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ARTISTLotteva Wagner
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PAGES128
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BINDINGHard Cover
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SIZE11" x 8.5"
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WEIGHT2.05 lbs
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CONTENTVintage Photos & Art
Lotteva Wagner Davis grew up on the carnival circuit as the daughter of Gus and Maud Wagner, two of the best-known tattooers and sideshow performers of the early 20th century. She began tattooing in 1919 at age nine and, like her father, worked only by hand, never switching to the electric machine. Unusual for a tattooist, she had no tattoos of her own: Lotteva wanted only Gus to tattoo her, but Maud would not allow it.
This hardcover is the third book in Alan Govenar's Last of the Hand Tattoo Artists series on the Wagner family. Drawing on interviews with Lotteva and her cousin Patricia Hook, it tells her story largely in her own words and sets her tattoo flash beside her father's, showing how hand-poked designs changed from one generation to the next. It also covers her life as a painter of western and carnival scenes, a carousel-horse restorer and a sign painter.
It is an essential tattoo history book for anyone interested in women in tattooing, hand tattooing or carnival culture.
