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Amund Dietzel

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Amund Dietzel
Dietzel in 1914
Born(1891-02-28)28 February 1891
Kristiania,Norway
Died9 February 1974(1974-02-09)(aged 82)
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin,U.S.
OccupationTattoo artist

Amund Dietzel(28 February 1891 – 9 February 1974) was an early Americantattoo artistwho tattooed tens of thousands of people inMilwaukee,Wisconsin,between 1913 and 1967. He developed a substantial amount offlashart, influenced many other tattoo artists, and helped to define theAmerican traditionaltattoo style. He was known as the "Master of Milwaukee" and "Master in Milwaukee".

He learned to tattoo as a young Norwegiansailor,but after a shipwreck in Canada, he decided to immigrate to the United States. He became a traveling performer as a tattooed man, then settled in Milwaukee as a professional tattoo artist.

Early life

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Dietzel was born on 28 February 1891, inKristiania,Norway.[1]After his father died, Dietzel joined the Norwegianmerchant fleetat the age of 14.[2]Scandinavia had amaritime tattooing tradition,[3]and Dietzel soon received his first tattoo.[4][5]While working on a ship that transported timber between Canada and England, he began to tattoo his shipmates using a needle tool that he made.[2]In July 1907, when Dietzel was 16, his ship wrecked nearQuebec,and he decided to work in thelumber yardsthere rather than return to sea.[2]

Career

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Art school and traveling carnivals

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After working in Quebec for two months, Dietzelhopped a trainand moved toNew Haven, Connecticut.[2][6]In New Haven, he took some art classes atYale Universitywhile working as a tattoo artist at night.[7]He wanted to be a fine-art painter, but he could not afford to continue studying art at Yale, so he became a full-time tattoo artist instead.[7]Around this time, he started using an electrictattoo machine.[6]He made friends with William Grimshaw, an English immigrant who was also a developing tattoo artist.[1][2]Grimshaw gave Dietzel asuitof tattoos, and Dietzel may have tattooed Grimshaw in return.[8]Together, they performed intraveling carnivalsand circussideshowsas tattooed men, where they sold photos of themselves and tattooed customers in between shows.[1][5]Dietzel and Grimshaw usedtattoo inkmade withcarbon black,"China red" (vermilion), "Casali's green" (viridian),Prussian blue,and a yellow pigment that may have beenarylide yellow.[9]

Milwaukee

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Another photo of Dietzel in 1914

In 1913, Dietzel arrived inMilwaukeeand found that nobody was tattooing there.[10]He decided to stay and set up shop in anarcade.[6]His business occupied various downtown locations over the years, and he sometimes shared space with asign painter.[10]Dietzel was known to wear formal clothes at work, such as avestandtiewith rolled-up shirtsleeves,[11]and evensleeve garters.[12]Many of his customers were soldiers and sailors who served inWorld War IandWorld War II.[1]By 1949, business had declined, so he also worked as a sign painter.[7]

In the early 1950s, most of his customers were sailors on leave fromNaval Station Great Lakes.[13]He said that theNavywas discouraging tattoos of naked women, so he was often asked to add clothes to existing tattoos.[13]His designs at that time included a full-rigged sailing ship labeled "Homeward Bound", a woman wearing a sailor cap, dragons, peacocks, mermaids, andskull and crossbones.[13]In the mid-1950s, he said that he had tattooed more than 20,000 customers.[8]

He became known as the region's leading tattoo artist.[2]Many tattoo artists came to Milwaukee to get tattooed by Dietzel and to learn from his techniques, includingSamuel Steward.[14]He developed a large quantity offlashart — at one point, he said that he had developed more than 5,000 designs[7]— and contributed to the development of the American traditional tattoo style.[15][16]He was called the "Master in Milwaukee", "Master of Milwaukee", and "Rembrandtof the rind ".[4][10][17]

Dietzel also painted landscapes and birds, and he took classes atLayton School of Artin Milwaukee.[10]

End of career

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In 1964, at age 73, Dietzel sold his shop to his friend and collaborator Gib "Tatts" Thomas.[2][18]In February 1967, Thomas said that he and Dietzel had "covered more people for exhibition than any two people in the United States", but that few people wanted to become tattooed sideshow performers anymore; most of their recent customers were sailors or businessmen.[19]Dietzel and Thomas continued to tattoo together until the Milwaukee city council banned tattooing on 1 July 1967.[1]

Personal life and death

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Dietzel was married four times.[11]In the 1940 census, he is listed as living inWauwatosa, Wisconsin,with his wife and daughter.[20]

Dietzel died ofleukemiaon 9 February 1974.[2]The probate section ofThe Waukesha Freemannewspaper stated that he was fromOconomowoc, Wisconsin,and had left $28,725.02 (equivalent to $177,467 in 2023) to his heirs.[21]

Legacy

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Samuel Steward, who had learned from Dietzel and kept some of Dietzel's flash in his shop, trainedDon Ed Hardy.[12]Hardy went on to revive and promote the American traditional tattoo style that Dietzel had worked in.[12]

Jon Reiter, a tattoo artist who grew up in Milwaukee, heard about Dietzel but could not find much information about him.[11]Reiter started collecting flash art by Dietzel and got in contact with Dietzel's grandsons, who shared boxes of memorabilia and photos with him.[11]He wrote two books about Dietzel and worked with theMilwaukee Art Museumto hold an exhibit of Dietzel's art in 2013.[11]

References

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  1. ^abcde"Tattoo: Flash Art of Amund Dietzel".Milwaukee Art Museum.2013.Archivedfrom the original on 14 June 2022.Retrieved14 June2022.
  2. ^abcdefghBiondich, Sarah (20 October 2010)."Amund Dietzel: Milwaukee's Tattooing Legend".Shepherd Express.Archivedfrom the original on 22 July 2022.Retrieved14 June2022.
  3. ^Sinclair, A. T. (1908)."Tattooing - Oriental and Gypsy".American Anthropologist.10(3): 367.doi:10.1525/aa.1908.10.3.02a00010.ISSN0002-7294.JSTOR659857.The Scandinavian (Sweden, Norway, and Denmark) deep-water sailors are certainly ninety percent of them tattooed. It is the tradition among them that the custom is very ancient.
  4. ^ab"Tattoo: Identity Through Ink".American Swedish Historical Museum.Archivedfrom the original on 28 April 2022.Retrieved19 June2022.
  5. ^abCrimmins, Peter (6 February 2022)."How Scandinavian immigrants to America developed modern tattooing".WHYY.Archivedfrom the original on 21 February 2022.Retrieved14 June2022.
  6. ^abcEldridge, C.W. (2016)."Amund Dietzel".Tattoo Archive.Archivedfrom the original on 14 May 2021.Retrieved23 June2022.
  7. ^abcdAdam, Carl H. (19 October 1949)."Master Tattoo Artist Thinks Fad May Be on Its Way Out".Green Bay Press-Gazette.Green Bay, Wisconsin. p. 8.Archivedfrom the original on 19 June 2022.Retrieved19 June2022.
  8. ^abStrini, Tom (20 July 2013)."Tattoo art history at the Milwaukee Art Museum".Urban Milwaukee.Archivedfrom the original on 19 May 2020.Retrieved19 June2022.
  9. ^Miranda, Michelle D. (10 September 2015).Forensic Analysis of Tattoos and Tattoo Inks.CRC Press. p. 88.ISBN978-1-4987-3643-5.
  10. ^abcdTanzilo, Bobby (23 July 2013)."Celebrating Milwaukee's own Rembrandt of the rind".OnMilwaukee.Archivedfrom the original on 15 July 2021.Retrieved14 June2022.
  11. ^abcde"Needle Points".Milwaukee Magazine.2 July 2013.Archivedfrom the original on 22 July 2022.Retrieved19 June2022.
  12. ^abcLodder, Matt (2015). "The New Old Style: Tradition, Archetype and Rhetoric in Contemporary Western Tattooing".Revival: Memories, Identities, Utopias.London: Courtauld Books Online. pp. 104, 110.ISBN978-1-907485-04-6.Archivedfrom the original on 6 July 2022.Retrieved6 July2022.
  13. ^abc"Tattooing Is Not Popular: Once Good Business Has Lost Its Vogue With Tars".The Daily Chronicle.De Kalb, Illinois. 22 April 1953. p. 6.Archivedfrom the original on 19 June 2022.Retrieved19 June2022.
  14. ^Weisberg, Louis (7 September 2018)."Tattoos — from rebellion to conformity".Wisconsin Gazette.Archivedfrom the original on 7 September 2018.Retrieved16 June2022.
  15. ^Gillogly, Kate (8 October 2013)."Flash Art of Amund Dietzel".Tattoo Historian.Archivedfrom the original on 28 July 2021.Retrieved14 June2022.
  16. ^Schubertsays, Dean (31 July 2013)."Telling Tattoos: Harold Wright Remembers Amund Dietzel".Milwaukee Art Museum Blog.Archivedfrom the original on 30 July 2021.Retrieved14 June2022.
  17. ^"Museum Opens First-Ever Tattoo Art Exhibition".Milwaukee Art Museum.25 June 2013.Archivedfrom the original on 20 August 2016.Retrieved19 June2022.
  18. ^Eldridge, C.W. (2017)."Gibs" Tatts "Thomas".Tattoo Archive.Archivedfrom the original on 22 July 2022.Retrieved14 June2022.
  19. ^Hartnett, Ken (13 February 1967)."Trend Toward Hideous in Tattooing Profession".Manitowoc Herald Times.Manitowoc, Wisconsin. p. 23.Retrieved19 June2022.
  20. ^"Amund Dietzel in the 1940 Census".Archives.Archivedfrom the original on 22 July 2022.Retrieved19 June2022.
  21. ^"Probate".Waukesha Freeman. 2 November 1974.Retrieved19 June2022.

Further reading

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