American Traditional Part 1

American Traditional is a simple but complex style with a large history, so this is going to be a multiple part series. This week I’m going to start with the key characteristics and establish a foundation and then in coming weeks we will dive more into specifics and some different traditional images, people and history! 

Each artist will usually put their own spin on a style even if it is as established as American Trad, but there are still some key things that make this style recognizable no matter who does them. American Trad can be characterized by simple 2D images, made with bold black outlines. There are also large blocks of colour, usually in reds, greens, browns, or yellows that are fairly saturated. Later on blues, and purples started to come into the style as well. Though American Trad tattoos come across very simple and easy to read, it does take a skilled artist to pull off this style and reflect that classic look. There is also black and grey traditional that of course doesn’t have those colour blocks. Again it has these bold black lines, as well as some shading; which varies of course from piece to piece but across the board, the shading style is usually done to let the piece breathe. There are lots of skin breaks to keep the tattoo readable. 

As a result of these bold black lines, these tattoos generally hold well over time. As they age the bold black tends to hold the shape in place. Though they do still age with the skin, and fade like any tattoo the thick lines definitely help to hold the piece together over time. American Trad is probably Bryan’s favourite style. Check out some examples of traditional tattoos by Bryan:

Some historical heavy weights in the American Trad world include Maude and Gus Wagner,  Bert Grimm, Sailor Jerry, Mildred Hull, Don Ed Hardy, and Lyle Tuttle, and many others. At this time tattooed people were often societal outsiders, they were circus performers, sailors, or other entertainment such as burlesque shows. Maude Wagner was a circus performer herself who became the first recorded female tattoo artist and was one of the first women to be heavily tattooed. She began her tattoo journey after meeting another tattoo artist, Gus Wagner at the circus. They went on to become quite an American Traditional powerhouse as the tattooing couple.

Above you’ll see Maud Wagner fully tattooed (left); Maud and her teacher and husband Gus (right).

Bert Grimm also spent some time in a shop around the circus in Long Beach. Grimm gained interest in tattooing very early on; some records say he had his first tattoo machine as early as 15 years old. Sailor Jerry on the other hand catered as you may have guessed, to the sailors and seamen wanting tattoos. He had a shop in Honolulu where many sailors spent their off days. It was around this time that many of the traditional images you see today were refined and popularized. You can look back at some of the flash pages from these shops and see many of the American traditional images that you see today in their early years. The original Bert Grimm flash is some of my favourite:

Above you’ll see some flash sheets from Bert Grimm himself, they are from sometime during the 1950’s.

This week’s post is a bit smaller; we are starting to enter summer and our busy season so I didn’t have time to do more research and write a longer article. There will be more about American Trad coming in the next parts!

Sources:

• C.W. Eldridge, Harriet Cohen. “Bert Grimm.” Tattoo Archive, www.tattooarchive.com/history/grimm_bert.php.
• Morrow, Justine. “Traditional Tattoos: The History, Designs, and Artists.” Tattoodo, www.tattoodo.com/guides/styles/traditional.
• Team, Tattmag. “American Traditional Tattoos: History, Meanings, Artists & Designs.” Tattmag, 17 Mar. 2021, tattmag.com/american-traditional-tattoo/. 

Images: 

• Blackburn, Scott. “Ferrous Magazine Arsenal – Maud Wagner – Tattooing’s First Female Star.” Ferrous, Ferrous, 24 Oct. 2018, www.ferrousmag.com/the-arsenal/2018/6/4/maud-wagner. 
• “Vinage Tattoo Flash.” La Luz De Jesus Gallery, 11 Feb. 2020, laluzdejesus.com/vinage-tattoo-flash/#jp-carousel-18945. 

Gatekeeper

Hi there! I'm Taylor, you may know me as Sterling Skull reception, or gatekeeper, or most recently Tater (thanks Chris). I love writing, creating and I love tattoos; so what better way to use my passions than to bring you a personal experience of our studio via a blog! Welcome, please stay a while!