Skinful of Art (May, 1947)


Skinful of Art
SOME artists like to paint on canvas, some prefer paper, some billboards, but Charlie Wagner puts his masterpieces smack on the anatomies of his clients. Charlie is a tattoo artist. He’s a skin man from way back when.
Every one of his masterpieces is guaranteed to last a lifetime. His works of art become part and parcel of the wearer’s epidermis.
Charlie injects his art right into the skin itself, with an electric needle of his own design, and nothing short of an actual transplant can ever successfully remove it afterward. He carries a permanent? skinful of art himself—neck to foot. He started tattooing people around the time of the Spanish-American War and has been carrying on in the same spot, at the foot of the Bowery, in New York, ever since.
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