Tattooed lady
Tattooed ladies were working class women who acquired tattoos and performed in circuses, sideshows, and dime show museums as means for earning a substantial living. At the height of their popularity during the turn of the 20th century, tattooed ladies transgressed Victorian gender norms by showcasing their bodies in scantily clad clothing and earned a salary considerably larger than their male counterparts. Tattooed ladies often used captivity narratives as a means for excusing their appearance, and to tantalize the audience. The popularity of tattooed ladies waned with the onset of television.
Origins
Olive Oatman
Thirty years before tattooed women appeared on the sideshow and dime museum circuit scene, a young, white woman made national headlines with her unusual appearance and frightening story. During her family's westward emigration along the Santa Fe Trail in 1851, the Yavapi took thirteen-year-old Olive Oatman, along with her seven-year old sister Mary Ann, captive. The Oatman girls lived with the Yavapi until they were traded to the Mojave, with whom they lived until Mary Ann's death and Olive's subsequent rescue on February 22, 1856.Under the assumption that her entire family were deceased and that rescue proved impossible, Oatman assimilated to Mojave culture and acquired chin and arm tattoos as a means of identifying herself in the afterlife. According to Amelia Klem Osterud, Oatman's story parted with traditional captivity narratives and Victorian gender norms since she didn't "wither and die" due to her experience. Oatman deliberately reconciled her identity as an adopted Mojave with her new one as a marked white woman by traveling on a lecture circuit with her ghostwriter, Royal B. Stratton.
Oatman's decision to sensationalize her narrative for profit and to exclude intimate aspects of it for self-protection demonstrates an astute awareness of her predicament. Since US society would not have tolerated Oatman's choice to assimilate into Mojave culture, or even accept her as a transcultural individual, she purposefully recast herself as a victim of outside brutality. In this way, Oatman garnered more nods of sympathy and support rather than stares of disgust.
It has also been suggested that Olive Oatman's story of captivity would not have been so popular in the era had she not acquired Mojave tattoos. It is also claimed that Olive Oatman had not only been assimilated into Mojave life, but that she had also been married into the tribe, bearing a child.
In turn, her story served as an exploitable model for future working-class women's mythical and scandalously revealing narratives. Using the victim narrative allowed women such as Oatman, and the ones who copied her story, to maintain respectability while displaying their bodies for profit during the Victorian era.
Becoming a tattooed lady
Circuses and dime museums searched for new and exciting acts, including posting wanted ads in newspapers for tattooed ladies. During the late 1890s to early 1900s, tattoo artists typically charged less than a dollar for small tattoos, while a full body job totalled $30 and took less than two months to complete. Depending on her popularity, a tattooed lady made anywhere from $100 to $200 weekly during the turn of the century, whereas teachers in 1900 averaged $7 a week, plus room and board, and by 1909, clerical workers earned about $22 a week and industrial workers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, made $9. The Roanoke Daily reported in 1895 that an unnamed tattooed woman received $100 a day, and that... the fairy tale about her, as told by the showman, only heightened the crowd's interest and harmed nobody. She was represented in the story as having been stranded on one of the Sandwich islands, shipwrecked, with her husband, who was put to death. Her life was spared, but she was put to torture, having these extraordinary characters tattooed all over her body. There were from 500 to 700 people at each one of the 21 daily performances at which that tattooed woman was exhibited, and all were pleased at the show, for which they paid 10 cents.Many knew the falsehood of these captivity stories, but spent their money to hear them for the sake of entertainment, as well as a chance to satiate their curiosity to see the female body in an uncharacteristic form.
In an 1884 Sedalia Weekly Bazoo interview, tattooed lady Mary Baum said, when asked where she got the idea to acquire tattoos from, "I saw the other tattooed ladies in museums, and thought it would be nice."
Advertising and money
A tattooed woman's earnings depended on the seasons, popularity and success of the circus or dime museum she associated with, and competition from other tattooed performers. Some tattooed women expanded their reach beyond the tent and secured additional income by advertising products. For example, in an advertisement headlined "Punctured Purity: A Wonderfully Tattooed Lady: Nature and Art Perfected—A Beauty", Irene Woodward's name is used to sell pain-reducing St. Jacob's Oil;Miss Irene was tattooed by her father and underwent what was to her a period of delightful suffering for seven years. The young lady during that time suffered, of course, but were we to undergo such a delightful piece of needlework, it is needless to say that we would want in close proximity a bottle of... St. Jacob's Oil... I consider it as far superior to any other medicine in curative power, as Miss Woodward, from an artistic point, is above a bit of bric a brac.The media exposure assisted in gaining popularity and a wider audience. The positive wording in the advertisement, including the mention that Irene is above using a faulty product, related to elevating her into a respectable status.
Gaining respectability
The consequences of acquiring tattoos and performing in skimpy outfits weighed heavily in terms of respect towards tattooed ladies. Irene Woodward's appearance served as a mark of deviancy, and most members of society found her exposed tattooed body repulsive outside of the high top. With this in mind, Victorians hardly viewed circuses and dime museums as beacons for good, clean family fun. Nonetheless, they remained curious and captivated by Woodward's tantalizing story. In order to toe the line between virtue and nonconformity, Woodward's media splash in the New York Times provided insight as to how both tattooed ladies and media outlets strategically crafted their image as respectable:Miss Woodward remarked that she felt a little bashful about being looked at that way, never having worn the costume in the presence of men before.... The tattooing, which was done in india ink, appeared artistic, and the devices were varied and attractive. Around the neck was observed a floral necklace. Dependent from this was a bunch of roses in full bloom drooping until their graceful forms were lost beneath the lace edging of the bodice.... Miss Woodward states that she was the daughter of a sailor who began the tattooing when she was but 6 years of age finished it when she was 12.The reference to her reluctance to reveal herself in front of men for the first time reflects the attempt to legitimize her respectability, and softens the transgressive nature of her appearance. Woodward's "first time" occurred every time she presented her body before audiences; this served undoubtedly as a way to 'exclusivize' her display from city to city and to attract droves of spectators. The vivid, feminine descriptions of her tattoos served as a way to further elevate and feminize Woodward's appearance.
Other performers, such as Miss Creole and Miss Alawanda, adopted similar media tools in their presentation. As tattooed ladies became more commonplace in circuses and dime museums, the opportunities that came with the twentieth century also forced tattooed ladies to face new challenges. In order to stay exotic within the realm of changing ideas concerning respectability, these women thought of innovative narratives to compete with each other and recapture the attention of audiences.
These women shifted the Victorian victim narrative to one that demonstrates elements of deliberate choice in becoming a "self-made freak". In a greater sense, the act of exposing their bodies for pay, and even operating independently without subordinating themselves to a male boss, defied traditionally held social expectations concerning a woman's bodily autonomy.