Lew the Jew Alberts

Book excerpt: The original creator of tattoo "flash" was largely unknown. Now a private collection of works by this Jewish tattooer from New York, "Lew the Jew" Alberts, has come to light. Around 1905 he was the first to make these design sheets commercially available, as well as developing the electric tattoo machine. His previously unpublished and rare original tattoo artwork is being published as a tattoo flash collection for the first time. Albert Kurzman (1880-1954) aka Lew the Jew was one of America s most influential tattoo artists at the beginning of the 20th century. Operating primarily on New York s Bowery, Lew constructed some of the earliest electric tattoo machines, and was the first to design and market printed design sheets to other tattooers. His artwork in these flash displays codified the repertoire of American tattooing, and many are still in use today. This first book to document this amazing man presents over 150 drawings. Included in these is correspondence between Al and two of his closest confidants, San Francisco Bay Area tattooers Brooklyn Joe Lieber and C.J. Pop Eddy. These candid fragments provide a vivid sense of a hardboiled, secretive world. Additional business cards, vintage tattoo photographs, and previously unknown biographical data illuminate the then-shadowy business of skin art. This material laid the ground for the avalanche of tattooing that permeates the world today.