Tattoos.Com Ezine

Lyle Tuttle Interview
Houston tattoo convention, January 20, 1996.

Editor's Note: As we know, alot of readers on the net are not familiar with some of the more influential people in the modern tattooing light, Lyle Tuttle was and is one of the more positive influences on a global scale to transform tattooing from the backstreet overtones of the Bowery days to the alternative art limelight it enjoys today. If you read the writings of Sailor Jerry Collins to Ed Hardy in the late 60's and early 70's there is direct reference to Lyle doing this, and Jerry's subsequent disapproval, however we must realize that when this "hippie in 'Frisco" was bringing the tattoo artform to new heights, no one could have forseen the impact . As we enter the age of instant content and communications it is only natural that we wonder if this pulse will quicken and grow stronger across the planet. After all, in a world that strips us of more individuality every day, the only natural combatant is individual expression.

Tattoos dot com: What do you think about the tattoo info that's getting onto the web? Isn't this a great new medium for informing people about tattooing and popularizing the art?

Lyle Tuttle: As far as I'm concerned all this computer internet digital intercourse is just going to turn the surface of the world into a bowl of oatmeal.

TTDC: A bowl of oatmeal? I don't think we're quite following you. What does that mean?

LT: If you look at oatmeal there's a lot of little brown spots, and then there's a lot of little darker brown spots. And none of them has a personality or anything else. As a historian, it's a thrill for me to read half a dozen books in order to find one little tattoo quote. Now there's too much of it. People are just giving it away. I enjoy the chase. It's like the natural competition for a lady, compared with =going to a whorehouse.

TTDC: But it's also a thrill for me, finding information on the web.

LT: But by using a computer you'll never get the thrill that I've had when go out and score the informtion together with the artifacts. Those are the tangible products. It's something you can feel.

TTDC: And also it must be very rewarding to meet the individuals who were actually a part of the history of tattooing and had personal knowledge of it.

LT: Yes that's right. For instance, my magazine "Tattoo Historian". A guy in a certain city read a "Tattoo Historian" and saw an old business card in it, and so he looked the guy up, and found out the old timer was still alive. He hadn't tattooed in years. But he had some old machines, and so this guy bought six Charlie Wagner machines from the old timer. So some valuable tattoo artifacts went into a private collection. So any type of communication adds to that. "Tattoo Historian"does ...

TTDC: But on the other hand, if you keep it a secret ....

LT: Oh I'm not for keeping it a secret. I'm just sort of like a dog and I piss all around the tattoo history world. You know how you mark your territory. I just hate to see something valuable wind up as part of a private collection. But it's like reading the works of Bulwer, the English historian, and after you've ploughed through all of that looking for tattoo information, and then all of a sudden, bang, it's on the internet. I can't find any romance in it. I come out of a different time and space. Computers are good for graphics and stuff but ... maybe they'll get a worldwide virus some day and wipe you guys all out. And then I''ll still have it, because I got it on paper.

TTDC: Yes, of course there is a good deal of argument about whether we're better off with computers anyway.

LT: They wouldn't have landed a man on the moon without computers, don't get me wrong there. In many ways the net is good, like in medicine, it's saving lives because a doctor can just review cases from all around the world . So I guess we'll just work on a tattoo history virus.