As a tattoo artist myself I love seeing female tattoo artists dubbed the awesome that they are. It proves that the tattoo industry itself is totally diverse and anyone can make it as long as they have the right patience, perseverance, education, skills, and talent.The female artist I’m spotlighting today is none other than the pioneer in female tattoo artistry;
Maud Stevens Wagner
February 1877 – January 30, 1961
Maud was born in 1877 in Lyon County, Kansas. Wagner was an aerialist and contortionist, working in numerous traveling circuses. In 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (world’s fair), she met the self proclaimed “most artistically marked up man in America”, Gus Wagner, her soon to be tattoo artist as well as husband.They exchanged a romantic date and she expressed her eager desire to learn more about tattoos, of course, any extra time to spend with her was worth it to him. A few years after their first date, they were wed and later birthed a daughter, Lovetta, who as well shared her parents passion for ink. Lovetta started tattooing at the age of nine, and later became a professional tattoo artist herself.
After learning the trade from her husband, Maud learned how to give traditional “hand-poked” tattoos—despite the invention of the tattoo machine. She was pretty bad-ass! Together, the Wagners were two of the last tattoo artists to work by hand, without the aid of modern tattoo machines. Maud Wagner was the United States’ first known female tattoo artist. After leaving the circus, Maud and Gus Wagner traveled around the United States, working both as tattoo artists and “tattooed attractions” in vaudeville houses, county fairs and amusement arcades. They are credited with bringing tattoo artistry inland, away from the coastal cities and towns where the practice had started.
Unfortunately, Maud Wagner died on January 30, 1961 in Lawton, Oklahoma. Although her spirit has passed, her legacy still lives on today. In anything you do today it’s wise to know the history behind something you’re so passionate about, history is bound t repeat itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_Wagner
Amen to the female tattooers out there, lets keep slanging this art!
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