servicemen like best.’ He indicated a dagger plunged upright in a bleeding heart with a scroll round bearing the legend "Better Death Than Dishonour," and priced modestly at 10/6. "A lot of them who’ve just crossed the equator for the first time like something to do with that, such as having a Fe ee ee eae other." (Continued on next page)

"Te’s Even Good For Rheumatism"

(Continued from previous page) "Do you get many women?" we asked. "Yes, but usually with the men, A young couple will come in and want to have the same design on toth of them, with both’ names or the other's name inside. I don’t really approve of it for women, and anyway, what’s going to happen if she marries someone else?" We suggested that the man was in the same situation, and in any case, it was removable. But our artist shook his head. "I don’t hold with it for women,’ he said. "I wouldn’t like it for my own daughter. Still, if they ask me to in the way of business, I can’t very well refuse." However, he does another kind of tattooing specially for women, by means of which cheeks and lips can be given permanent colour. It’s a very delicate operation, demanding thousands of tiny pricks, but it’s worth the trouble, he claims, because you never have to worry about rouge and lipstick. "I haven't found a great demand for it here, but I did a lot of it when I was in Londonmostly for women who were going to spend some years in the tropics. I’ve had a few customers out here, among them two New Zealand nurses who were going overseas. But I'll tell you one thing that’s very popular with the girls, and that’s beauty-spots. I've doné a lot of them." _ His Greatest Task The biggest single job he ever did, he told.me, was to tattoo the Lord’s Supper, complete with all thirteen figures, across a man’s back. But the greatest ‘living memorial to his art is a certain merchant seaman of Wellington, on whom he has tattooed some 577 designs, and all without repeating himself. "This is him," he said proudly, showing us the photograph of someone clad from neck to toe appar-

ently in close-fitting and much-patterned combinations. The favourite place for tattooing is the forearm, unless of course you're going in for it in a big way, in which case it’s immaterial where you start. Dancing ladies are usually placed on top of a muscle that quivers. Backs and chests provide a canvas for larger-scale efforts. And, just to show the lengths to which enthusiasm will go, our expert even suggested that tattooing was "good for rheumatism!" War time is of course an open season for tattoo artists, and one notable feature of this war, according to this authority, is that soldiers are just as

keen as sailors. "It’s just a matter of getting started," he said. "The first time a boy comes to me he’s usually a bit dubious about it, but his cobbers egg him on. And once he’s had one design he usually comes back for another. But { don’t suppose I’d have much trade if all my customers lived at home. It’s when you get a lot of boys together and they don’t need to worry, at any rate for the present, about what their mothers are’ going to say, that they go in for such luxuries." A strange luxury, we reflected, as we came away, but de gustibus non. disputandum. $