Archives & Collections

Tattoo Specific Archives

• Tattoo Archive
  • Alphabetical listings of major categories in global tattoo history featuring high quality images as well as links to other archival resources.
  • Winston-Salem, NC
• Lucky Supply Tattoo Museum
  • American Traditional tattoo memorabilia, machines, flash sheets, artist correspondences, documents, and images dating back to the early 1900s
  • Personal and business archives of Bert Grimm and Sailor Jerry
  • Florida based
• Derin Bray Americana- Private Vintage Tattoo Collection
  • Private collector in New England focusing on early American Traditional flash, photographs, and memorabilia
• Alan Govenar and Kaleta Doolin Tattoo Collection at the South Street Seaport Museum
  • Equipment, photographs, and 400 page scrapbook detailing the career of early American tattoo artist Gus Wagner.
  • Available for viewing and research at South Street Seaport Museum in NYC, or contact curators for more information
• Tahiti Felix’s Master Tattoo Parlor & Museum
  • Museum and tattoo shop focusing on American Traditional Tattooing on the West Coast featuring high quality digital photos of flash, shop, and tattoos.
  • San Diego, CA

Museums & Exhibitions

• Body Language: Reawakening Indigenous Tattooing in the Pacific Northwest
  • 2018-2019 exhibit at the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver, BC, guest curated by Dion Kaszas (Nlaka’pamux)
  • Read National Observer article on five of the featured indigenous tattoo artists here
  • Exhibit catalogue available from Vancouver Public Library
• Our Bodies, Our Voices, Our Marks
  • Exhibit hosted by the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, Australia, 2019
• Daredevil Tattoo Museum
  • New York City based shop and museum featuring extensive American Traditional flash archives and walking tours of New York’s historic Bowery district. No online collections.
• Baltimore Tattoo Museum
  • Baltimore specific American Traditional artwork, photos, and flash. No online collections.
• Skin & Bones: Tattoos in the Life of the American Sailor
  • 2010 museum exhibition curated by Craig Burns for the Independence Seaport Museum (Philadelphia, PA) and the Mystic Seaport Museum (Mystic, CT) View online PDF catalog here
• Thomas Lockhart West Coast Tattoo Museum
  • Private shop and collections featuring American Traditional flash, photographs, machines, and stencils
  • *Handpoke instruments on display from Pacific Island nations on display here without specific artifact provenance
  • Vancouver, BC