Illustration
This illustration is of Maud Wagner.
Maud is regarded as the first female tattoo artist of America. Born in 1877, she began her adult life as a travelling circus performer: an acrobat, aerialist and contortionist.
During one of her tours she met Gus, a tattoo artist. Maud received many tattoos from Gus and as a result became quite the circus spectacle herself as an inked woman.
The story goes that Gus asked Maud on a date. She agreed but only on the condition that he taught her the art of tattooing… a deal was a deal and many years later the two married.
Gus and Maud are credited with bringing tattoo artistry inland from the coastal towns and cities where the customs and practices first started, as they toured with the circus. This movement of tattoo culture enabled skills to be shared amongst locals, and served to help disseminate tattooing widely.
This illustration is of Annie Oakley.
Annie Oakley was an American sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.
Oakley developed hunting skills as a child to provide for her impoverished family in western Ohio.
At age 15, she won a shooting contest against an experienced marksman, Frank E. Butler, whom she later married in 1876. The pair joined Buffalo Bill in 1885, performing in Europe before royalty and other heads of state.
Audiences were astounded to see her shooting out a cigar from her husband's hand or splitting a playing-card edge-on at 30 paces. She earned more than anyone except Buffalo Bill himself.
After a bad rail accident in 1901, she had to settle for a less taxing routine. She instructed women in marksmanship, believing strongly in female self-defence, and her stage acts were filmed for one of Thomas Edison's earliest Kinetoscopes in 1894.