#323 The Bowery Wizards: A History of Tattooed New York

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2020

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

EPISODE 323 Two tales from New York’s incredible history with tattooing. The art of tattooing is as old as written language but it would require the contributions of a few 19th century New York tattoo artists — and a young inventor with no tattoos whatsoever — to take this ancient art to the next level. The first documented tattoo parlor (or atelier) in the United States was a small second-floor place near the East River waterfront and close to the site of the Brooklyn Bridge. But as more sailors and seamen — the principal customers for tattoo purveyors — came to New York, more would-be tattoo artists opened shops. By the 1880s, there were a great number of professional tattooists, scattered along the waterfront and up along the Bowery. Meanwhile, over in Brooklyn, sailors in need of a fresh tattoo could head to small shops in Coney Island or near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In this episode, Greg shares two tales from New York City tattoo history: — An unsuccessful Thomas Edison invention becomes a revolutionary device for tattoo artists. The electric tattoo machine was first perfected in a tiny tattoo parlor underneath a New York elevated train in Chatham Square. — Believe it or not, tattooing was outlawed in New York City in 1961! And would remain so for 36 years. How is that even possible in a city with a vibrant music scene and iconic venues like CBGB just steps from the heart of Manhattan’s old tattooing industry? boweryboyshistory.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Bowry Boys Episode 323, The Bowry Wizards, and The Coney Island Kings,
0:05.8	a history of tattooing in New York.
0:08.4	Hey, it's The Bowry Boys.
0:10.0	Hey!
0:11.1	Support for The Bowry Boys is provided by our listeners.
0:14.7	Join us for as little as $1 a month by visiting patreon.com slash Bowry Boys.
0:23.7	Hi there, welcome to The Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.
0:27.1	Tom Myers had to step away from the show for a few days here, and so we had to move our
0:32.3	regularly scheduled show. Instead, I wanted to put something together for you today,
0:37.6	celebrating a small business that's currently suffering under the lockdown caused by our current
0:44.0	pandemic. The humble tattoo shop, or tattoo parlor. Now like barbershops and nail salons,
0:51.7	all of New York's tattoo shops have been temporarily closed to stop the fight of the spread of
0:56.5	the coronavirus. The future for these small business owners still remains very uncertain.
1:02.5	What sets the tattoo shop apart even further is that it's almost always until recently
1:09.3	been seen as the type of business on the wrong side of the tracks, serving sailors or soldiers
1:16.0	in the first half of the 20th century, and those within New York's counterculture in the second.
1:21.8	For decades, the two centers of tattooing in New York, there's a third one which I'll get to
1:27.6	at the end of the show, but the two main ones have been county island and the Bowry.
1:34.2	Now in the late 19th century, the Bowry was of course a street notoriously known for its saloons
1:40.9	and dance halls. Several years later, it had become known as Skid Row, where homeless and out of
1:47.8	workmen stayed in shelters and flop houses. And then by the 1970s, the music venue CBGB also made
1:56.0	the Bowry a destination for punk and rock and roll music. And it was here on the Bowry
	...

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