The Bowery and the shtetl

How Jewish immigrants to NYC created modern tattoo culture

Many (or at least some) of the tattoo artists in New York City of the early 1900s, and were credited with forming the tattoo culture of today, were Jewish.

Tattoo culture in New York City’s Bowery district at around the year 1900 was a flower in early bloom. When you walk into a tattoo shop today, it is a copy of a copy of tattoo shops on the Bowery at the turn of the last century.

There had already been a long tattoo tradition in the west, first in the British and American navies. People on both sides of the Atlantic had long held a fascination with tattoos and, as they are perhaps in vogue now, they went in and out of fashion many times over the years as fascination with polynesian and Native American culture waxed and waned. Olive Oatman, considered the first tattooed woman, ushered in a sideshow industry in which a person, usually a woman, could make a decent living by displaying her tattoos.

Remember, before about 1900, there were no tattoo machines. Every tattoo was “hand-poked,” a laborious and often painful process. This changed in 1891 when Sam O’Reilly patented the first electric tattoo machine (there is some dispute over who invented the machine, but O’Reilly is probably the best guess).

With the advent of the electric tattoo machine, tattoo culture became democratized. All of a sudden, tattoo shops began springing up, mainly run by gritty guys recently out of the military. (Women would not really be included in tattoo culture as artists until decades later. For a great book on the subject of women and tattoos, check out “Bodies of Subversion” by Margot Mifflin.)

Nowhere did tattoo culture take root better than in the Bowery. Tattoo artist Michelle Myles gives tattoo history tours of the Bowery, and has written extensively on the subject.

“In the early 20th century, tattoo artists lined the street, sometimes tucked in the backs of barber shops under the shadow of the elevated train,” she wrote. “Tattooing grew up with the Bowery from its rough-and-tumble roots into an art form that’s now an accepted and celebrated part of pop culture.”

It’s interesting to note that while on one of Myles’ tours, you’ll pass right by the "First Shearith Israel Graveyard," in use as a Jewish graveyard from 1683 to 1833. Just to the east of the Bowery district is the so-called Lower East Side, home to generations of European Jewish immigrants.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that many of the tattoo artists who made the Bowery the center of tattoo culture were Jews.

There was, of course, Lew Alberts, born Albert Morton Kurzman, known to the world as “Lew the Jew.” I’ve written before here about Alberts, so I won’t go too deeply into his story but Alberts is credited with creating what we now think of as “flash,” an essential part of how tattoo shops operate today.

Better known and perhaps even more influential than Alberts was his business partner, Charlie Wagner. It’s commonly thought that Wagner was Jewish, as it’s an Eastern European Jewish last name (though another tattoo artist, Maud Wagner, considered the first female tattoo artist, was probably not Jewish). Wagner was a friend and student of O’Reilly, and later patented his own, improved tattoo machine.

Born Jan. 20, 1875, Wagner came to New York with his parents, Karl and Matilda Wiegner, from Preslov, Slovakia in the late 1800s. According to The Slovak Spectator, about one out of six people in Preslov were Jewish before the start of the Holocaust. The city was home to six synagogues.

One of Wagner’s friends and colleagues on the Bowery was “Brooklyn” Joe Lieber, and although there’s not much to confirm Lieber’s heritage it’s thought he was also Jewish.

Which brings us to Willie Moskowitz, one of Wagner’s better known students and the inheritor of one of Wagner’s tattoo shops. A Russian Jewish immigrant, his sons Walter and Stanley both became tattoo artists. The Moskowitz family website says that, “While a boy Walter would attend Yeshiva during the day and tattoo on the Bowery at night.”

When the Bowery tattoo craze fizzled out, Lieber heading to San Fransisco, Wagner moving east, Walter and Stanley Moskowitz were the only ones left. They became known as “The Bowery Boys.”

The Moskowitz family still tattoos in Manhattan today, though now it’s Walter’s son Marvin Moskowitz who carries on the tradition.