36

(New York City, ca. 1927)

Photograph of Charlie Wagner and Joe Van Hart Tattooing Betty Broadbent

Showing famed tattooed lady Betty Broadbent (1909-1983) with tattoo artists Charlie Wagner and Joe Van Hart. Photograph, Bowery, New York City, New York, ca. 1927.

In 1926, at age sixteen, Betty Broadbent began the painful process of having her body tattooed for exhibition. Bowery skin artists Charlie Wagner and "Sailor Joe" Van Hart completed the work over the course of two winters at Wagner's studio at 11 Chatham Square. Betty spent the next four decades performing with some of the largest shows in the world, including Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey and Clyde Beatty Circus. When hemlines began to rise, she called on tattoo artists Jack Redcloud and Bert Grimm to add to her stunning body suit. Redcloud also built her a tattoo kit, allowing Betty to work as a tattoo artist in the 1930s in Montreal, San Francisco, and New York. Her popularity reached new heights in 1939, when, as a publicity stunt, she participated in a beauty pageant at the New York World's Fair. Betty retired at the end of the 1967 season, but did not fade into obscurity. In 1981, she became the first person inducted into Lyle Tuttle's newly-established Tattoo Hall of Fame.
10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm.)

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August 25, 2024 10:00 AM EDT
Portsmouth, NH, US

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