The first tattooed lady circus acts were a tough bunch, who made up fantastic stories about their ink so they could make money. But the reality of their lives was often just as strange…
Irene Woodward
Enterprising southern belle who was ‘The Original Tattooed Lady’
Hired by dime museum owner George B Bunnell in 1882, Irene Woodward’s debut show was so shocking it was reported by The New York Times. According to her promotional booklet, Facts Relating To Miss Irene Woodward, Irene grew up with a brother and her father – an ex-sailor who tattooed Irene to pass the time.
Her dad died during a Native American raid in 1879, but the attackers were frightened by Irene’s tatts and released her and her brother.
In reality, Irene was inspired by a tattooed man she saw in Denver, called Captain Constentenus. At 19, she went to New York and was tattooed by Martin Hildebrandt – a German immigrant who made a living by inking sailors.
After working at Bunnell’s, Irene married showbiz agent George E Sterling in 1883. They had a son and spent 15 years travelling with circuses, including PT Barnum’s Greatest Show On Earth, and appearing in front of European heads of state – where Irene was dubbed ‘La Belle Irene’.
The family retired to Philadelphia and Irene died in 1915, aged 53.
Nora Hildebrandt
London lass who enchanted the US with a tragic tall tale
Nora spun a tale of woe about her tatts: born in Australia, she’d moved to New York after a family tragedy. She travelled the Wild West with her father, but the Lakota took them hostage and Sitting Bull forced Nora’s father to tattoo her.
After a year, he broke his needles on purpose, and the tribe killed him. Nora was rescued by cavalryman General George Crook, but the pain of getting tattooed had left her blind. Circus owner Adam Forepaugh found her and took her back to New York, where she was cured.
In reality, Nora was born in London around 1857, and probably emigrated to the US to work as a servant. She was inked by Martin Hildebrandt, with whom she had a common-law marriage and took his name.
During the 1880s, she worked for the Adam Forepaugh shows and Bunnell’s. Martin was committed to an asylum in 1885, while Nora continued to work and married tattooed barber Jacob Gunther in 1889 – but died four years later.
Artoria Gibbons
Long-lived lady whose body was dedicated to religion
Born Anna Mae Burlingston in 1893, Artoria came from a poor family and worked as a domestic servant in Spokane, Washington, where she met and married tattooist Charles ‘Red’ Gibbons.
Charles began to ink Anna with religious art, and by the early 1920s she was touring as a tattooed lady. When not on the road they lived in California, where Charles tattooed in arcades and amusement parks.
Artoria’s usual sideshow story was that she ran away from poverty and her family for love and the sideshow, but in the 1970s she became the finale for the Hall & Christ sideshow, where she was introduced as “a man-made monstrosity”, married to a man who marked her out of jealousy.
This upset her, but manager Ward Hall would turn the sound system down so she couldn’t hear. She died in March 1985.
Annie Howard
Violent femme with a talent for publicity – and a mysterious ending
Annie gained notoriety in 1882 when she was arrested on a ferry. She was travelling from her home in Manhattan to Bunnell’s Museum in Brooklyn for a job interview, when she slapped a man who insulted her for having tattooed arms. She got 10 days in jail, and Bunnell was so pleased with the publicity that he hired her.
Annie then toured the dime museums, left her husband for fellow performer Frank Howard, and had a daughter named Ivy. The couple toured circuses and in 1892 Ivy, aged 8, joined them as a snake charmer. They also toured with Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show On Earth in London in 1897.
By 1910, Frank was living with a new wife and had set up a tattoo shop, where he worked until his death – but no-one knows what happened to Annie and Ivy…
Betty Broadbent
Runaway girl with a freaky circus act and three husbands
Betty had two stories about how she got her ink. The first was that her family disowned her after she got a small tattoo aged 17, so she decided to get a full bodysuit and become a tattooed lady.
The other was that she was a babysitter in Atlantic City, who saw a tattooed man and decided to get inked to make money.
The truth is that she was born Sue Lillian Brown in 1909, and grew up in Philadelphia. She fell out with her family and left home to join a sideshow as ‘Spidora’: her head was projected on to a stuffed spider’s body, using mirrors, to create the illusion of a human spider.
When she didn’t make much money, she got tattooed and travelled around the US. Betty married at 19, but it didn’t last, and she had a son with Wild West cowboy Joe Carter in the early 1930s.
In 1939 she met her second husband, Charlie Roark, who was a ventriloquist. They travelled and worked together, before breaking up in 1952. Betty retired aged 57 in 1967, married showman Winford Brewer, and died in 1983.
The Tattooed Lady:A History by Amelia Klem Osterud, £19.99, is published by Speck Press and distributed by Turnaround.
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