One of my favorite artists is Norman Rockwell, who came out of Massachusetts, painting many posters for the Saturday Evening Post and other magazines. The poster displayed today shows this sailor at a Tattoo Parlor, as the tattooist is working on the sailor’s shoulder, precisely as the lower arm, since he ran out of room. It’s so funny to see this sailor with a smirk on his face, as he keeps changing girlfriends, and replacing them by yet another name. From Sadie to Rosietta, Ming Fu, Mimi, Olga, and now he’s dating Betty. He must have travelled quite a bit, as far as China and who knows where else. Painted in 1944, this appeared as the cover of “The Saturday Evening Post”, and had alternative titles of ‘Only Skin Deep’ or ‘The Tattooist’.
Rockwell’s humour shines through in this painting with the sailor getting his latest loves name tattooed on his arm. Lucky Betty to be at the end of that long list, but it does beg a couple of questions, such as, what happened to the others? And how long poor Betty will last as the last flame?
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