Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos: A Social History of the Tattoo with Gangs, Sailors, and Street-Corner Punks

by Samuel M. Steward

Explore the dark subculture of 1950s tattoos!In the early 1950s, when tattoos were the indelible mark of a lowlife, an erudite professor of English--a friend of Gertrude Stein, Thomas Mann, Andre Gide, and Thornton Wilder--abandoned his job to become a tattoo artist (and incidentally a researcher for Alfred Kinsey). Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos tells the story of his years working in a squalid arcade on Chicago’s tough State Street. During that time he left his mark on a hundred thousand people, from youthful sailors who flaunted their tattoos as a rite of manhood to executives who had to hide their passion for well-ornamented flesh. Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos is anything but politically correct. The gritty, film-noir details of Skid Row life are rendered with unflinching honesty and furtive tenderness. His lascivious relish for the young sailors swaggering or staggering in for a new tattoo does not blind him to the sordidness of the world they inhabited. From studly nineteen-year-olds who traded blow jobs for tattoos to hard-bitten dykes who scared the sailors out of the shop, the clientele was seedy at sailors, con men, drunks, hustlers, and Hells Angels. These days, when tattoo art is sported by millionaires and the middle class as well as by gang members and punk rockers, the sheer squalor of Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos is a revelation. However much tattoo culture has changed, the advice and information is still

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Memoir, True Crime

214 pages, Hardcover

First published February 26, 1990

About the author

Also published under the pseudonym Phil Andros,
Sam M. Steward.

Reviews

[Pearl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly excellent. Finding a decently written book about tattooing is, even in the 21st century, something of a quest. The urge to mythologise is strong in the craft—even with Instagram, and the internet and every second person’s personal experience with tattooing, clearing up some of the bullshit.

You can tell Steward is educated from the get-go: there’s no flowery pose, no attempt made to show off how smart he evidently is. There’s just his journey from being a bored college English professor, to becoming a semi-famous tattoo artist of the mid-twentieth century.

He’s got a keen eye for the squalor, and the quirks of the world he stepped ‘down’ to. Encouraged by Dr Kinsey, these memoirs do focus heavily on the sexual elements of tattooing (and Steward’s own queerness shines through every interaction) but on the whole it’s a well-rounded and loving portrait of what the craft once was.

Very worth reading!

[Jerome Berglund · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's no exaggeration to call this a masterpiece.

I'm not sure the vulgar has ever been described so poetically, ever shall be again...

[Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look past the romance-novel-sounding title of this book*, the terrible cover design, and the scholarly pretention brought on by attributing it to a certain Samuel M. Steward, PdD (in lieu of Phil Sparrow, Tattoodler, or Phil Andros, Pornographic Novelist) and you'll get in return in a very funny, insightful, and often narrative look into the urban American tattooing subculture as it was deep in the dark valley between the military service ubiquity of World War II and the full mainstream appropriation of countercultural aesthetics in the 90s, the carnival sideshow Tattooists a dim but still extant memory and the very first Art-School-educated Tattoo Artist not to show up for another generation, with tattooing so out of favor in general that it was being restricted or made entirely illegal in many cities, the world of tattoo collecting reduced until it was a province solely inhabited by addicted jailbirds, two-bit male hustlers, Navy recruits, and the gang-affiliated, and all but a few of the tattooers themselves were drunk con-men, scratching lazy designs with septic needles into the bodies of underage kids when they weren't actively attempting to sabotage their perceived competition with the cheapest and most dastardly means available.

Having been an English professor and literary novelist in his original career, Steward also brings an uniquely high level of writing acumen to an admittedly underserved segment of American cultural history, along with a cynical view of the more mythic aspects of that same "history," and a unmatched dry wit in discussing the trade, his clients, and the culture at large.

In short, I'd recommend this book to any tattoo aficionados out there, and wouldn't be surprised if well-read Tattoo Artists required their fledgling apprentices to pick up a copy.

*A NOTE ON THE TITLE: Since the writing of this Review, I've read Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade by Justin Spring, and it was enlightening to say the least.

Originally much longer in manuscript form, Steward had himself called this book "The Tattoo Jungle" but, in an era much less friendly to tattooing culture (the 1980s this time), it languished unpublished for many years. Late in Steward's life it was finally taken up by by a small academic publisher in Binghamton, New York and Steward then had this to say to a friend: "It's going to be called Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos and I'm on my way to the vomitorium right now. My fairly dignified title of The Tattoo Jungle was consigned to the dumpster by the marketing-expert boys." He believed his work destined for total oblivion, and thankfully for us he was wrong, but I believe had this work been 20% more narrative and 50 pages longer, I'd have easily given it five stars.

[Julia Stacos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I started reading the book in order to acquire some/any information about tattooing and its world, I found Mr. Sam Steward's views, adaptability and erudition to be a real breath of fresh air. After all, the U-turn he made in his career may seem nonsensical to most, to me it is the hallmark of a free spirit, one who came to see the bigger picture. As about his anthropological observations and his ability for dealing with all sorts of characters and temperaments, I conclude the book was fairly instructive and a pleasant read.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly unique first person account of the tattoo trade in the 1950s and 60s. Not so much about the tattooed themselves, but the characters that inhabit a Skid Row-type tattoo business. Really interesting view of what Chicago's South Loop area was before it got cleaned up. Strangely enough, no photos, illustrations, etc. for a book about tattooing, that's an odd omission.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the most riveting of reads, but I did enjoy Steward's whimsy and thorough approach.

[Kez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knowing next to nothing about bad boys and their tattoos I found this book contained a wealth of information. Surprisingly I enjoyed reading it too!