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280
(Baltimore, ca. 1950)
Tattoo Charlie Folding Business Card
Used by "Tattoo Charlie" Geizer (1905-1980), 421 E. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, Maryland, ca. 1950. Unfolded, double-sided. Printed on cardstock, reading "Rated by Experts as America's Best Tattooer" and "Baltimore's Leading Tattoo Shop."
Provenance: From the collection of "Tattoo Charlie" Geizer (1905-1980)
Charles "Tattoo Charlie" Geizer
From 1943 until his death in 1980, "Tattoo Charlie" Geizer maintained a steady presence on "The Block" in Baltimore—a reliable beacon amid the district's flophouses, nudie shows, and dive bars. A gregarious, restless creator with the practical skills and smarts to master nearly any challenge, Charlie tattooed, performed in sideshows, and made and sold tattoo machines, supplies, and fishing lures. The extraordinary contents of his landmark shop, located over The Block's Midway Bar, are presented here after nearly fifty years in storage. A true time capsule, the collection holds Charlie's original neon shop sign, flash art by Charlie and his contemporaries, equipment, hand-written business registers, and even Charlie's yellow-tinted sunglasses and lucky penny. These items capture the sweep and color of Baltimore's long history of tattooing.
Little is known of Charlie Geizer's (1905-1980) early life and career. The son of Hungarian immigrants who settled in Ohio, Charlie reportedly ran away from home at 14—an incident confirmed by family members. Charlie claimed to have ended up in Texas, where he acquired tattooing skills and a body suit, much of it self-applied. A stint in carnival sideshows followed, where he performed as a tattooed man, swallowed swords, broke milk bottles with his bare feet and climbed a ladder of knives. While no evidence documents his Texas years, Charlie wore cowboy boots all his life and claimed Texas tattooing origins on his shop signs. Despite his apparent fondness for the Longhorn State, Charlie returned to Ohio, married, and took a job at a brass foundry, where he no doubt picked up metalworking skills.
The bonanza to be made inking wartime recruits drew Charlie back to tattooing in the early 1940s. His impulse was to open a Texas shop, but a visit to Baltimore convinced him of that port city's potential. He started business in 1943 at 606 East Baltimore Street on The Block, but within a few years moved to the place he would occupy for decades: a large second-floor studio at 421 East Baltimore Street. Customers had to navigate a narrow stairway to reach the shop, which Charlie decorated with slogans ballyhooing his expertise. Norwegian-born Einor "Tattoo Bill" Kluge had occupied the location just prior to Charlie; in the move Charlie acquired a massive Statue of Liberty sheet of flash and a hand-painted shop banner, both created by his predecessor.
On The Block, Charlie befriended many of Baltimore's tattooers and allied artists, relationships that often led to Charlie acquiring his colleagues' work. These include a stunning WWI-era patriotic sign by German tattooer Robert "Frenchy" Sommers, who also worked at 606 East Baltimore Street; a cache of previously unknown photo negatives of tattooer Frank "Dutch" Hill, who worked alongside Charlie for a stretch; and a rare business card and photograph of Portuguese tattooer Antone Aguiar.
Certainly the most striking works found in Charlie's shop are two early 1950s signs made by Russian-Jewish sign painter and cartoonist Eddie Levin, who ran a studio just steps from Charlie's shop. Showcasing Levin's jaunty characters and fine draftsmanship, one sign sports a grinning, muscular tattooed man; in the other, a tattooed blonde smiles slyly over her shoulder as Charlie, with his signature moustache and visor, inks her spine. Levin, who is known to have immortalized several of The Block's colorful businessmen in cartoons, also honored Charlie with a delightful comic scene in which Charlie holds court amidst a crowd of wise-cracking soldiers and sailors.
Charlie proved his business acumen and determination in the early 1950s, when Baltimore tattooing came under regulatory scrutiny. Ted Liberty, the ne'er-do-well son of prominent Boston tattooer Edward "Dad" Liberty, blew into Baltimore around 1950 after fire destroyed his Boston shop. Notorious among his peers for unhygienic practices and botched work, Ted drew the Navy's ire in 1952 when several sailors who had visited his joint contracted hepatitis. Baltimore's health department promptly shut down the city's tattoo shops and imposed stiff new inspection and regulating ordinances. All four Baltimore shops in operation at that time—including Charlie's—failed inspection. Ted Liberty, "Frenchy" Sommers and "Tattoo Bill" Kluge left town rather than conform to burdensome standards. Charlie, however, undertook the rigorous new licensing process, adopting the latest sanitary and business practices—even keeping detailed customer registers and requiring minors wanting ink to show notarized permission letters. These remarkable records survive in the collection. In 1953, Charlie received Baltimore's first tattoo license. He remained the city's only licensed tattooer for the next two decades.
Charlie suffered a heart attack in 1972. Cognizant of the need to slow down and mindful of his legacy, Charlie shortened his work hours and began to consider a potential protégé. Of the many amateurs who came to him to learn the trade but soon flitted off, one stayed around. Dennis Watkins, a gifted artist and machinist, "learned the way it should be done" from Charlie. In 1976, with Charlie's encouragement, Dennis and his wife Gale opened Gemini Tattoo in Odenton, Maryland, now the second-oldest tattoo shop in the state. A formidable talent in her own right, Gale became Maryland's first female professional tattoo artist. When Charlie died in 1980, Dennis and Gale chose to honor their mentor by continuing their work in Charlie's landmark shop at 421 East Baltimore Street, in the heart of The Block, a location now recognized as the second-oldest tattoo shop in North America. Gale carefully packed and stored Charlie's belongings. Her care and foresight allow us to offer this historic collection today. Dennis remained active at Tattoo Charlie's in Baltimore until his death in 2008; Gale continues the artistic legacies of Charlie and Dennis at Gemini Tattoo.
Provenance: From the collection of "Tattoo Charlie" Geizer (1905-1980)
Charles "Tattoo Charlie" Geizer
From 1943 until his death in 1980, "Tattoo Charlie" Geizer maintained a steady presence on "The Block" in Baltimore—a reliable beacon amid the district's flophouses, nudie shows, and dive bars. A gregarious, restless creator with the practical skills and smarts to master nearly any challenge, Charlie tattooed, performed in sideshows, and made and sold tattoo machines, supplies, and fishing lures. The extraordinary contents of his landmark shop, located over The Block's Midway Bar, are presented here after nearly fifty years in storage. A true time capsule, the collection holds Charlie's original neon shop sign, flash art by Charlie and his contemporaries, equipment, hand-written business registers, and even Charlie's yellow-tinted sunglasses and lucky penny. These items capture the sweep and color of Baltimore's long history of tattooing.
Little is known of Charlie Geizer's (1905-1980) early life and career. The son of Hungarian immigrants who settled in Ohio, Charlie reportedly ran away from home at 14—an incident confirmed by family members. Charlie claimed to have ended up in Texas, where he acquired tattooing skills and a body suit, much of it self-applied. A stint in carnival sideshows followed, where he performed as a tattooed man, swallowed swords, broke milk bottles with his bare feet and climbed a ladder of knives. While no evidence documents his Texas years, Charlie wore cowboy boots all his life and claimed Texas tattooing origins on his shop signs. Despite his apparent fondness for the Longhorn State, Charlie returned to Ohio, married, and took a job at a brass foundry, where he no doubt picked up metalworking skills.
The bonanza to be made inking wartime recruits drew Charlie back to tattooing in the early 1940s. His impulse was to open a Texas shop, but a visit to Baltimore convinced him of that port city's potential. He started business in 1943 at 606 East Baltimore Street on The Block, but within a few years moved to the place he would occupy for decades: a large second-floor studio at 421 East Baltimore Street. Customers had to navigate a narrow stairway to reach the shop, which Charlie decorated with slogans ballyhooing his expertise. Norwegian-born Einor "Tattoo Bill" Kluge had occupied the location just prior to Charlie; in the move Charlie acquired a massive Statue of Liberty sheet of flash and a hand-painted shop banner, both created by his predecessor.
On The Block, Charlie befriended many of Baltimore's tattooers and allied artists, relationships that often led to Charlie acquiring his colleagues' work. These include a stunning WWI-era patriotic sign by German tattooer Robert "Frenchy" Sommers, who also worked at 606 East Baltimore Street; a cache of previously unknown photo negatives of tattooer Frank "Dutch" Hill, who worked alongside Charlie for a stretch; and a rare business card and photograph of Portuguese tattooer Antone Aguiar.
Certainly the most striking works found in Charlie's shop are two early 1950s signs made by Russian-Jewish sign painter and cartoonist Eddie Levin, who ran a studio just steps from Charlie's shop. Showcasing Levin's jaunty characters and fine draftsmanship, one sign sports a grinning, muscular tattooed man; in the other, a tattooed blonde smiles slyly over her shoulder as Charlie, with his signature moustache and visor, inks her spine. Levin, who is known to have immortalized several of The Block's colorful businessmen in cartoons, also honored Charlie with a delightful comic scene in which Charlie holds court amidst a crowd of wise-cracking soldiers and sailors.
Charlie proved his business acumen and determination in the early 1950s, when Baltimore tattooing came under regulatory scrutiny. Ted Liberty, the ne'er-do-well son of prominent Boston tattooer Edward "Dad" Liberty, blew into Baltimore around 1950 after fire destroyed his Boston shop. Notorious among his peers for unhygienic practices and botched work, Ted drew the Navy's ire in 1952 when several sailors who had visited his joint contracted hepatitis. Baltimore's health department promptly shut down the city's tattoo shops and imposed stiff new inspection and regulating ordinances. All four Baltimore shops in operation at that time—including Charlie's—failed inspection. Ted Liberty, "Frenchy" Sommers and "Tattoo Bill" Kluge left town rather than conform to burdensome standards. Charlie, however, undertook the rigorous new licensing process, adopting the latest sanitary and business practices—even keeping detailed customer registers and requiring minors wanting ink to show notarized permission letters. These remarkable records survive in the collection. In 1953, Charlie received Baltimore's first tattoo license. He remained the city's only licensed tattooer for the next two decades.
Charlie suffered a heart attack in 1972. Cognizant of the need to slow down and mindful of his legacy, Charlie shortened his work hours and began to consider a potential protégé. Of the many amateurs who came to him to learn the trade but soon flitted off, one stayed around. Dennis Watkins, a gifted artist and machinist, "learned the way it should be done" from Charlie. In 1976, with Charlie's encouragement, Dennis and his wife Gale opened Gemini Tattoo in Odenton, Maryland, now the second-oldest tattoo shop in the state. A formidable talent in her own right, Gale became Maryland's first female professional tattoo artist. When Charlie died in 1980, Dennis and Gale chose to honor their mentor by continuing their work in Charlie's landmark shop at 421 East Baltimore Street, in the heart of The Block, a location now recognized as the second-oldest tattoo shop in North America. Gale carefully packed and stored Charlie's belongings. Her care and foresight allow us to offer this historic collection today. Dennis remained active at Tattoo Charlie's in Baltimore until his death in 2008; Gale continues the artistic legacies of Charlie and Dennis at Gemini Tattoo.
3 1/2 x 4 in. (8.9 x 10.2 cm.)
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August 25, 2024 10:00 AM EDT
Portsmouth, NH, US
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|---|---|---|
| $0 | $499 | $25 |
| $500 | $999 | $50 |
| $1,000 | $1,999 | $100 |
| $2,000 | $4,999 | $250 |
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| $100,000 + | $10,000 |