Maude
Wagner was the first American woman who displayed tattoos done of her
own volition, but she also became the first American woman tattoo
artist. She was a circus performer, an aerialist and contortionist. What
caused her to became the tattooed lady? It was love.
He
was Gus Wagner, a midwestern man himself who had been sailing the world
in the late 1800s and returned home covered in nearly 300 tattoos. He
claimed to have learned his tattoo technique from tribesmen in Java and
Borneo.
Wagner met Maud at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904,
where she was working as an aerialist. At the time, Gus was also
traveling in circuses and doing sideshows, amazing audiences with his
intricate and extreme ink work. In exchange for a date, Gus offered to
give Maud a lesson in tattooing. She obliged, and the rest was history.
Gus
and Maude looked like any ordinary family, with their daughter Lotteva,
dressed with their arms and legs covered like proper Victorians. But
without the yards of clothing, they were covered in art. They even
taught Lotteva to ink tats, starting when she was nine years old.
Read the story of Maude Wagner at Messy Messy Chic.
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