Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos : A Social History of the Tattoo With Gangs, Sailors, and Street-Corner Punks 1950-1965

Street Corner Punks 1950-1965,Re-issued with a new cover, this is the,extraordinary story of an erudite professor of,English - a friend of Gertrude Stein, Thomas Mann,and Andre Gide - who abandoned his respectable job,to become a tattoo artist. It tells the story of,his years working in a squalid arcade and the,gritty details of skid-row life where blow jobs,were traded for tattoos and hard-bitten dykes,scared sailors and other clientele out of the,shop. More than a history of the work of tattoing,this is a raunchy look at a forgotten subculture.