I went down quite the rabbit hole today beginning with this 1908 article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, marveling at a new procedure offered in Australia.

The Post-Dispatch was sufficiently intrigued to devote a whole article to this tattoo artist. Curiously, they do not name the artist nor his establishment. Later, for reasons I’ll share, I wondered if this story was true.

“Australia’s chief professor in the art of tattooing is a Scotchman who has an extensive practice in a suburb of Melbourne. The walls of his dwelling are covered with designs suggestive of a New Guinea headman’s hut. Crawling and flying dragons career round the room; the serpents coil in treacherous knots or spring up at gaudy butterflies. Lions plunge wildly at thistles, boa constrictors crunch striped tigers in their folds. American eagles pursue deer and flamingoes.”

I realize the paper is trying to give us an idea of the different options available but has anyone ever gotten a tattoo of an eagle pursuing a flamingo? The article explained the artist got the idea of blush tattoos after noticing how hard women tried to recreate the look of a natural blush with cosmetics.

Victorian ladies liked a rosy bloom but makeup was the art of the harlot. Rouge wasn’t respectable but it turns out, there’s no shortage of recipes for wholesome concoctions you can make in your kitchen to obtain a nice glow.

A 1910 publication called Health and Beauty Hints by Margaret Mixter offered several recipes for homemade blush. One consisted of English mustard (no Grey Poupon, s’il vous plâit), a teaspoon of flour, and “enough glycerine to form a sticky mess.” Apply the paste to the cheeks and wash it off as soon as it begins to smart. Leaving it on too long will cause blistering. Rubbing in a few drops of glycerine will prevent irritation. Another recipe called for squeezing the juice from beets, mixing it with starch or rice powder, and setting it in the sun to dry.

But if you didn’t want to bother with English mustard and beets, there was this man in Melbourne who would tattoo blush on your cheeks. It was a popular service. “The lady has little to explain when she orders natural blushes or rosy cheeks. It seems there is a considerable demand.”

The article veered into other tattoo-related topics. “Sailors tattoo from many motives which not the least are tradition, custom, and identification if found drowned.”  It’s true that bodies are frequently identified by scars and tattoos. But do sailors really get tattoos just as a convenience to medical examiners in case they’re drowned?

The article went on: “Some men, it is believed, actually get tattooed out of sheer bravado so that they can pose as sailors.” At this point I began to suspect the article’s veracity. Who believes that men get tattoos so they can pose as sailors? For what purpose? Though I’m skeptical of this claim, my investigation did turn up evidence of at least one potential imposter masquerading as a sailor.

The tattoo artist said “as to the part to be tattooed, the advice of the operator is usually taken. Women almost invariably request some spot under the shoulder-strap.” Don’t people know which part of their body they want tattooed?  I’m surprised the tattoo artist’s suggestions were usually taken.

The last part of the article covered time and cost but didn’t mention the blush tattoos. “A simple flag can be accomplished in three or four minutes. A heart with a girl’s face in it will smile at you in five.” The article didn’t say how long the eagle/flamingo tattoo took but wouldn’t you feel uneasy if you got a tattoo and it was done in five minutes? This artist did have one specialty that required more time: “A large boa constrictor, guaranteed seven feet long, starting at your big toe and coiling up your leg until, with open fangs and glaring eyes, it catches a harmless, gorgeous butterfly on your hip, can be secured for $25 and requires 19 hours for completion.”

As part of my research on this important topic, I learned blush tattooing is a current trend. People mistakenly call it a new trend, being unaware of the Melbourne pioneer in this field. According to one Australian spa, Parlour Dala, “cheek tint tattoo is a new semi-permanent cosmetic tattoo designed to replenish the face, restore colour, and reduce dullness.” These tattoos eliminate the need for daily make-up and “have that ‘Clean Girl’ aesthetic.”

If you’re in the market for a blush tattoo, the procedure takes 90 minutes and results last up to three years. The cost is $500, not inclusive of necessary touch-ups.

After giving investigatory journalism a chance, I feel that my calling is more in the True Crime realm after all! On a related note, I recently wrote a LinkedIn article about republishing my books. It doesn’t belong on Old Spirituals but if you’d like to check it out, you can read it here.