Queer Tattoo History and my visit to Modern Electric
Sam Steward's fascinating life as a shapeshifter linked many disparate worlds: literature, sexual research, academia and tattoo art. For this iteration of Homo File I've taken a dive into researching Steward's life as a tattoo artist. In this world he went by the name Phil Sparrow. I recently read his fascinating and really well written book Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos: A Social History of the Tatoo with Gangs, Sailors and Street-Corner Punks 1950-1965. It's pretty pricey since it is a