Show I 1 ne ar art of f the form of adornment that Is becoming very popular many colors used by aa an english specialist Special in the work N artist whose studio Is within a stone s throw of the royal aca demy in london whose work Is highly prized by those who own it in all classes of society from royalty downwards downa ards yet Is rev er seen on the walla walls of 0 Burling burlington tou house although al ways carried about during life hy by many of those men and amen we men who go annually to gaze on the pictures ot of the year such Is the unique position held by sutherland maedonald M donald and his art tattooing in aih hi hands is clearly art with a capital A as a glance through his portfolios of specimens and patterns and the crowd ot of photographs round his walls showing work actually done by him ch clearly charly arly proves one can but regret ra E al lm R 16 A regimental crest tattooed on a an nil s arm lord roberts advocates the universal adoption ot of tits tl la custom ant an 1 consequently it baa has been very po popular p ular among 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 photograph which hangs in a prominent position in his studio showing the back of a wealthy american covered with most intricate designs in many bright col ors an all but perfect masterpiece of tattooing which required but a few more touches to make it complete put a hasty summons on business to the continent stopped the work for ever as the owner was taken III in paris where he died and the anfin dished masterpiece has gone with him to the grave and sutherland macdonald Is not only an artist and a daring experiment exper imen ter but a skilled inventor as well for wearying of the old oid cumbersome process of tattooing with a bundle of needles fastened to a light handle he has invented an ingenious electrical tattooing apparatus with which be lie produces really startling effects his portraits being as lifelike life like as a photo graph his designs bold boid 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 tattooing but a japanese increased the number by discovering a permanent brown and sutherland macdonald has no now added four more to the list so that he works with no fewer than seven colors color 8 altogether the difficulty has been to get a color that thae will hold any color can be pricked into the hu man skin but those made from min brals will all set up sooner or later a state of inflammation of the skin and the color will be forced out again leaving only an ugly scar to mar marl but by careful experiments on his own body experiments which have been going on for years now he has haq been able to produce a very beautieu fu green a permanent ultramarine blue A A Y I 1 A tattoo picture a lavender and most difficult of all i i rich yellow all not only perfectly harmless to the most delicate shin skin but colors that will hold and by blend ing some of these together he Is able to produce brilliant effects which to the uninitiated would appear to be altogether impossible As one would expect the majority of mr macdaid Mac dald s clients are men but occasionally ladies come to his studio to submit themselves to the electric needle they usually select little fanciful designs a fluttering but a bird on the wing a few pre ferring to adorn themselves with ank lets or bracelets representing snakes designs which always look very well afen L ot of the upper classes in great britain it Is strange that military and not naval men are orres who carry more tattooing on their bodies than any others possibly this is due to the fact that earl roberts who whom own son was tattooed by sutherland mac mae donald before bis his last and fatal visit to south africa afria advocated some years ago every officer in the british army being tattooed with his regimental crest or badge to encourage sprit de corps and to assist necessary iden identify tiff cation these then are the designs most favored by military men but a largo large number of soldiers just like many civilians find that here is a distinct ly cumulative pleasure in tattoo designs 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 cov ered at last after many return visits to the artist extending possibly over several years the entire body is 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 ot of wood into their bodies connected the custom in some mysterious way with their religion and it was so commonly practiced by them as to be described as a vice by the historians who wrote on the subject during and after the norman con quest today to day we fined the practice quite common both for religious and decorative purposes in such widely separ abed parts of the blote as japan pali pal 9 estine central and south america urmah borneo new zealand and over the whole of the pacific islands whilst many of the african races as well as some of the north american indians are decorated in this fashion as their forefathers have been for countless generations in very early earl days the romans and bauls practIse 4 the art quite commonly slowly but surely the custom Is dy ing out among most of the uncivilized races as the missionaries of all creeds fight bard hard against the practice wherever it is met with they appear to think thirk that tattooing is in some way W considered by the artist to be one of ot bis its best pieces of work mixed up with heathenish rites and other forms of amongst he the civilized races however its arity appears to be on the increase ind so long as an artist like suther and macdonald Acdonald Al can be found probably it will continue to flourish 4 rambler gambler bolton dolton in pearsons maga ine zine |