The Libertys of Tattooing
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s a collector of historic ta!oo material, I love discovering vintage photographs of ta!ooed performers, dog-eared business cards with patriotic graphics, and hand-painted “flash” art designs that once hung on the walls of smoke-filled shops. Each of these items contains valuable clues about the elusive art of ta!ooing and the fiercely independent men and women who practiced it. For the past several years, I have dedicated my efforts to collecting works that document Boston’s pioneering ta!oo artists. These bits of colorful ephemera and photographica, along with material I’ve discovered in other private collections, are the basis for Loud, Naked, & in Three Colors: The Liberty Boys & the History of Ta$ooing in Boston, a new book I coauthored with Margaret Hodges. From the 1910s until 1962, when Massachuse!s banned ta!ooing, Edward “Dad" Liberty and his sons Frank, Ted, and Harold held a near-monopoly on the Boston ta!oo scene from their shops in Scollay Square, Boston’s gri!y entertainment district. Fortunately for historians, a trove of printed ephemera documenting their various shops survives. The walls of Frank’s shop were lined with stunning, hand-painted
designs from which worked in a Lowell scrapyard, patrons could choose. breaking up engines and The Liberty brothers locomotives. In 1928 he moved learned the trade under to Tarrytown, New York, where the watchful eye of he took a job manufacturing auto their father, who was bodies for Fisher Body, a division known in the business of General Motors. Harold worked as Dad. He began ta!ooing his way up through the ranks to in his hometown of Lowell, company foreman, contributing Massachuse!s, purportedly a"er new designs and manufacturing an itinerant ta!ooer abandoned innovations. his post—and his equipment—at In 1946, forty-year-old Harold the family’s shooting gallery. Dad returned home to work with his was a natural. By 1919 he had father. He adopted the nickname taken his talents to Boston, where Le"y and took over Frank’s old he quickly established himself shop at 49 Scollay Square. This as an exceptional mechanic and location, directly above The competent ta!ooer. His heyday, Tasty, a popular burger joint, was considered the golden era by many a landmark until 1962 when the ta!oo artists, was World War II, Boston Redevelopment Authority when sailors packed into his shop razed Scollay Square to make night and day. way for Government Center. Ted Liberty was the family That same year, Massachuse!s outcast. Between repeated run-ins outlawed ta!ooing. Harold, the with the police, constant bickering last man standing in Boston’s with his father and brother, and beleaguered ta!oo mecca, packed botched partnerships, he o"en his equipment and moved to Salem, found himself unwelcome wherever New Hampshire. He worried that he went. Ted ta!ooed between his clients wouldn’t find him there, Lowell, Portland, Maine, and Boston but they did; he was soon bringing through the early 1950s, but a"er in more money than he ever had in a fire damaged his shop above the Boston. Rialto Theater in Scollay Square, he Derin Bray fled to Baltimore, Maryland. Ted didn’t last long there, however. In 1952 his new shop was shut down for weeks a"er several servicemen contracted hepatitis due to his unhygienic practices. Ted eventually made his way to Canada, bouncing from shop to shop until se!ling in Vancouver, British Columbia. Demurring a career in the Ted Liberty’s shop sign, painted by Eddie Levin, family trade, Harold initially
Baltimore, Maryland, c.1950. Oil-based enamel on board, 18 x 22 inches. Collection of Derin Bray. HistoricNewEngland.org
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