Jun
Ben Corday’s Tattooed Nudes
By Carmen Forquer Nyssen
The tattooed nudes of 1920s Los Angeles Main Street tattoo artist, Ben Corday, bared the selling points of his tattoos.
Tattoos as Fine Art
Ben Corday was one of the finer tattoo “artists” of the early twentieth century, who touted himself as such via his artistic advertising imagery. One early trade card depicts Corday in a dapper bowler hat alongside an artistically adorned tattooed nude, a “living” model of his art. In art, female nudes represent feminine beauty and human expression, and more generally, are indicative of fine art and high culture.
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“An Artist, not a Self Styled Professor.”
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The tattooed nude on Corday’s card was not just a generic portrayal of a fine art nude.
He took it a step further.
She was intentionally posed to imitate the nude in this Jules Frederic Ballavoine master work.
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Harry Lawson’s Tattooed Nudes
The very same living model (posed differently) makes an appearance on Harry Lawson’s 1920s Los Angeles business card. The card actually depicts two tattooed nudes, both wearing full body “tattoos” allegedly designed by Corday.
Handwriting on the card notes: “Ben Corday made these fakes [illegible word], women, L.A. Calif.” (See Encyclopedia for the Art and History of Tattooing, Henk Schiffmacher, pg. 232)
Courtesy of Henk Schiffmacher
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Lawson too portrayed himself as a high-class tattoo artist. In 1924, he began plans for a chain of beauty salons where society ladies could have blush and lips tattooed. As he told a Los Angeles Times interviewer, tattooing was soon to be a “high-brow profession.”
Note: British tattoo artist William Stokes, and others, advertised the same tattooed nude on their trade cards.
Tattoo Art & Human Form
Aside from invoking associations with fine art, Corday’s tattooed nudes served another related advertising purpose.
For an adept tattoo artist such as Corday, human form significantly factored into the aesthetics of a tattoo. What better way to showcase this quality for prospective customers than on a lifelike model.
In fine art, mastery of the human form signifies high artistry.
Correspondingly, in tattooing, an eye for tattoo placement on the human form is a sure sign of a skilled tattoo artist.
Use of body contour contributes to the overall visual effect of a tattoo.
Take note how the tattoo designs on Corday’s human models were masterfully drawn on to flow with and accentuate body curvatures. His nudes were clearly intended to exemplify how quality tattoos are put on in real life.
Corday’s Curious Tattooed Lady
As evidence of Corday’s eye for tattoo placement—in drawing and tattooing—one of his famous illustrated nudes was so convincingly executed she has sometimes been mistaken for an actual tattooed lady.
There has been a decades-long controversy over whether the dragon in this photo was drawn directly on the woman, on the photo itself, or if the woman was actually tattooed.
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This image from Doc Don and Paula Lucas’ book Glass Dry Plate Negatives settles the mystery, while also demonstrating Corday’s knowledge of human form. It depicts the same image of the woman with completely different, but just as fittingly, drawn on “tattoos.”
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Tattoo Artistry
The artistry of tattooing is multi-faceted, of course. But the human body is its vital essence.
Even in early days, a good tattoo artist did not haphazardly slap on a tattoo. Even then, designs were deliberately fashioned to fit specific areas of the body. Stencils were made specifically for wrist, chest, shoulder, and back tattoos, and so on. Professional tattoo artists understood the benefits of promoting this attribute. Although Corday’s nudes were one clever vehicle, flash and other visual aids were effective too.
A July 16, 1922 Los Angeles Times article describes Ben Corday’s display in his small basement shop:
“The tiny room was completely papered with prints of offerings or photographs of his patrons. The designs were in vivid colors and displayed either in scrolls or ornately pictured on the members and sections of anatomy to which they were ordinarily applied and the effect was startling to say the least.”
For the best tattooers, it wasn’t just advertising hype. A traditional tattoo in eras past was endowed with an aesthetic unto itself. Proper body placement, when combined with a well-executed outline and nuanced shading, made for one artistically stunning tattoo.
*Published June 11, 2016
Questions or Comments? Email:
carmennyssen@buzzworthytattoo.com
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