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Show The Art of the Tattooer Form of Adornment That Is Becoming Very Popular Many Colors Used by an English Specialist in the Work ha'mless to the most delicate skin, bu, colors that will hold, and by blending blend-ing some of these together he Is able to produce brilliant effects, which to tin; uninitiated would appear to be altogether impossible. As one would expect, the majority of Mr. Macdonald('s clients are men, biu occasionally ladies come to his studio to submit themselves to the eloctric needle. They usually select lit'le fanciful designs a fluttering butterfly, but-terfly, a bird on the wing a few preferring pre-ferring to adorn themselves with ank-lels ank-lels or bracelets, representing snakes designs which always look very well. Cif the upper classes in Great Britain it is strange that military and not naval men are ones who carry more tattooing on their bodies than any others. Possibly this is due to the fai.: that Earl Roberts (whose own sou was tattooed by Sutherland Mac- a. - N artist whose studio (Jy$r is within a stone's Jffis throw of the Royal Aca- demv in ' London MW J wllose work is highly vjL vll prized by those who fttsj own it, in all classes of society from royalr.y .Ai-V downwards, yet is nev-er nev-er seen on the walls of Burlington house, although always al-ways carried about during life by many of those men and women who p.o annually to gaze on the pictures of the year such is tUe unique position held by Sutherland Macdonald and his art. Tattooing in his hands is clearly Art with a capital A, as a glance through his portfolios of specimens and patterns, and the crowd of photographs round his walls, showing work actually done by him, dearly proves. Onev can but regret dos;ald before his last and fatal visit to iiouth Africa) advocated some years agis every officer in the British army beiag tattooed with his regimental crtwt or badge, to encourage sprit de coi ys and to assist necessary identification. identifi-cation. 1 hese, 1 then, are the designs most favored by military men, but a large number of soldiers, just like many civilians, find that there is a distinctly distinct-ly cumulative pleasure in tattoo designs, de-signs, most of them beginning with a modest badge or crest on the arm, soon to be followed by one on the other arm, then one or two more, and soon the chest and back become covered. cov-ered. At last, after many return visits to the artist, extending possibly over j several years, the entire body is covered, cov-ered, in some instances extending even to the feet, which are colored black or blue with scarlet "clocks." One of the most extraordinary facts connected with tattooing is the way in which, even in the very earliest ages, the custom spread all over the world. The ancient Britons, who pricked a decoration of wood into theii bodies, connected the custom in some-mysterious some-mysterious way with their religion, and it was so commonly practiced by them as to be described as a "vice" bjr A regimental crest tattooed on an officer's offi-cer's arm. Ion Roberts advocates the universal adoption of this custom, arid consequently it has been very popular aniQig military men in England, that the results of his patience, and his wealth of minute detail, should all eventually be lost to the world. A particularly melancholy interest is attached to a large photograj-i which hangs in a prominent positicn in his studio, showing the back of a weajthy American covered with moet intricate designs in many bright colors, col-ors, an all but perfect masterpiece of tattooing, which required but a few more touches to , make it complete. But a hasty summons on business to the continent stopped the work forever, for-ever, as the owner was taken ill In Paris, where he died, and the unfinished unfin-ished masterpiece has gone with him to the grave. And Sutherland Macdonald is not only an artist and a daring experimenter, experimen-ter, but a skilled inventor as well, for, wearying of the old and cumbersome process of tattooing with a bundle of needles fastened to a light handle, he has invented an ingenious electrical tattooing apparatus, with which he produces really startling effects, his portraits being as life-like as a photo- graph his designs bold and clear in outline, and his shading soft or heavy as he requires it. Until comparatively recently only two colors, indigo blue (or Indian Ink black) and red were used in tattooiag, but a Japanese increased the number by discovering a permanent brovn, Considered -by the artist to be ne ot his best pieces of work. the historians who wrote on the subject sub-ject during and after the Norman conquest, con-quest, j To-day we fined the practice quite common, both for religious and decorative decor-ative purposes, in such widelv spnnr. and Sutherland Macdonald has now added fpur more to the list, so that he works with no fewer than seven colors altogether. The difficulty has been to get a color that will hold; any color can be pricked into the human hu-man skin, but those made from minerals min-erals will all set up, sooner or later, a state of inflammation of the skin, ami the color will be forced out again, ated parts of the globe as Japan, Pal- -estine, Central and South America, -.urmah, Borneo, New Zealand, and over the whole of the Pacific islands; whilst many of the African races, as wll as some of the North American Indians, are decorated in this fashion, as their forefathers have been for countless generations. In very early days the Romans and Gauls practised the art quite commonly. Slowly but surely the custom is dying dy-ing out among most of the uncivilized races, as the missionaries of all creeds fight hard against the practice wherever wher-ever it is met with. They appear to think that tattooing is in some way mixed up with heathenish rites and other forms of superstition. Amongst the civilized races, however, its popularity popu-larity appears to be on the increase, and so long as an artist like Sutherland Suther-land Macdonald can be found probably prob-ably it will continue to flourish. Gambier Bolton, in Pearson's Magazine. if A "Tattoo Picture." leaving only an ugly scar to mark the spot. But by careful experiments on his own body, experiments which have been going on for years now, he has been able ts produce a very beautiful green, a permanent ultramarine blue, a lavender, and, most difficult of all, a rich yellow, all not only perfectly |