Dick Hyland: The Human Autograph
Original Research by Carmen Nyssen
Among the colorful tattoo characters in history who graced the infamous New York Bowery was Dick Hyland, also known as, the ‘Human Autograph.’ During the 1940s, Hyland became a regular fixture on this seedy stretch, flaunting his fully tattooed body to passersby and entertaining customers with lively banter at the No. 4 Bowery tattoo-barber shop of Willy Moskowitz and his sons Walter and Stan (and in the 1950s, at Walter and Stan’s No. 52 Bowery tattoo shop).
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Though a long-time resident of California, Hyland’s eccentric lifestyle led him to the Bowery sometime around the late 1930s. In his youth, he had been covered with the tattooed “signatures” of famous people he admired, especially those of professional boxers. The inspiration behind his unusual tattooage, he claimed, was that he had once been a pugilist himself—none other than famed early twentieth century boxer ‘Fighting Dick Hyland.’ Upon retirement from boxing stardom, as per his story, he put his decorated body to work performing on Robert Ripley’s Believe It or Not Odditorium stage. It was in the course of these latter-day adventures that he made his way to New York City and became friend and benefactor of the Moskowitz family.
Ripley’s Tattooed Man
By 1939, after several years working aboard merchant ships, Hyland had been hired to exhibit at Robert Ripley’s, 1600 Broadway, Times Square Odditorium, which opened for a year starting in April to coincide with the New York World’s Fair (Apr 30, 1939 – Oct 27, 1940). To promote his 600 sensational ‘signatures’ and designs, on July 12, an eye-catching ‘Human Autograph’ illustration, drawn by Ripley, was featured nationally in Ripley’s syndicate newspaper comic.
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1939 Jul 29 Billboard pg. 34
Coney Island [news] by Uno: “Dick Hyland, from Ripley’s Odditorium, New York, was a patron of Raven Hall’s swimming pool last Sunday. Hyland’s claim to oddity distinction lies in the fact that his entire body is covered by tattooed autographs of celebs from all over the world in his bathing suit he proved quite an attraction for autograph fans.”
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Not long after Hyland’s Ripley’s debut, by April of 1940, he was admitted to the Kings State Park Hospital on Long Island, probably due to a chronic problem with over-imbibing that had haunted him for many years. It’s not clear how long he was committed. Various newspaper tidbits indicate he could have been traveling with Coles Brothers Circus or even back to working aboard merchant ships during the next few years. Wherever his whereabouts, by 1944, he was back in action in New York—with a whopping 1,195 tattoos.
1944 Jan 22 New York Evening Post
“Dick Hyland, “The Human Autograph,” is the town’s newest character. Over his entire body, except his head and finger-tips, 1,195 names are tattooed …Hyland is a merchant seaman. Two of his shipmates in the last war died in action, and he tattooed their names on his chest. Joe Schenck, Baron Long, Spreckles and Diamond Jim Brady gave him $50 each to be represented …Yesterday, because he liked “Red” Buttons of “Winged Victory,” Hyland tattooed his name on the inside of his thigh, where there are 30 other Broadway names.” Sometimes, when he drinks too much, Hyland doesn’t remember the correct spelling, and this accounts for some misspelled names…”
Dick Hyland & Moskowitzs
In July of 1944, Hyland was self-exhibiting at Coney Island, but was soon arrested for making a ruckus “barking his own” spiel on the beach. Hyland’s professional career as a tattooed attraction was actually short-lived, no doubt due to his heavy drinking. But his unseemly habit didn’t interfere with his loyalty to tattoo family.
By the mid-1940s and throughout their remaining Bowery years, the Moskowitz’s were in high demand on the Bowery tattoo scene, and Hyland was at their service with his animated persona. On days when too many rowdy ruffians crowded the shopfront before opening time—impatient to have daggers, flags, and eagles stamped on their arms and chests—he kept the peace by engaging the lot with his tattoos and stories about his glory years, until the door at No. 4 Bowery (and in the 1950s No. 52 Bowery) opened for business. Throughout the day, he did the same, while working the floor as customers filtered in and out of the busy tattoo shop.
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Hyland showed the true extent of his allegiance to the Moskowitzs as each new member of the clan joined the business. Over the years, all of them added to Hyland’s conglomeration of designs, but the first of these etchings were the most telling of their camaraderie with him. When Willy Moskowitz’s sons, Walter and Stan, and son-in-law, Stanley Farber, broke into the trade in the 1940s and 1950s, Hyland lent whatever free space he had on his body for practice tattoos.
Such a mainstay was Hyland in the Moskowitz’s tattoo shop that well-over a decade later, in 1961 (the year of the tattoo ban), he was featured front and center in a photo alongside Stan Moskowitz—baring his signature tattoos and his quirkiness—in Gay Talese’s probing mosaic of New York City life, New York: A Serendipiter’s Journey.
1961 Nov 3 New York Post pg. 41
“At the tattoo parlors, recently ordered closed by municipal regulation, they tell of their prize customer, Dick Hyland, who styled himself “The Human’ Autograph.” He honored people he admired by tattooing their names on his body. They usually rewarded him with $50 for being represented. He was tattooed from neck to finger-tips. At last count his body had 1,150 tattooed names, none of which was his own.”
Dick Hyland’s Early Years
The arrangement with the Moskowitz’s provided a down-on-his-luck Hyland a home base in his last years. He hadn’t been dealt the best cards in life, and by the time he met the family he was short on opportunities.
Hyland was born Bernard “Barney” Wrottenberg, twin of Esther, to the well-respected Rabbi Jonas “John” Wrottenberg and Bessie Feldman on 01 January 1897 in Petoskey, Emmet, Michigan. By the time he was 3-years-old the family had moved to Los Angeles, California, and by 1912, they resided in San Diego, California. By 1920, he was working as a Kosher butcher for his father, and often traveled between backcountry cattle ranches in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties. From that point on, he was in constant trouble with the law.
Aside from his brother who operated a somewhat shady San Diego men’s club, his family held prestigious positions in the community. But Hyland from a young age showed signs of severe mental incapacity; he was declared insane more than once and said to have the mind of a ten-year-old. And, he was prone to drinking. These combined factors impaired his judgement and triggered impulsive behavior.
Ironically enough, Hyland’s odd ways are what eventually transformed him into ‘Dick Hyland, ex-boxer and Human Autograph.’ Although the earliest newspaper articles about Hyland’s run-ins with the law state that he was a local pugilist, he very well might have concocted the story. While he was apparently fascinated with the sport of boxing, there’s no concrete evidence that he ever fought in either an amateur or professional match. He most certainly wasn’t the ‘Fighting Dick Hyland,’ who was born in Grass Valley, California on October 20, 1885. This claim, it seems, started out as a ploy of sorts.
New Tattooed Identity
It wasn’t until 1927, when faced with multiple counts of reckless driving that Hyland publicly pronounced himself the famous ex-prizefighter. Even then, the 30-year-old didn’t get too far with his imaginative fabrication. Numerous related newspaper articles, which make no mention of him having tattoos yet, exposed his lie right away. Detectives had researched his absurd assertion and learned that the real Dick Hyland was a firefighter living in Northern California. Additionally, Rhoda Gould, a passenger during one of his driving arrests and the daughter of a prominent lawyer, testified in court that she was the one who had encouraged him to make-up the story as a publicity stunt. (She said she was acquainted with the real Hyland).
Remarkably, these revelations didn’t deter Bernard Wrottenberg from living out his tall tale—with the added twist of becoming a heavily tattooed person. It took nearly a decade more, but by 1936, ‘Dick Hyland’ the ‘Human Autograph’ was introduced full-force to the world through a curious unfolding of events. In the space of a year, from 1935-1936, he had been arrested 42 times, for drunkenness and/or exhibiting his since tattooed body on the street. Between his many arrests and his tattoo obsession (particularly the names of arresting police officers he had collected and the “cut on the dotted line” he had etched on his neck) Hyland’s brother David Wrottenberg felt a sanity hearing was in order. Unlike past examinations, Hyland was found sane, but was banned from Los Angeles for two years because of his misdeeds. To Hyland’s benefit, however, the Associated Press, who had picked up on the story and his tall tale, heralded him as the Dick Hyland nationwide. The numerous reports also described his, now, marvelously tattooed body—boasting 400 designs and inked-in “signatures” of stars and boxers, such as, Bill Robinson, dancer, and Joe Louis, Detroit “Brown Bomber.”
Dick Hyland Tattooed Sailor
Despite his unique tattoos and newfound celebrity, Hyland was still out of a job and a home for the time being; not to mention he had badly tarnished his birth name. In search of work, he went to Houston, Texas five months later and applied for a Seamen’s certificate under the name “Dick Hyland.” On the certificate, he gave his actual date of birth, but his birthplace as Grass Valley, California (the real Hyland’s birthplace). Perhaps feeling responsible for Hyland’s predicament, his brother even lied on an affidavit to validate this new identity, swearing that: Dick Hyland was his brother’s true name and Grass Valley his place of birth, and that they were half-brothers (since they had to list different surnames on the forms). For several years after, Hyland, masquerading as the ex-boxer, worked aboard merchant vessels—shipping in and out of ports worldwide, including New York harbor, where he most likely first connected with the New York City tattoo world.
Within this period, Hyland’s tattoos grew in number (600 by 1939), and word had somehow spread about his decorated skin. In April of 1939, he sailed into New York aboard the U.S.S. William G. Warden, and was soon after hired for exhibition at the highly-patronized Ripley’s Believe It or Not Odditorium. His billing with the show, “Dick Hyland. Human Autograph Album-Tattooed from Neck to Foot with the names of 600 Friends and Celebrities,” solidified his assumed identity forevermore.
Dick Hyland & Charlie Wagner
Sometime before 1945, Hyland became closely associated with renowned New York Bowery tattooer Charlie Wagner, possibly helping with customers as he later would with the Moskowitz family. A 1945 World War II Draft registration card, under the name “Bernard Dick Wrottenberg,” placing him in Buffalo, New York, states that the person who would always know where he lived was “Charlie Wagner, 11 Chatham Square.”
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In 1944—after exhibiting at Ripley’s, serving time in the State Hospital, getting arrested at Coney Island, and possibly working at sea a bit more—Hyland moved to Buffalo, where he worked briefly in an industrial plant. Here, he was arrested, yet again, for causing a drunken disturbance. As in the past, newspapers ran with the notion that he was legendary boxer Dick Hyland—now with 1,100 tattoos upon his body. One report even maintained that veteran officers remembered him from cigarette trading cards.
1945 Feb 10 Buffalo Courier Express pg. 16
“…Hyland showed court attendants his torso and arms, covered with tattooed pictures of boxers. One forearm bears a likeness of Joe Louis and the other one of Freddie Welsh. Other areas reveal Benny Leonard, Johnny Kilbane and Jim Corbett, some in fighting poses. Hyland said the murals were done by an artist on New York’s Bowery…”
At this point, his claim to fame as Dick Hyland was fully entangled with his flashy tattoo personality. By 1945, Hyland had returned to the Bowery, and presumably, reengaged with Wagner. During an altercation in September, Hyland stabbed a man with scissors outside Wagner’s 11 Chatham Square tattoo studio. Interestingly, a newspaper article about the incident described him as both an ex-prizefighter and a tattooer, though the latter could have been the reporting policeman’s assumption. Tattooer or not, Hyland, in the officer’s eyes, was fully enmeshed with the Bowery tattoo scene.
A Bowery Tattoo Character
Did Bernard Wrottenberg actually believe he was ex-boxer Dick Hyland? He definitely repeated the story to Bowery tattoo friends. Also, whenever he was arrested in later years, he kept up his ruse with policemen, always giving them Dick Hyland’s age and name instead of his own. Perhaps his mental issues and habitual alcohol consumption periodically lent themselves to delusions. If so, given that he honestly reported his vital information on his 1942 World War II Draft card, he was at least sometimes aware of his true identity.
Whatever Hyland’s mindstate, he was a genuine Bowery tattoo character. Through bizarre circumstances, he created a niche that couldn’t have been filled by any other individual—in both Moskowitz family tattoo history and tattoo history at large.
As was often the way in tattooing’s days of yore, the Moskowitz Tattoo Family anonymously made history with Reginald’s series of 1930s art pieces ‘Tattoo, Shave, and Haircut’ and ‘Tattoo and Haircut., depicting Willy Moskowitz’s tattoo-barber shop. See Buzzworthy Tattoo History Research Article uncovering previously unknown history on their contribution to tattooing and the world of art: Willy Moskowitz: Bowery Barber-Tattoo Artist
Marsh’s latter piece is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, which has archived my published article to accompany the art work. See my feature article (of the same name) in Tribal Publishing’s 2023 anthology, In the Shadows: The People’s History of New York City Underground Tattooing.
Questions or Comments? Email:
carmennyssen@buzzworthytattoo.com
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