Portrait of Maud Wagner (1907)
A woman sits for the camera, her arms bare, her skin covered in tattoos from shoulder to wrist. She looks directly into the lens. She is not performing. She is simply showing you who she is.
Maud Stevens Wagner (1877–1961) was an American circus performer — an aerialist and contortionist — and the first known female tattoo artist in the United States. She met Gus Wagner at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. Gus described himself as "the most artistically marked up man in America," which was probably accurate. Maud agreed to go on a date with him on one condition: he had to teach her to tattoo. He did. Several years later, they were married.
After leaving the circus, Maud and Gus traveled the country working as tattoo artists and tattooed attractions at vaudeville houses, county fairs, and amusement arcades. They are credited with bringing the practice of tattooing inland from the coastal port cities where it had taken root — spreading it across the American interior at a time when it was still considered deeply transgressive.
Maud continued tattooing until she was in her eighties, using traditional hand-poke methods rather than an electric machine. She outlived Gus by decades and trained her daughter in the craft. She is a founding figure of American tattoo history, and this photograph — taken when she was thirty — is one of the earliest known portraits of a female tattoo artist at work.
Rectangle Canvas Wrap
Gallery-quality canvas with fade-resistant inks and a 1.25" deep pine frame sourced from renewable forests. Arrives wrapped and ready to hang.
- Materials: cotton and polyester composite canvas, pine wood frame
- Inner frame: radiata pine from renewable forests
- Leveling bumpers included for wall protection
- Ready to hang — mounting hardware pre-attached
Care: Dust gently with a clean, damp cloth as needed.