Nick Colella

Spaulding did what all the other supply businesses wanted to do only couldn't. Spaulding got it together and made his bisiness extemely successful and profitable. Spaulding supplied starter kits to some of the best and most respected tattooers working today.

Thanks for all the well wishes. We are going home today and starting the new adventure

yeah im gonna keep my comments to myself on the signed tattoos..i promised i would play nice on here..

Part Two

Chicago’s Tattooing past is as deep and influential as both the Bowery and The Pike and South State Street was the spot for all of these tattooers to come through. Like I stated before hundreds of tattooers came through to work on South State Street, from the early 1900s through until the demolition of the area in 1967.

Here are a few of the oldest photos I have found of unidentified tattooers tattooing on South State Street, if anyone knows who they are I would be stoked to hear it. These photos looked very staged, but it looks like the typical arcade style tattooing, just a small little corner or spot underneath some stairs where these arcade owners could house a tattooer as well. These photos where found in an online archive of old Chicago pictures from a local paper that no longer exists.

A lot of the tattooers where complete winos and would tattoo for the Mob owned arcades just long enough to get some drink, then would disappear until they needed to work again. Other like the ones I will mention below made South State their homes if not only for a short while. Most notable tattooers that worked on South State are but not limited to.

Ed Thornton

Bill Moore (Chicago Tattoo Supply House) not affiliated with Chicago Tattoo Co

Paul Hansen

Bill Killingworth

Jerry Pope

Ned Resinol

Ernie Sutton

Randy Webb

Mickey Kellet

William Grimshaw

Owen Jensen

Bert Grimm

Philadelphia Eddie

Don Nolan

Oakland Jake

Stoney St. Clair

Amund Dietzel

Phil Sparrow

Buddy McFall

Cliff Raven Ingram

Sailor Jerry Collins

Ralph Johnstone

Tatts Thomas

So there are 22 of the heaviest hitters to ever hold a tattoo machine and they all came through Chicago at one time or another and the history is relatively unknown or not talked about. To me this makes Chicago’s history even more intriguing. When people talk about tattooing they either mention The Bowery or The Pike, but Chicago was home to some pretty amazing tattooers that helped shape not only the look of what tattooers today call traditional designs but they where also trying to improve their tools and techniques.

Out of the list you have a few stand outs that are obvious you have of course Sailor Jerry, he was said to be introduced to electric tattooing by Tatts Thomas, here is the only card in existence that shows Sailor Jerry was tattooing on South State Street in Chicago. This card was in China Sea when Rollo bought it after Jerrys death, Kandi Everett had it in her possession for the last 20 something years and passed it on to me recently.

Bill Moore had the Chicago Tattoo Supply House and worked closely with Tatts Thomas over the years, Tatts and Bill moved shops a bunch of times during Bills stay on South State Street. Bill used to run ads in Popular Mechanics at the time touting his “Tattoo Outfit” so there you have tattooers selling to the general public way before Spaulding ever graced the back cover of Tattoo magazine. Bill Moores earliest ad was found in Billboard magazine in 1932, where he is listed at 434 South State the same address that Sailor Jerry used to work at. This was the Burton Arcade, which a lot of other tattooers had worked at as well. Bill Moore died in Chicago in 1944.

Ralph Johnstone to me is one of the most under rated tattooers of this time. Not only was he one of the most amazing circus banner painters but he also was an amazing tattooer that by all accounts was extremely kind and never had a bad word to say about any other tattooer. Ralphs business cards used to say he would work off of photographs, which meant photo realistic portraits in the 1950s. Ralph and Tatts Thomas worked side-by-side for Ralphs entire State Street Career which lasted I believe until everyone left in 1963. Johnstone also painted flash for Milton Zeis who at the time had a supply business and tattoo correspondence class out of Rockford Illinois. These business cards below show some of the address that Tatts and Johnstone worked at. The cards where also drawn by Ralph himself, as you can see he was light years ahead of his time in the way he approached illustration and tattooing for that matter.

Here you have a couple of Ralph Johnstone’s clients with full chest pieces, and the third pic is of 3 backpieces with Johnstone in the front the center was done by Tatts Thomas it is on Sailor Bill Killingsworth the other 2 where done by Johnstone.

Thanks for your interest more to follow on some of the other tattooers that shaped South State Street.

So in response to recent inquiries about Chicago and its place in tattoo history and to try to up the ante here at The Last Sparrow Tattoo Forum I will try to breakdown what I know and have acquired about tattooing in Chicago from early on up until present day. All of this will revolve around the history of Chicago Tattoo because honestly I don’t know or care to know about any other present day shops in the city.

This of course will give a broad range of information at first because most of the photographic history was lost to the trash or to the flea markets at the time. The stories of South State Street are very few, 99% of the tattooers that dominated that street in its hey day are long gone. There are a few still left and their stories are amazing, some look upon those times fondly as the last truly honky tonk time in tattooing other look upon South State as Chicago’s tattoo demise.

The 4-block area of South State Street in Chicago from the early 1900s to the mid 1960s was considered the worst red-light district that ever existed in this country to date. It consisted of skid row flophouses, porn theatres, liquor stores, wino bars, shooting galleries, arcades, and of course in every corner of every arcade were the tattoo shops. Chicago was supposedly home to hundreds of tattooers through out the early years. All making tattoos cutting their chops and making their bones on the abundance of fresh sailors from Great Lakes Naval Base just north of Chicago, and the working class folks looking to let loose on South State Street.

These first photos show the very early days of south state notice in one of the photos the Armed Services recruiting center, this later became and Army Navy Surplus store. This is one of the main reason I believe that attracted the tattooers to South State they had a fresh abundance of young men signing up to serve their country and at that time service men especially sailors and tattoos went hand in hand.

These other three photos show the burlesque barkers looking to get customers in to see the show

Thanks for your interest, more to come later

So today i met with a guy named Chuck Renslow, he is responsible for introducing Cliff Raven to Phil Sparrow. From there Cliff and Phil became close and Phil taught Cliff how to tattoo. Chuck did a very small stint as a tattooer with Phil Sparrow and Cliff when they moved to Milwaukee in the late 60s. He only had a few tattoos 2 where by Phil Sparrow done around the late 50s early 60s both where done on South State Street in Chicago.

all these photos are awesome..keep em coming , i have to do a search of my photos to find a bunch more as soon as i do ill post em up..

weve talked..i hate the yelp, i dont agree with the way they conduct business, or try to strong arm businesses into advertising with them. I hate that if people have an issue with me or anyone who works with me they cant take it up with me, but they can go bitch and moan about it on yelp and i have no recourse. Ive had a bad review from a lady who thought she paid too much for her tattoo weeks after getting it. Said the tattoo was fine but after thinking about it she thought she paid too much..whatever..its a societal issue, the last generation of people are a bunch a whiners and complainers who take no responsibilty for their actions and they are constantly trying to shift the blame onto someone else for them being pussys..

but unfortunately we have to play ball

ive said too much i might get another bad review

Deb

i would love to get to see more photos of Cliffs work, im trying to get as much of Cliffs work back to Chicago so if anyone knows of any please let me know

thanks

yeah cliffs work was pretty amazing for the time, me and a good friend where lucky enough to purchase almost all of his photos from his estate after he passed its an amazing mass of work. Shane you are right cliff is pretty much credited with the tribal resurgence in the mid 70s. Leo credits him as one of his biggest influences. I just recently spent the day with Pierre Mitchell (Bob Raven) to try and learn more about Cliff, he was a pretty amazing guy and really isnt talked about much but i guess its a different generation. Pierre mentioned that Cliff pretty much drew everything on thats why there isnt alot of his artwork around. We have around 40 15x20 sheets in the shop and theres probably around 50 more that ive seen, other than that he spent most of his time drawing for the body. Super impressive

I agree. Mike Browns letters are awesome.

Also the only white dude who can put script in a banner is Jack Rudy. Everyone else should stop.

I agree with Mario TV in shops in general are too much for me.

I do a ton of lettering. If I could I would do it all day long or at least draw it for everyone at the shop. I just find that I have a formula that I like to use and it's been successful for me for te most part. The key is just practice it over and over. I have all the books that have come out and I'll reference them if I get stuck on a letter but other than that I just practice. Before I get to work inbetween tattoos after tattoos when I'm on the phone whenever.

I went and got some lettering from Mark Mahoney a dozen years ago and he showed me some cool tricks that I still use.

Like Julio I'm always looking at old signs and lookingat sign painters books. Hand lettering to

me is such a lost art. Rollo told me that good lettering can save a mediocre tattoo am bad lettering can ruin and amazing tattoo.

those are pretty awesome..reminds me of drawing teachers in school

For sure he was a trip..he had a bunch of stuff thats for sure..that fire claimed alot of it

i was at roy boys a punch in the last 5 years, i thought Roy Boy was rad definitely the last of the last, but museum is definitely not what i thought when i walked into his shop..

heres a few more..these where all done by Dale Grande at Chicago Tattoo. The dragon is from the mid 70s , the butterfly and the lion are from the late 70s early 80s and the skull is from the mid 80s..

Since Chicago Tattoo has been on the same 2 blocks for almost 40 years we get alot of people who come in with old work from Cliff Raven and Dale Grande so i try to take photos of these tattoos to document them.

I often see old timers walking around the neighborhood or in the grocery store and see their tattoos and try to ask about them and photo them, there is just something about talking to old dudes about their tattoos that gets their attention and for the most part gets them into talking about where they got in and when and sometimes they can remember who it was.

Im sure we all do this so i wanted to start a little thread and put up pics of old tattoos that we have all documented.

The first three tattoos where done at Cliff Raven Studios (Chicago Tattoo) by Cliff Raven in approximately 1970.. since i cant figure out how to make these images larger you can click on them to get a better look.

i look forward to the pics

Nick

i just started covering stuff i got in the early and mid nineties....panther heads and roses..

i have a Rock of Ages i got from Hardy in 2000 thats 8x10 on my thigh and he did it in an hour and a half..pretty effortlessly. i just got tattooed by Scott and he did pretty much my whole upper arm cover up in around 3 and its in there..super fast

aaah yes Chez Panisse was rad with Scott and Dari and then took a trip to The French Laundry as well with Chad and some other friends..they where both incredible meals but the company couldnt be beat!!!!

i got a panther head from Scott on Wednesday..its rad and im stoked on it..

Dari is hurtful

This is a 6 sheet split set i painted with Jeremy Joachim of Hot Stuff Tattoo in Asheville.

We each painted a few old Grimshaw designs for each sheet of the set

the set is printed on thick stock and is $60. Paypal is [email protected], ill cover the shipping

thanks

nick