I recently acquired this real photo postcard, c.1920, of the famous tattooed lady, Artoria Gibbons

Gibbons was born Anna Mae Burlingston in Linwood, Wisconsin in 1893. The family moved around a lot and while in Spokane, Washington, 19 year old Anna met  and married the professional arcade tattoo artist Charles "Red" Gibbons.

After several years of marriage, Gibbons and her husband decided  they would make a better living if she became a performing tattooed lady, so Charles Gibbons tattooed Anna with full color images from her favorite classical religious artwork. Her tattoos included illustrations of angels and saints as well as patriotic images, including George Washington. 

The photograph of Artoria on the right shows The Last Supper, tattooed across her upper back.  Gibbons's first season as "Artoria, tattooed girl" was in 1919.  Thereafter she performed in circuses and fairs across the country and became one of the world's most famous tattooed lady. Her career spanned over 50 years and her last performances were in the mid-1970s.  She died in 1985.

For more about Artoria Gibbons, see Amelia Klem, "A Life of Her Own Choosing: Anna Gibbons' Fifty Years as a Tattooed Lady," Wisconsin Magazine of History 89

-excerpted from Amelia Klem Osterud's American National Biography.

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