Maud Stevens Wagner (née Stevens; February 12, 1877 – January 30, 1961) was an American

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

performer. She was the first known female

tattoo artist A tattoo artist (also tattooer or tattooist) is an individual who applies permanent decorative tattoos, often in an established business called a "tattoo shop", "tattoo studio" or "tattoo parlour". Tattoo artists usually learn their craft via an ...

in the United States.

Life and career

Wagner was born in 1877, in

Emporia, Kansas Emporia is a city in and the county seat of Lyon County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 24,139. Emporia lies between Topeka and Wichita at the intersection of U.S. Route 50 with Interstates 335 ...

, to David Van Bran Stevens and Sarah Jane McGee. Wagner was an aerialist and

contortionist Contortion (sometimes contortionism) is a performance art in which performers called contortionists showcase their skills of extreme physical flexibility. Contortion acts often accompany acrobatics, circus acts, street performers and other liv ...

, working in numerous traveling circuses. She met Gus Wagner—a

who described himself as "the most artistically marked up man in America" while traveling with circuses and sideshows—at the

Louisiana Purchase Exposition The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an World's fair, international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds tota ...

(World's Fair) in 1904, where she was working as an aerialist. She exchanged a romantic date with him for a lesson in tattooing, and several years later they were married. Together they had a daughter, Lotteva, who started tattooing at the age of nine and went on to become a tattoo artist herself. As an apprentice of her husband, Wagner learned how to give traditional "hokey-pokey" tattoos—despite the invention of the tattoo machine by

Samuel O'Reilly Samuel F. O’Reilly (May 1854 - 29 April 1909) was an American tattoo artist from New York, who patented the first electric tattoo machine on December 8, 1891. Biography O’Reilly was born in Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut to Iris ...

on December 8, 1891—and became a tattooist herself. Together, the Wagners were two of the last tattoo artists to work by hand, without the aid of modern tattoo machines. Maud Wagner was the United States' first known female tattoo artist. After leaving the circus, Maud and Gus Wagner traveled around the United States, working both as tattoo artists and "tattooed attractions" in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

houses, county fairs and amusement arcades. They are credited with bringing tattoo artistry inland, away from the coastal cities and towns where the practice had started.

Death

Maud Wagner died of cancer twenty years after her husband, on January 30, 1961, at her daughter's home, in

Lawton, Oklahoma Lawton is a city in and the county seat of Comanche County, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Ce ...

. She is buried at the Homestead Cemetery in Homestead Township, Chase County, Kansas.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner, Maud 1877 births 1961 deaths American circus performers American tattoo artists Contortionists People from Lyon County, Kansas Artists from Kansas 20th-century American artists 20th-century American women artists Deaths from cancer in Oklahoma People from Emporia, Kansas